LANGUAGE IN INDIA

What Determines the Choice of Language with Friends and Neighbours?
The Case of Malaysian University Undergraduates

A. R. M. Mostafizar Rahman, M.A. (ELT), M.A. (Applied Ling.)
Chan Swee Heng, Ph.D.
Ain Nadzimah Abdullah, M.A.

Abstract

Bi-/multilingual people exercise choices of language among the languages of their linguistic repertoire for different purposes in different domains. The choice is determined by various factors such as ethnicity, proficiency, attitudes, socio-cultural background, language policy, and in particular, the domain itself.

Malaysia being a multilingual country, what languages are chosen with friends and relatives, and what determines the choice constitute the main objectives of this paper.

Data for this paper was collected through a questionnaire survey administered to a sample of university undergraduates and analyzed those using SPSS. The findings show that respondents from the major ethnic groups preferred their respective ethnic languages with friends and neighbours of the same ethnic backgrounds but choice of Bahasa Malaysia (BM) among the non-Malays and choice for English among respondents irrespective of ethnicity increase while the interlocutors belong to other ethnic backgrounds. Ethnicity, proficiency and domain of use were found to be contributing factors of language choice with friends and neighbours in Malaysia.

Introduction

The issue of language choice is a very important sociolinguistic phenomenon of bi-/multilingual societies. As the linguistic repertoire of the people of bi-/multilingual societies comprises more than one language, they exercise choice of languages for different purposes in different domains. But what constrains the choice of language? A host of variables come into play an important role in determining choice, which may vary from one context to another. It may be difficult to make a complete list of the variables, however, some of them are ethnicity, proficiency, attitudes, socio-cultural background, language policy, and in particular, the domain itself.

Malaysia is a multilingual country. It is expected that people in Malaysia choose different languages in different domains for different purposes. What languages are chosen with friends and neighbours and what are the factors that determine such choices constitute the main objectives of this paper.

Defining Domain

Domain, an important determinant of language choice, refers to the context of language use, for instance, that of family, friendship, neighbourhood, education, and transaction.

With reference to domain distribution of language use, Wallwork (1981:57) says that in some domains there may be contact with other people with whom there is a potential choice of two or even three languages. The choice may be made depending on either the role of the two speakers vis-à-vis each other, or possibly on the topic of the conversation.

Domain is a theoretical concept. It refers to an aggregate of locales of communication-public vs. private; role relationships between participants-family members, officials/clients; and kinds of interaction-formal vs. informal (p.138).

Effects of Domain on Language Choice

Several studies have been conducted to investigate the effects of domain on language choice. One of the pioneering studies was Greenfield (1972) which reports that in the bilingual Puerto Rican community in New York, Spanish, the low language, is favored in intimate domains such as family, and friendship, while English, the high language, is chosen for employment and education.

Another well-cited study by Parasher (1980) shows that people in India use the mother tongue and another language in the family domain whereas English dominates high domains such as education, government and employment and even some low domains, for instance, friendship and neighborhood.

Hohenthal (2003) also reported similar findings. She studied the role of English in India and found that different languages are definitely being allocated different roles in India; languages are used differently according to the domain in question.

Criticism of Domain Analysis

The concept of domain and domain analysis, however, has been criticized. Some of the studies reported partial effect of domain on language choice whereas others reported even no effect at all.

Pascasio and Hidalgo (1979) examined how role-relationships, domains, and speech situations affect language use among bilinguals in Philippines. They found that language use varies significantly with domain as a whole though not always. The effects of role-relationship of the interlocutors are also reported with variance. The speech situations, however, do not seem to have much effect on language used.

Gal (1979), however, strongly disagreed with the influence of domain on language choice. Gal opined that whatever the social situations, only the identity of the participants determines language choice.

The other situational factors such as audience, setting, occasion, and purpose have been found to influence the choice of language in other communities but these factors were found irrelevant to the Oberwart case in Austria.

However, in spite of the criticisms, the basic philosophy of domain allocation of languages is widely realized and accepted.

The Role of Proficiency

Proficiency as a constraint of language choice has also been recognized in a number of studies.

David (1999) reports that lack of proficiency in the ethnic language can account for a shift (language shift, switch, mix and maintenance are the ways through which language choice manifests). David also recognizes that code switching reflects a speaker's higher/lower proficiency and greater/less eases with a particular language. She further admits that whether English or Malay is used as the lingua franca depends on whether the speakers are proficient in English or Malay.

A similar notion is expressed in the words of Wallwork (ibid) who says that it is necessary to look at the question of an individual's language proficiency in relation to the situations in which language is used.

Hakuta (1991) investigated the relationships of language choice, proficiency and attitude in a Puerto Rican bilingual education programme in New Haven, Connecticut. She reported that language shift in the Hispanic communities in the United States is usually characterized by a combination of processes related to proficiency, choice and attitude.

The Role of Ethnicity

Ethnicity is also recognized as a major constraint that influences people to make specific choice of language. Several studies reported the effect of ethnicity on language choice.

One of the studies that advocate strongly that identity determines language choice is that of Gal's (1979). Gal found in the Oberwart case in Austria that only the identity of the participants can account for their language choice and use.

Ferrer and Sankoff (2003) found an equally strong relationship between ethnicity and language choice in their study in Valencia, Spain. The study reports that ethnic identity is most closely related to the motivation for language choice.

Another study, Burhanudeen (2003), in Malaysia where the present study is located, also reports that the ethnicity of the participants is a contributing factor to the Malays' language choice.

The Role of Gender

Gender is also found to influence language choice.

Lu (1988) reports that differences in age, education, gender and residence area result in different attitudes towards maintenance and legitimate status for the native languages and the difference in attitude lead people to choose different languages.

Chan (1994), however, finds no significant gender difference in Minnanren's language use (cited in Yeh at al., 2004). This study presupposes that domain, proficiency, ethnicity and gender are important constraints of language choice with friends and neighbours in Malaysia.

Methodology

This is a descriptive and non-experimental study. The data were collected through a questionnaire survey administered to a sample of three hundred University Putra Malaysia (UPM) undergraduates selected through "multistage cluster sampling".

The questionnaire comprised three parts: part I obtained the demographic profile of the respondents; part II elicited their level of proficiency in languages; and part III obtained their patterns of language choice with friends and neighbours.

The questionnaire was prepared adapting items from Yeh et al., 2004 and Hohenthal, 2003.

A pilot survey was conducted to study the feasibility of the instrument. A reliability index of 0.74 (Part II) and 0.84 (Part III) were obtained (Cronbach Alpha). The overall reliability of the instrument was 0.79.

Upon the completion of data collection, these were analyzed using SPSS. Seventy two questionnaires were found to be incomplete and therefore these were excluded from the final analysis. The patterns of language choice were identified computing the frequency of choice and correlations among the variables were measured through Chi-square tests. Strength of correlation was, however, determined with reference to Guilford's rule of thumb.

Demographic Profile of the Respondents

Respondents were categorized as per gender (male and female) and ethnicity (Malay, Chinese, Indian and Others. Others refer to minor ethnic groups other than Malay, Chinese and Indians). Table 1 presents the distribution of respondents as per ethnicity and gender. This table shows that the majority of respondents were Malay (60.7%) followed by Chinese (29.5%), Indian (8%), and Others (1.8%). Of the total respondents, the gender distribution (M=male and F=female) is as follows (see Table 1). As can be seen from the table, the percentage of males was comparatively higher than that of females among the Malays and the Others whereas the percentage of females was comparatively higher than males among the Chinese and Indians.

This is only a part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

What Determines the Choice of Language with Friends and Neighbours?- The Case of Malaysian University Undergraduates | Development and Validation of Needs Analysis Scale for Secondary School Teachers of English | Maya and Mohini in R. K. Narayan's The Guide and The Man-Eater of Malgudi | Merit or Demerit of ESL and EFL Context in Incidental Vocabulary Learning | Internet Usage and Its Effect on Reading Skill among the College Students - A Case Study of Coimbatore Region | Women and Beauty Aspects in the Selected Later Poems of Rabindranath Tagore | Relative Compounds in Tamil | Intuition and Insight for Professional Development - Reflective Practice Using Teaching Diaries | A Comparative Study of Truth, Revenge and Love in Thiruvalluvar's Thirukkural and Francis Bacon's Essays | HOME PAGE of October 2008 Issue | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR