The Study Of The Localization Of Malaysia National Secondary School Junior High’s Textbooks

For the past 59 years after independence, Chinese Textbooks in Malaysia’s National Secondary School had been compiled 3 times. During its first compilation, the federal Ministry of Education (MoE) proposed the principal of selecting localized teaching materials. This thesis explores this particular principle and how it was applied in the other two later compilations, and hopefully providing reference for future national secondary school’s teaching material.The scope of this thesis include studies close to 60 years of national secondary school junior high level’s Chinese Textbooks from the mid 60s from last century until early this century. These textbooks include:1.2 versions of textbooks compiled based on the MoE’s "Standard Curriculum,1958".a.Textbooks published by Nanyang Publishing House between 1965 and 1967, b. Textbooks published by The Malaya Press Sdn. Bhd. between 1973 and 1980.2. Textbooks compiled according to MoE’s "Chinese Curriculum for Secondary School, 1986" and published by The Malaya Press Sdn. Bhd. between 1987 and 1990, where:a. Junior high second year textbook was edited by Zheng Liangshu.b. Junior high third year textbook was edited by Yiu Hong.3. Textbook compiled according to MoE Curriculum Development Division’s "Chinese Curriculum for Secondary School,2000", where:a. Junior high first year textbook edited by Chua Eng Song, Chin Yoke Mei and Tey Boon Tiam. Published in 2002 by Hypersurf Coporation Sdn. Bhd. b. Junior high second year textbook edited by Wan Kam Yok, Tan Kam Chai and Soh Bee Kwee. Published in 2003 by The Malaya Press Sdn. Bhd. c. Junior high third year textbook edited by Yulduz Emiloglu, Khow Ewe Pin and Lim Cheen Soon. Published in 2004 by Odonata Publishing Sdn. Bhd.First chapter of this thesis discusses about the background of this study, literatures reviewed, methodology of this study and the definition of localization. For the purpose of this thesis, the definition of localization will be based on definition by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Khor Boong Eng from the Institute Chinese Studies, University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia. According to his definition, localization includes locals’customs, history, geography, natural landscape, language characteristics, aesthetic tastes, mindsets, traditions and so on.Second chapter discusses about studies of the authors whose articles were selected in these 3 separate compilations of teaching materials. In this chapter, the authors will be categorized into 5 different categories; and their life as well as the background of the creation of their selected articles will be discussed and analyzed. The 5 categories of authors are:1. Authors who were government officials.2. Authors who were foreign residents.3. Authors who were immigrants.4. Local authors.5.Foreign language authors.This thesis will then proceed to further study the selected articles themselves in the third chapter, where the articles will be analyzed and compared in 4 areas i.e. the selected articles’ era, how they were examined, contents and editing styles.Forth chapter will discuss about the transformations from this 3 compilations of the Malaysian textbooks, demonstrating how the first compilation brought about the emphasizing of localization; esteeming nationalism in the second compilation; and being relevant to current affairs in the third compilation.Finally, the thesis will discuss about the findings based on the above studies and suggestions. Based on the use of terms, writings, type settings and various angles in those selected articles, the thesis explores Malaysia’s local development in arts and literatures as well as the characteristics of textbooks in bearing the weight of history. The studies concluded that based on the 3 transformations and editing principles of Malaysia’s textbooks in the last 59 years, the route of these three transformation started from emphasizing localization to esteeming of nationalism and finally to being relevant to current affairs. Based on the findings from the above studies, this thesis concludes with 5 areas of improvement for compiling textbooks in the future are suggested. They are:Standardize on the use of words; Suggestion to embrace more outstanding Malaysian Chinese’s publications; Ensuring that the main gist; and aesthetic value of the original article are preserved during summarizing of the original article; Organizing teams of editors that are both highly regarded and qualified; and Using latest layout design and printing techniques in order to compile high quality textbooks.