Contemporary Malaysia Language Education Policy Development

Language is not only the carrier of culture, the link of nation continuing, but also atool of intercourse. Under the situation of globalization, in order to develop fast andbetter, along with the nationality and national characteristic of a country preserved, everycountry in the world is devoting to draft various language education policies to developit's language education, so that the language education can serve for the nationaldevelopment.Malaysia is a multinational country which is composed of the Malay, the Chineseand the Indian. Different from the situation of emphasis the bilingual education (mothertongues and English) in Singapore, Malaysia's language education development hasundergone a winding path. During the period of colonization, the English governmentimplemented the policy of English supreme, support the Malaysian language and repelthe minority languages for the purpose of consolidating its govern in Malaysia. Duringthe period of the alliance government and the new economic policy times, the Malaysiangovernment was influenced by the ideology of nationalism. It carried out the policy of thenational language supreme, reduced the English status and limited the minoritylanguages. In the new development times, the Malaysian government implemented thepolicy of the national language primary, emphasized English and loosened the nationalminority languages. After the year 2003, in order to promote the nation's Englishproficiency and the level of mathematic and science, the Malaysian governmentimplemented the policy of the national language status invariable, promoted the Englishstatus and tolerated the national minority languagesThat the contemporary Malaysian language education policy presents diverse changes,can not be separated with the factors of different government being in power, thenationality constitution, the social economy development, the different ideology and theinternational development. In general, the characteristics of the contemporary Malaysianlanguage education policies include: 1. The tendency of emphasis the English languageeducation. 2. Maintain the national language, promote the second language, preserve theminority languages. 3. Regulate the medium of instruction to reach the goal of languageeducation. 4. The language education policy has the characteristic of multinationalism. 5.Nationalism in language education policy. The problems existing in the development of the contemporary Malaysian language education policy include: 1. The governmentcannot impartially treat various races school and various races culture. 2. The status ofthe second language endangers the mother tongue and the national language. 3. Riskusing non-mother tongue to teach mathematics and science curriculum. 4. The hastinessof enacting and implementing the 2003 language education policy. 5. The imperfectnessof the 2003 language education policy.The experience of the development of the contemporary Malaysian languageeducation policy can give us some advice: 1. Emphasize the English language. 2.Consolidate the national language, promote the second language and develop theminority languages properly. 3. Regulate the medium of instruction to reach the goal oflanguage education. 4. Some enlightenment from the implementation of the languageeducation policy. Moreover, this dissertation also researches the possibility ofimplementing the new teaching method of non-mother tongue as the medium ofinstruction carried out in China.