Language Policy in Malaysia: Reversing Direction

After Independence in 1957, the government of Malaysia set out on a program to establish Bahasa Melayu as official language, to be used in all government functions and as the medium of instruction at all levels. For 40 years, the government supported a major program for language cultivation and modernization. It did not however attempt to control language use in the private sector, including business and industry, where globalization pressure led to a growing demand for English. The demand for English was further fuelled by the forces of the internationalization of education which were met in part by the opening of English-medium affiliates of international universities. In 2002, the government announced a reversal of policy, calling for a switch to English as a medium of instruction at all levels. This paper sets out to analyze the pressures to which the government was responding.

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Authors and Affiliations

1. School of Language Studies and Linguistics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia Saran Kaur Gill

1. Saran Kaur Gill