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Language Maintenance and Shift Among the Syrian Community in Malaysia

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  • © 2024

Overview

  • Provides insights on how Syrian parents are managing their own and their children’s languages.
  • Investigates language choices in different domains among Syrian Arab Muslim families who came to Malaysia after war
  • Conducts research on how Syrian community in Malaysia are maintaining language use in daily communication
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Table of contents (6 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

This book investigates language choices in different domains among Syrian Arab Muslim families who came to Malaysia after war broke out in their country. It focuses on how Syrian Heritage Language (HL), Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), Classical Arabic (CA), and other languages that might be spoken by these families were maintained and/or shifted from the time these families came to Malaysia until the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most works on Syrian community in Malaysia are focused on social and humanitarian issues; none has explored how Syrians in Malaysia are managing their language use in connection with day-to-day communication and integration. As the Syrian community in Malaysia adapts by learning the host language, their mother language/s might experience a shift. The way the minority communities view their mother language by prioritizing or deprioritizing its use in the family milieu are factors that contribute to language maintenance and language shift (LMLS). As such, this book provides insights on how Syrian parents are managing their own and their children’s language/s, along with the language of the host country.


Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of English Language, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Hanan Aldoukhi, Nurul Huda Hamzah, R. K. Shangeetha

About the authors

Ms. Hanan Aldoukhi is a Syrian Professional Arabic Teacher for non-native speakers and for children of Arab immigrants. She also teaches English for Arabs. She believes that learning must always be fun, especially when it comes to language learning, which informs how she creates and develops effective learning materials. Hanan is also a professional translator (Arabic/English and English/Arabic).

Dr. Nurul Huda Hamzah is a Senior Lecturer at the English Language Department, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya (UM), Malaysia. Holding a Ph.D. from Newcastle University, UK, she has considerable expertise in Ethnography (applied linguistics, linguistics, linguistics anthropology, and cross-cultural studies). She has published several articles in reputed international journals.

Dr. Shangeetha R.K. is a Senior Lecturer at the English Language Department, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya (UM), Malaysia. Her main research interestis in sociolinguistics aspects of the writings of diasporic communities.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Language Maintenance and Shift Among the Syrian Community in Malaysia

  • Authors: Hanan Aldoukhi, Nurul Huda Hamzah, R. K. Shangeetha

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-9643-8

  • Publisher: Springer Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-99-9642-1Published: 13 March 2024

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-981-99-9645-2Due: 12 April 2024

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-99-9643-8Published: 11 March 2024

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 155

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations, 27 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Language Policy and Planning, Language Change, Asian Languages, Sociolinguistics, Migration

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