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Home > JOURNAL > Vol. 2 (2013) > Number 1

 

Abstract

The majority of the current generation of Malaysian Chinese youth go through Mandarin primary education and Malay-medium secondary schooling in the Malaysian public education system. Hence an average Malaysian Chinese youth knows, at varying levels of proficiency, at least three languages namely, Mandarin, Malay and English.
Drawing on the findings of three survey data collected in a local public university, this study discusses the reality and perceptions of Malaysian Chinese university students on various aspects of this linguistic dimension of education. It analyses their concerns with regard to language and education from the point of view of social mobility and cultural preservation.
Their perspective on the multilingual education system in Malaysia in relation to national integration is explored in one of the surveys. It is suggested that the national education system was regarded not only as serving the function of nation building, but the unique multilingual character of the institution in itself was also consciously or unconsciously perceived to be constitutive of the Malaysian national identity. The majority of the respondents approved of the vernacular education and regarded it as an institution which helped to preserve the cultural diversity of the population. Besides literacy in Mandarin, Chinese primary schools were also expected to transmit Chinese values and culture to their pupils. In this context, the preservation of cultural identity was regarded as going hand in hand with the fostering of national unity, and the reality of linguistic and cultural diversity was embraced as “a national asset”.

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