Language maintenance and shift amongst Syrian Arab Muslim immigrants in Kuala Lumpur during the COVID-19 pandemic / Hanan Aldoukhi

Hanan , Aldoukhi (2023) Language maintenance and shift amongst Syrian Arab Muslim immigrants in Kuala Lumpur during the COVID-19 pandemic / Hanan Aldoukhi. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaya.

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Abstract

This research falls within the scope of language maintenance and shift during COVID-19 among the Syrian Arab Muslim community in Malaysia which is a multilingual and multicultural country. This community migrated to Malaysia circa 2011, for many different reasons among those is after the war started in their home country which is Syria. This study focuses on four domains which are employment, education, friends, and home as proposed by Fishman (1972). The main objectives of this study are to explore Language Choice amongst Syrian Muslim families in Malaysia; the reasons for maintaining and/or shifting their Arabic languages; and the strategies followed by parents to maintain the participants’ language/s. There are close to no studies conducted during the COVID-19 and the effect hereof on language maintenance and shift among the Syrian immigrants in Malaysia. Qualitative study and semi structured interviews were employed. Online interviews were conducted with 10 families via Zoom application due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings show parents’ educational background have not affected children’s language acquiring. However, the type of school they go to has affected their language development. This study validates the findings of previous scholars’ study on language maintenance and shift where the more the number of domains a minority language is widely used the more likely the language can be maintained. The dissolution of Malaysia being a multiracial country can be a sign of social change in which maintaining the Syrian heritage language has become a challenge, whereas speaking English or Malay is a necessity of life in Malaysia.

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