'What I Want to Do I Do Not Do': On Bi- and Multilingual Repertoires and Linguistic Dislocation in a Border Town

De Gruyter Mouton. Available from: Walter de Gruyter, Inc. 121 High Street, Third Floor, Boston, MA 02110. Tel: 857-284-7073; Fax: 857-284-7358; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://www.degruyter.com

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Language Usage; Bilingual Education; Multilingualism; Language Minorities; Rural Areas; Language Attitudes; Sino Tibetan Languages; Language Variation; Sociolinguistics; Communicative Competence (Languages); Foreign Countries; Ethnic Groups; Participant Characteristics; Native Language; Second Language Learning; Indonesian Languages; English (Second Language); Family Environment; Work Environment; Religious Factors; Neighborhoods; Mass Media; Preferences; Thai; Mandarin Chinese; Rural Urban Differences; Social Differences; Language Proficiency; Language of Instruction

10.1515/multi-2021-0096

0167-8507
1613-3684

Language problems and language barriers are challenges facing not only immigrants but also minorities and people in rural/semirural areas. This study examines individuals' bi- and multilingual repertoires, language practices and attitudes in a Hokkien-speaking community in Kangar, a semirural town of northern Malaysia bordering Thailand. Through questionnaire surveys and interviews, we investigate how these notions can be used as a means to understand/reflect bilingualism and multilingualism and, more importantly, the potential disparity between what people want to do/say and what people eventually manage to do/say. While there is a shift in language practice from a local- and ancestral origin-induced pattern towards a more "global" and "pan-Chinese" paradigm, the findings also reveal the linguistic "dislocations" of the Hokkien-speaking community across ALL generations regardless of ethnicity. The language issues in the community reflect--and are likely to be reflections of--society at large. The vast contrast between individual/societal linguistic aspirations and the actual linguistic repertoire/communicative competence among the locals indicates the need to redress an absence of major efforts to close urban-rural/city-town/dominant-dominated social divides across the (language) education landscape at the national level.

As Provided

2023

EJ1376125