language planning in malaysia: the first hundred years

Abstract

recent developments in malaysia have brought forth many issues vis-à-vis language planning, notably including the return to english as a medium of instruction. the present review addresses current linguistic issues and their implications for malay as the national official language, bringing together linguistics, sociology, education, psychology, communication, geography, history, politics, finance and management, in a nation which is not only multilingual but also multiethnic, multi-religious and multicultural. to make the matter more complex still, the immigrant population is almost as large as the so-called indigenous ‘majority’.