A study on the frequency of Dusun language use among secondary school students

• Main Authors: Sator, Alexander Japeni, Abdul Halim, Hazlina, Burkhardt, Jurgen Martin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Persatuan Linguistik Malaysia 2019
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/15741/1/A%20study%20on%20the%20frequency%20of%20Dusun%20language%20use%20among%20secondary%20school%20students.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/15741/; https://jurnal.plm.org.my/?page_id=274
• Institution: Universiti Putra Malaysia

Languages have been classified as the heart of a society as it can reflect the uniqueness, culture and identity of that specific community. As one would have it, having the younger generations to take on and learning their respective native languages is absolutely vital to ensure the continuity of that language in the years to come. Alas, when there are less people speaking this language, it can become endangered and will eventually cease to exist, and hence it will be an extinct language. Hence, this study will be focusing on the frequency of Dusun language usage among secondary school students in Sabah. Through identifying the rate of frequency of the Dusun language use among these young students, it can greatly help in pinpointing the level of fluency and the frequency of usage for the native language of the Dusun community in Sabah. Each of the participating respondents for this study received a total of 20questions that have been divided into two sections, both section is a scale-based questions utilizing the five-point Likert scale and consisting of 10questions, and in the first section will be used to determine the frequency of the respondents in integrating Dusun language into their daily conversation, while the second section is aiming to discern some of the factors that may be influencing the respondents in using Dusun language. It was found there is an alarming trend in the younger generation as to why they prefer other more commercial language instead of their own native mother tongue.