Malay Language in Chinese Universities: Research Proposal

Introduction

The dimensions of foreign language teaching in Chinese Universities continues to change as universities are embracing foreign languages as China seeks to broaden its regional influence. Malay language is one of the latest foreign languages that is being taught in Chinese Universities due to the growth of the bilateral trade and relationship between China and Malaysia (Ying, 2019). Teaching Malay language in Chinese Universities seeks to open up and strengthen Chinese influence in the region. In the light of the growing ties between the two Asian countries teaching Malay in Chinese Universities and Mandarin in Malaysian schools will play an instrumental role in strengthening the cultural, economic, and political ties of the two nations (Cheng, 2003). Malay language has been gaining popularity in China with education institutions such as Guangdong University of Foreign Studies having Malay language programs for its students. The growing number of universities that are offering Bahasa Melayu courses has strengthened cooperation between Malaysia and the people in China which stands to benefit the growing Chinese population and industries (Wong, 2019).

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Research Questions

1. What is the motivation of the growing teaching of Malay in Chinese Universities?
2. What are the multilateral impacts of Malay education in Chinese Universities?
3. To what extent does Malay teaching in China influence the current and future relationship and cultural exchanges between the two Asian countries?

Research Objective

1. This research seeks to establish the trajectory and motivations of the development of Malay teaching in Chinese Universities.
2. The research will assess the recent occurrences and factors that have promoted the acceptance of Malay language amongst Chinese people.

Statement of Problems

This research is instrumental in understanding the trajectory of bilateral relations amongst Asian countries and how language education can be a tool for greater bilateral cooperation and the preparedness of the Chinese universities in providing Malay classes and programs.

Literature Review

Malay language is used by over 200 million speakers across countries located in the South-East of Asia (Alfred, Lim, Haviluddin & On, 2019). It dominates speakers in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia amongst others. According to Bakar (2019), even though the Malay language is more popular amongst the aforementioned countries, its advancement and text processing into other countries has not happened at a pleasing speed. The study of the language in non-speaking countries like Japan, Korea and China has stalled, something that has hindered communication with the speakers residing in such countries (Ibrahim, 2017). A study done by Garry, Kueh, Abdullah and Tai (2019) on the cross-cultural validation of the Malay language revealed that the healthcare the speakers of the Malay language who have no understanding of any other language struggled to get basic services.

Garry and his group interviewed a total of 997 participants, whose majority were female (80.4%), with a mean age of twenty-one years. All the participants were University undergraduate students. The major aim of this study was to establish the impact associated with lack of proper knowledge of Malay language, especially on the service providers and receivers, specifically in healthcare industry in regions where Malay language is inferior. The study of Malay language has thus, been on the rise in other regions including China. Similarly, Ying (2019) believes that production oriented approach is applicable in helping the students understand languages that are less taught in universities. Importantly, the development of Malay language teaching in Chinese Universities has been slow but sure due to the steady rise in the number of universities that offer teaching programs.

The fact that the Garry, Kueh, Abdullah and Tai (2019) opted for a cross-sectional study was ill-advised. Additionally, the study used self-reported questionnaire method to collect data. This type of questionnaire is not as efficient like others that are monitored (Schnall, Wolkin & Nakata, 2018). It allows the respondent to give freely their views, opinions and thoughts about the topic. However, this may be attributed to the fact that most universities have higher female to male ratio of students studying in the Malaysian public universities as several other studies have also reported higher female respondents compared to their male counterparts (Tang, Lee & Misieng, 2018). Nonetheless, the study established that lack of common understanding of the Malay language between the service providers and receivers especially healthcare officers.

Another study done by Abdul, Anal, Mamat and Hashim (2018) majored on the effects of different approaches in Malay language teaching techniques on students. The authors established that the study of the development and understanding of the Malay language among students. The stages include listening, speaking, reading and writing in the universities. Findings from previous studies showed that studies of new languages in a new environment affected the performance of students in those languages and other skills (Rahim, 2019). Abdul, Anal, Mamat and Hashim (2018) established that majority of the students like studying Malay language even though it is affecting their performance in other academic fields. This is inconsistent with Bakar (2019), who found out that the Malay language is very popular even though its advancement and spread into other countries remain a problem (Kamaruddin, Sha'ri, Ghazali, & Hamdan, 2017). Thus all the articles discussed in this paper are relevant to the thesis. They will help understand the development of Malay language teaching in Chinese Universities.

Significance of the Study

This study will play an instrumental role in elaborating the nature of Malay education in Chinese Universities and also help identify the motivations of the universities in China to choose to teach Malay language amidst growing bilateral relationship between China and Malaysia.

Research Methodology

Qualitative Research Design

The qualitative research design refers to a research method used by researchers and scientists to study human habits and behaviors to investigate certain situations and trends (Hennink, Hutter, & Bailey, 2020). Qualitative research design is an interactive approach whereby the researchers interact with people either directly or indirectly. Data will be collected through conducting interviews. Qualitative research design is easy to plan and flexible method of research, which is suitable in small scale sampling like in the case in this study (Hennink et al., 2020).

Sampled Population

The target population for the study will include the education professors in Chinese Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. The total target population for the study will be 20 respondents from leading educational institutions and ministry with ten respondents in every country.

Questionnaires and Secondary Data

The study will use both secondary and primary data. The surveys, which will contain simple questions systematically compiled in two different parts, will be used to collect information from the research participants. Part one will provide demographic information of the respondents. In contrast, part two will consist of simple closed-ended questions that will seek to find out Malay language teaching practices in Chinese Universities. Secondary data was collected through books, journals, newspapers, magazines, and any other relevant and available written materials.

References

Alfred, R., Lim, Y., Haviluddin, H., & On, C. K. (Eds.). (2019). Computational Science and Technology: 6th ICCST 2019, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, 29-30 August 2019 (Vol. 603). Springer Nature.

Bakar, N. S. A. A. (2019). The Development of an Integrated Corpus for Malay. Computational Science and Technology: 6th ICCST 2019, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, 29-30 August 2019, 603, 425.

Cheng, K. K. Y. (2003). Language shift and language maintenance in mixed marriages: A case study of a Malaysian-Chinese family. Int'l. J, 165(2516/03), 0161-0081.

Hennink, M., Hutter, I., & Bailey, A. (2020). Qualitative research methods. SAGE Publications Limited.

Ibrahim, Z. (2017). Malay/Indonesian at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Journal of Modern Languages, 18(1), 1-14.

Kamaruddin, R., Sha'ri, S. N., Ghazali, A. H. A., & Hamdan, R. (2017). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation as Extralinguistics Factors in Second Language Learning Among Foreign Students in Five Universities of Malaysia. Journal of US-China Public Administration, 14(1), 26-37.

Kuan, G., Kueh, Y. C., Abdullah, N., & Tai, E. L. M. (2019). Psychometric properties of the health-promoting lifestyle profile II: cross-cultural validation of the Malay language version. BMC public health, 19(1), 751.

Rahim, F. A. (2019). Proposing an affective literacy framework for young learners of English in Malaysian rural areas: Its key dimensions and challenges. Malaysian Journal of Learning and Instruction, 14(2), 115-144.

Razalli, A. R., Anal, A., Mamat, N., & Hashim, T. (2018). Effects of Bilingual Approach in Malay Language Teaching for Hearing Impaired Students. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 7(4), 109-121.

Schnall, A. H., Wolkin, A., & Nakata, N. (2018). Methods: Questionnaire Development and Interviewing Techniques. In Disaster Epidemiology (pp. 101-108). Academic Press.

Tang, S. G., Lee, J. A. C., & Misieng, J. (2018). Spelling Scoring Metrics in Malay Language: An Investigation among Young Spellers. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 8(12), 1622-1628.

Wong, Y. V. (2019). ESL teacher practices and perceptions of code-switching in a Malaysian Chinese independent school/Wong Yee Von (Doctoral dissertation, University of Malaya).

Ying, S. H. A. O. (2019). Adapting Malay Language Teaching Materials Based on the Production-oriented Approach: The Design of Motivating Phase. Foreign Languages and Their Teaching, 1, 25-32.

Ying, S. H. A. O. (2019). Adapting Malay Language Teaching Materials Based on the Production-oriented Approach: The Design of Motivating Phase. Foreign Languages and Their Teaching, 1, 25-32.