OLAC Record
oai:scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu:10125/74806

Metadata
Title:Formal Use of the Iban Language among the Iban Community in Sarawak, Malaysia
Bibliographic Citation:2024-11; Article; Kaipuleohone University of Hawai'i Digital Language Archive;https://hdl.handle.net/10125/74806.
Date (W3CDTF):2024-11
Description:The Iban language of Sarawak is an indigenous language that has an orthography and has been taught as a subject in Malaysian schools since 1968. However, no findings are available on whether Iban is used for written and formal communication. This study examined the extent of the formal use of Iban among the Iban community. Questionnaire data from 1,204 Iban respondents showed that mastery of Iban is acquired through informal language acquisition rather than formal learning. The percentage of those learning Iban in school dropped from the parents’ generation (53.90%) to the children’s generation (33.39%). Over 93% of the respondents could understand and speak Iban fluently, 88.54% could read in Iban, and 82.23% could write in Iban. The radio plays a bigger role in promoting Iban use among the respondents than the television. The sources of support for the written use of Iban are formal education, printed and audio-visual materials such as selected newspapers and magazines, and community groups. However, only 23.51% of the respondents had the experience of attending meetings conducted in Iban. The findings suggest low confidence for Iban to serve formal functions of communication not because of proficiency issues but due to lack of official status.
National Foreign Language Resource Center
Format:Article
23
Identifier:Metom, Lilly, Su-Hie Ting. 2024. Formal Use of the Iban Language among the Iban Community in Sarawak, Malaysia. Language Documentation & Conservation 18: 216-238.
1934-5275
Identifier (URI):https://hdl.handle.net/10125/74806
Language:English
Language (ISO639):eng
Publisher:University of Hawaii Press
Table Of Contents:Metom_Ting_2024.pdf

OLAC Info

Archive:  Language Documentation and Conservation
Description:  http://www.language-archives.org/archive/ldc.scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu
GetRecord:  OAI-PMH request for OLAC format
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OAI Info

OaiIdentifier:  oai:scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu:10125/74806
DateStamp:  2024-11-07
GetRecord:  OAI-PMH request for simple DC format

Search Info

Citation: n.a. 2024. University of Hawaii Press.
Terms: area_Europe country_GB iso639_eng


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