Revisiting Language Planning in the Malaysian Education System: Towards Inclusive Multilingualism

In a multilingual and multicultural country like Malaysia, languages play a pivotal role not only in maintaining ethnic and cultural identity, but also, more importantly, in promoting unity and nation-building imperatives. In recent years, however, certain segments of the population have attempted to ‘sensationalise’ issues of ethno-cultural and religious intolerance, as well as linguistic incompetence, particularly in the national language (and to some extent English) for vested interests and narrow socio-political agendas. These have allegedly been framed as manifestations of our adoption of ‘integrationist’ over ‘assimilationist’ ideologies since independence. With these issues in mind, this paper seeks to revisit the stigmatisation of decades-old multilingual policies in Malaysia. Grounded in Ruiz’s language planning orientations and Cobarrubias’ language ideological framework, this paper examines how the national curriculum helps shape students’ linguistic repertoires. More importantly, it seeks to explore the potential of multilingual education in promoting unity, social cohesion, and nation-building among young Malaysians. This study adopts a qualitative document-based approach by analyzing past and present education policy documents, current media reports, and existing scholarly research relevant to multilingual education and language planning in Malaysia. This method enables a systematic understanding of how policies are framed, debated, and contested across different platforms while also revealing how language ideologies are embedded in educational planning. Through triangulating insights from these multiple sources, the study identifies recurring ideological tensions and patterns that reflect broader sociopolitical discourses surrounding language in Malaysia. Ultimately, this study reaffirms the role of multilingual education policies in balancing divergent but often complementary ideologies, demands, and aspirations of both the people and the state. Multiple identities, we argue, can co-exist harmoniously within an enabling environment. As a way forward, Malaysians should move beyond mere tolerance or acceptance of societal multilingualism. Instead, there is a need to advocate for embracive and inclusive multilingual education policies in the spirit of celebrating and sustaining ethnolinguistic diversity as valuable resources in a plurilingual society.

Multilingual education, language policy, language ideology, nation-building

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