What English represents to linguistic minorities

[Harold F. Schiffman]

I agree with Anthea and Moses--what I see in Malaysia is that the
non-Malays see English as their lifeboat, and I think this may be true for
other ling. minorities in other polities. Since Malaysia has a quota on
university admissions, and Indian and Chinese-descent Malaysians are
always oversubscribed for the seats available to them, they have to
prepare for emigration, or at least for admission to foreign unversities.
The most logical language to help them prepare for this is English; this
is ignoring the other opportunities English prepares them for in a
globalized world employment market, so accepting Malay and rejecting
English is suicide. Add to this the fact that Malaysia has recently
decided to use English for technology subjects in high school, in order to
participate in this same global system makes it clear to me that we should
not condemn those who want to learn English and/or to see it as a "false
prophet."

Hal Schiffman

On Mon, 24 Jan 2005, Moses Samuel wrote:

>
>
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> Anthea is right on target. And in Malaysia (and in many other countries in Kachru's 'outer circle' I guess) it looks like Phillipson's 'linguistic imperialism' auguments against English may not have widespread support.  Here,  many people would regard English working as a 'partner language' with Malay, the national language, not necessarily against it.
>
> Moses Samuel
> University of Malaya
>
>
>
>
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> On 24.01.2005 02:36:41, Anthea Fraser Gupta <A.F.Gupta at leeds.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> >Stan said,  "I wonder how much of this push for English comes from "an
> >ignorant,
> >self-serving elite". Maybe the the intelligent, outward-looking masses
> >are
> >pushing for English as well."
> >
> >Absolutely.  It's important to say  that probably everyone in Malaysia
> >agrees that all schoolchildren should be taught English and Malay (the
> >controversy is in the how). And a large proportion of the population of
> >Malaysia already speaks very good English (and most of the rest speak a
> >useful amount of English).  We are NOT looking at a place where English
> >is known only by a tiny 'elite', but one where English is already known
> >by the majority.
> >
> >Schools have to teach all sorts of stuff, some of which some of the
> >learners will never use again (I personally have not done a
> >differential equation since the age of 16). Education is about offering
> >children opportunities and choices, not about limiting those
> >opportunities. I say, keep on teaching differential equations and
> >English and history and all sorts of other stuff too. However, in
> >Malaysia, lots of people need English for all sorts of work and social
> >reasons, because English is a Malaysia language, not a foreign one.
> >
> >Anthea
> >
> >
>
> --------------------------
> http://www.um.edu.my
>