EMI IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA The Dilemma of the State and Agents of Implementation

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EMI IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN MALAYSIAThe
Dilemma of the State and Agents of Implementation

• Invitational Symposium 2006Language Issues in
  English-medium Universities Across Asia8-9 June
  2006University of Hong Kong
• Saran Kaur Gill
• Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

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This presentation is based on the following
forthcoming publication.

• 2006 Gill, Saran K. Medium of Instruction
  Change in Higher Education in Malaysia The
  Reality of Attitudes and Implementation. In
  Advances in Language Studies. Edited by
  Giandomenico Sica. Monza Polimetrica Publisher.
  Forthcoming.

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BACKGROUND OF USE OF BAHASA MELAYU IN MALAYSIA

• Bahasa Melayu since 1957 has been the national
  and official language
• Since 1970, actively implemented in the domain of
  education - at all levels from primary to
  tertiary and for all fields
• Used in domain of government administration
• Domain of business - ?

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Sudden Change Language of Instruction

• announced in the mass media on the 11th of May
  2002.
• (Mahathir Mohamad, New Straits Times, 11 May
  20021)
• led to a reinstitution of English as the medium
  of instruction for science and maths in the
  national schools in a staggered fashion
  beginning with Primary One, Secondary One and
  Lower Six.
• took place within a period of six months from the
  timing of the announcement to implementation in
  the school system.

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Public institutions of higher learning

• have played a pivotal role in the development and
  use of Bahasa Melayu as the language of knowledge
  
• had to prepare themselves for 2005 (last year)
  when the first cohort of students who would have
  studied in the English medium for science and
  maths subjects in the school system would enter
  the public universities as undergraduates.

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AIM OF PAPER

• To explicate the reasons for and attitudes
  towards the change in language policy in higher
  education in Malaysia
• Understanding both the states and implementers
  positions are crucial dimensions for the
  implementation of language policy
•  

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Two year govt. funded research project2003-2005

• Language Policy and Planning in Higher Education
  in Malaysia Responding to the Needs of the
  Knowledge Economy
• (Gill, Saran Kaur, (head) Hazita Azman, Norizan
  Razak and Fadhil Mansor)

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Voices that constitute the data for this Research

• The former Prime Minister representing the voice
  of the State - interview
• The members of academic management (DVC Acad.
  Affairs, Deans of faculties of ST, Engineering
  and Computer Science) from all 9 public
  universities
• (37 in all) - interviews
• The lecturers of the faculties of science and
  technology of the 9 public universities (670 in
  all) - questionnaires
• The literature and documentation delineating the
  factors that spurred the change

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VIEWS ON CHANGE IN MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTIONMEMBERS
OF ACADEMIC MANAGEMENT

• the majority (87.2) agreed with the change in
  medium of instruction
• A minority (10.3) disagreed with the change

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LECTURERS VIEWS ON CHANGE IN MOI(8 PUBLIC
UNIVERSITIES)
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LECTURERS VIEWS ON CHANGE IN MOI(UKM)
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EXTERNAL FORCES INFLUENCING LANGUAGE POLICY
PLANNING

• Influenced by
• sociolinguistic settings, and the nature and
  scope of the planning can only be understood in
  relation to the settings. (Ferguson, 1877 9)
• Settings comprise political, socio-cultural,
  economic factors and the science and technology
  ideology agenda
• (Kaplan Baldauf, 1997 154 Martel, 2001 35
  Tsui Tollefson, 2004 2)

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CHANGE IN MOI FOR KNOWLEDGE ACCESSLecturers
Responses(9 public universities)
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Why do you think the government needed to change
the medium of instruction from Bahasa to English
for the field of science and technology?

• (Interview conducted with a Deputy
  Vice-Chancellor on 3/8/04)
• We have to be advanced in S T for us to be a
  developed nation. Development is driven by S T.
  Social science will not create new businesses or
  economies. We are now just swallowing S T
  information available to us. We do not have the
  capability to churn out ideas. In France,
  Germany, Korea and Japan a lot of books are
  available in their native language as their
  translation efforts are tremendous but that is
  not the case in Malaysia as our translation rate
  is comparatively slow. We are still not producing
  or generating ideas.

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• (Interview conducted with a Dean on the 6/8/04)
• It is just a political statement. There is no
  change in policy. The issue of (problems with)
  soft skills, communication skills, its too
  biased towards English. This is not true. Their
  ability to express ideas to convince people I
  dont know why they have problems with these,
  maybe it is their upbringing, maybe our school
  teachers destroy their confidence.

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• (Interview conducted with a Dean on the 21/9/04)
• For us, we have been teaching in the Malay
  language for a long time. We found it not
  impossible. There are problems along the way but
  we have carried out teaching in Malay in
  engineering for 20 years and we have managed.
• I think when the government decided to change to
  English for S T subjects, they say that it is
  on the assumption that that will improve the
  students ability to communicate in English. That
  is the what we understand, the main reason and
  also they are able to understand the
  technology or technology literature easier ,
  direct understanding. To be honest Im not sure
  whether this claim is something that has been
  proven. Ive also seen literature by people who
  claim otherwise.

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Tun Mahathirs Viewpoint

• Education is for the purpose of acquiring
  knowledge. The most important thing is the
  acquisition of knowledge. If you have to use a
  language which makes the knowledge more easily
  accessible, you should use that language.
  Historically, the Europeans learnt Arabic in
  order to access the knowledge of the Arabs ..
  but because of their work they also learnt Greek
  in order to access the language and knowledge.
  so if you want knowledge you have to acquire the
  language in which the knowledge is available.
• Our education system is like any other education
  system. Its meant to enable us to acquire
  knowledge. If we have the knowledge available in
  the national language, by all means, go ahead but
  the fact is that in science the research that is
  being done is moving at a very fast pace.
  Everyday literally thousands of papers on new
  research are being published and practically all
  of them are in English. To translate English into
  Bahasa, would require a person with 3 skills.
  Skill in the 2 languages and skill in the subject
  that is to be translated and we dont have very
  many people who are qualified to do that or who
  wish to do that. That is why it is easier if you
  learn English and the students can have direct
  access to all the knowledge that is available in
  English.
• (Interview conducted by Gill on the 16 June,
  2005)

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Reasons for Change Documentation

• Gill, Saran K. Sept. 2005. Language Policy in
  Malaysia Reversing Direction in Language
  Policy. Vol. 4 No. 3
• 241-260.

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CHANGE IN MOI TO DEVELOP KNOWLEDGEABLE HUMAN
RESOURCELECTURERS RESPONSES
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How does Malaysia hold up to the need to develop
knowledge workers needed for Vision 2020?

• The P-economy demands a brawn-intensive,
  disciplined workforce. The K-economy demands a
  brain-intensive, thinking, creative, innovative
  and disciplined workforce. Malaysia today has a
  world-class workforce for the P-economy. But we
  have a poor workforce for the K-economy.
  Unfortunately, with the rise of the K-economy,
  .. there has been a fundamental structural shift
  whereby economic value will increasingly come
  from knowledge-intensive work and increasingly
  less from physical production (although this will
  remain important). The shift from a poor
  K-economy workforce to a world-class K-economy
  workforce has to be rapid and dramatic. There is
  little time to lose.
• (A Report on the National Brains Trust on
  Education, 2002 1)
•  

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HUMAN RESOURCE NEEDS OF THE NATION

• 2000 - only 14 of the labour force in Malaysia
  possessed tertiary education qualifications
  and this will have to be significantly
  increased in order to meet the needs of a
  knowledge- based economy.

• 2010 - The Ministry of Education has targeted
  40 of the 17-23 age cohort in tertiary
  education.
• (8MP, Malaysia, 2001a 23)

• This means an additional 71,000 places a year
  need to be found.
• (Olsen A. 2002 cited in The Observatory, No.5
  June 2002)
•  

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Impact of rapidly developing private higher
education industry on public universities

• The bifurcation has serious social and
  political consequences.
• First, private universities are more expensive
  than public universities, which are heavily
  subsidized by the government. This means that
  students enrolled in private universities are
  usually from middle-class families, whereas those
  from working-class families can only afford to
  enroll in public universities.
• Second, the majority of the students in public
  universities are Malays, whereas the majority of
  the students in private universities are Chinese.
  As a result, undergraduates are divided not only
  along socioeconomic lines but also along ethnic
  lines. (Gill, 2004 147)

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• .. the private sector became the main
  employment choice for graduates, but here the
  most important linguistic proficiency was in
  English. . Graduates from the private
  universities were more sought after by the
  companies in the private sector, largely because
  of their competency in English. This situation
  would have led to serious social and economic
  problems for the nation. (See Gill, 2004 for
  further discussion)

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• Medium-of-instruction policy determines which
  social and linguistic groups have access to
  political and economic opportunities and which
  groups are disenfranchised. It is therefore a
  key means of power (re)distribution and social
  (re)construction .
• (Tsui and Tollefson, 2004 2)

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Tun Dr. Mahathirs Voice

• Bahasa, we still learn for the other subjects. We
  will still be very fluent. For Bahasa to be
  really accepted as a good language, it must be
  the language of a very knowledgeable people, very
  successful people. If the Bahasa is of a people
  who are very poor, backwards, who have no
  knowledge, nothing at all, then the development
  of Bahasa will be very stunted and people would
  not want to learn Bahasa. Why should they learn
  the language of a very backward people?
• (Interview conducted by Gill, 16 June 2005)

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Tun Dr. Mahathirs Redefinition of Nationalism

• We need to move from the extreme form of
  nationalism which concentrates on being a
  language nationalist only, not a knowledge
  nationalist, not a development oriented
  nationalist. I feel that we should be a
  development oriented nationalist. We want our
  people to succeed, to be able to stand tall, to
  be respected by the rest of the world. Not to be
  people with no knowledge of science and
  technology, very poor, very backwards, working as
  servants to other people. If we have no knowledge
  we will be servants to those with knowledge.
• (Interviewed by Gill, 16 June 2005)