Research Proposal on Bilingualism in Malaysia & China: Examining Education Policies

Introduction

Bilingualism refers to the aspect of learning two or more formal languages in a country. If a person communicates using two or more languages, they are said to be bilingual (Mackey, 1967). In Malaysia, the aspect of bilingualism has been in existence for several decades (Gill, 2007). Education policies in Malaysia provide learning of English in all levels of the countries education system (Thirusanku & Melor, 2012).

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In China, there are 56 recognized native groups, with the majority being the Han, or simply the 'Chinese. The formal language in China is Mandarin, while the rest are minorities (Lewis, 2009). minority education was enacted to replace these minority languages during the periods of 1958-1959 and 1966-1976, a move that was destined to achieve a quicker "ethnic amalgamation" and "linguistic convergence." (Zhou, 2012).

The 'Chinese English,' has been widely used in numerous ways in China. It is a spoken and written English that was mainly formed from native Chinese and has been applied in several ways, from advertisements such as on television to road signs (Guo, Liu, Misra, & Kroll, 2011). The learning of both native Chinese and English in schools has fundamentally contributed to the 'Chinese English.' The teaching of both English and the Malay languages in Malaysian schools led to the emergence of the 'Malay English.' The Malay, which is the principal communication means in Malaysia, is a type of English influenced by the Malay language (Pandian, 2002).

In the past few decades, outstanding correlation in language education among Malaysia and China has been evident. The Malaysian education system has attracted many Chinese students. Chinese students find it easy to adjust to student life in Malaysia. This has been contributed by how Chinese English is close to Malay. Thus students from China consider studying in Malaysia (Kim & Periyayya, 2013). Chinese visitors have been wooed by the Malaysian government to consider touring Malaysia, to the extent that Malaysia runs a particular campaign offering visa-free entry to the country. This has been mainly contributed by the similarity between Chinese and Malay English languages (Arokiasamy, 2011).

Bilingual education enactment has several advantages to any state, although it is quite challenging. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) have significantly been promoted by bilingualism in China. BRI is a move by China to tighten its cooperation with other countries (Cai, 2017). In Malaysia, bilingual education has enabled the tourism sector to thrive since inter-racial communication has been simplified (Shah & Yusof, 2006).

In this research, bilingualism progress in Malaysia and China will be investigated, outlining the differences and Similarities encountered in teaching the English language in both countries.

Research Questions

A series of challenges have been faced in the execution of Bilingualism in Malaysia and China, despite all the policy discourses. Four critical questions concerning bilingual education progress in both countries will be looked at in this research proposal. This research will address the following questions:

• RQ 1: Which approaches can be used to ensure the success of bilingual education system for both Malaysia and China?
• RQ 2: What is the comparison between Malaysian and Chinese English language education?
• RQ 3: To what extent has advancements in technology impacted bilingual education in both Chinese and Malaysian education systems?
• RQ 4: What are the variables that can be used to assess the progress of learning English and native languages in Malaysian and Chinese education systems?

Problem Statement

The proposed research is a response to the Malaysian and Chinese bilingual education challenges. A thorough analysis of possible choices applicable by tutors to attain more efficiency in English language education will be carried out. More cost-effective ways to alleviate the challenges encountered will be considered in this research.

Research Objectives

Research objectives in this research proposal include:

• RO 1: To outline the approaches employed to teach the English language in China and Malaysia.
• RO 2: To point out the efficiency of approaches deployed in teaching English in China and Malaysia.
• RO 3: To outline measures that can be used to ensure bilingual education in Chinese and Malaysian systems benefit from technological advancements in the education sector.

Literature Review

Previous works by other scholars relating bilingual education in the Malaysian republic and China were reflected in this research proposal. Several leading schools in China started the schooling of English-Chinese languages in the 1990s. The necessity to have Chinese-English secondary-level bilingual science courses was established in 1992 and 1993 in Shanghai and Guangzhou, respectively (Hu, 2007).

Multi-lingual programs have no negative impacts on learning foreign language processes (Cheng, 2012). According to Cheng (2012), students not being ready to learn in other languages other than their native, unsuitable education resources, and the shortage of skilled educators, are some of the various related aspects pulling down the success of bilingual education programs.

Communicative language teaching (CLT) in Malaysia was brought up by Curriculum Development in 1974 (Richards, 2008). CLT aimed to integrate the English language into the syllabus. The communicative language teaching proposes that learning a language should be done in a meaningful manner where input is the authentic language. The CLT criteria is based on the approach that a language is acquired to converse efficiently "outside the classroom setting.' where the ability to speak in various ways and fluency is of great importance. According to Richards (2008), the presence of a teacher is vital when learning a foreign language.

Adjustments to the languages syllabus pinpoint modifications in the Malaysian plan in the last few years. These changes were made to combine those from Britain (Choi & Lee, 2008). According to Choi and Lee (2008), reinforcement of learning and teaching of the English language, together with native languages, has been addressed by the Malaysian education system.

Significance of the Study

This study is aimed at equipping both learners and teachers with detailed information on how to approach bilingualism. This research will contribute to forming effective teaching methods and a reduced stressful learning atmosphere where two or more languages can be learned with ease. Findings from this research will equip learners with suitable approaches to attain appropriate capabilities in several languages as well as to overcome communication problems, especially when travelling.

Research Methodology

In this research, three survey sets will be used to gather data. Peking University Diploma students in China and undergraduates from the University of Malaya in Malaysia, as well as the lecturers teaching English from the two universities, are the targeted source of information.

Research Approach

The quantitative approach will be deployed in this research. According to Fraenkel, Wallen, and Hyun (2012), the principle that facts and feelings can be irregular forms the basis of quantitative analysis. Researchers in the quantitative approach seeks to obtain and expound the relationships between variables.

Research Design

This study will utilize a correlational research design study the magnitude of the relationship among learners' variables such as gender, writing and speaking abilities

Data Collection

Sampling

Fraenkel et al. (2012) defines a data sample as character sets whose appropriateness is available for assessment. In this study, sample students from both Peking University and the University of Malaya will be taken through a printed questionnaire. Lecturers from both universities will be issued with questionnaire forms while the sample students will be picked unsystematically from those within the campuses.

Instruments

Level of speaking skills/fluency in different languages and gender will be instruments to be used in the data collection phase, all on a subject of a scale of 5, with 5 the highest and 1 the lowest

Data Collection techniques

The use of a questionnaire will be employed in this study. Participants will be instructed to provide their demographic information in the first section of the questionnaire. Participant's information such as native language, gender and age will be captured in this section. The second section of the questionnaire will obtain information based on the participant's knowledge of English and native language education as taught in their respective institutions.

Data Analysis techniques

The data analysis phase of this research will use the Statistics Package for Social Science (SPSS) to obtain information. Computations will be performed to measure the strength and direction between participants' variables and bilingual capabilities together with their relationships. Figures obtained will be examined to see if they express any medium, extensive, small, or no influence using Pearson's correlations technique. Values beyond 26% will indicate substantial effect sizes, 2%, and 12.9% will suggest small, while those ranging between 13% - 25.99% will be termed as medium (Wilcox, 2003).

Data Verification

Before the actual data gathering, a pilot study will be carried out to test the dependability of the survey. The first purpose of the pilot study will be to estimate the time necessary to fill a questionnaire. Secondly, to ensure the clarity of the questionnaires to be used lastly to examine the validity and reliability of the surveys.

Potential Limitations

This research highlights two possible limitations. The first limitation of this research is that different tutors are possibly teaching students to be surveyed; hence language conversance might vary. Secondly, the survey will only involve a portion that will represent the entire population.

References

Arokiasamy, A. R. A. (2011). An Analysis of Globalization and Higher Education in Malaysia. Online Submission. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330684197_INTERNATIONALISATION_OF_HIGHER_EDUCATION_IN_MALAYSIA_INSIGHTS_FROM_HIGHER_EDUCATION_ADMINISTRATORS

Cai, P. (2017). Understanding China's belt and road initiative. doi: 10.1016/j.chieco.2016.07.007

Cheng, L. (2012). English immersion schools in China: Evidence from students and teachers. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 33(4), 379-391. doi: 10.1080/01434632.2012.661436.

Choi, Y. H., & Lee, H. W. (2008). Current trends and issues in English language education in Asia. Journal of Asia TEFL, 5(2). doi:10.18823/asiatefl.2018.15.4.20.1156

Fraenkel, J. R., Wallen, N. E., & Hyun, H. H. (2011). How to design and evaluate research in education. New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages. Retrieved from https://www.mheducation.com/highered/product/how-design-evaluate-research-education-fraenkel-wallen/M9781259913839.html

Gill, S. K. (2007). The shift in language policy in Malaysia: Unravelling reasons for change, conflict, and compromise in mother-tongue education. AILA Review, 20(1), 106-122. doi: 10.1075/aila.20.09gil

Guo, T., Liu, H., Misra, M., & Kroll, J. F. (2011). Local and global inhibition in bilingual word production: fMRI evidence from Chinese-English bilinguals. NeuroImage, 56(4), 2300-2309. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3741343/

Hu, G. (2007). The juggernaut of Chinese-English bilingual education. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 64, 94. doi: 10.21832/9781853599934-009

Kim, V. W. E., & Periyayya, T. H. I. N. A. V...