Language use and attitudes in Islamic practices of Malay youths in Singapore

• Main Author: Nur Atiqah Nasir
• Other Authors: Francesco Paolo Cavallaro
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Linguistics::Sociolinguistics::Bilingualism
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/66052
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

With the pervasiveness of globalisation, there has been increasing pressures for minority communities worldwide to adopt the language of the majority, such as English. As a result, language shift has been a concern for such minority groups. In recent times, Singapore has seen an unprecedented increase in the use of English across all ethnic groups in all domains. Despite this, the Malay language is arguably the most stable as compared to Mandarin Chinese and Tamil. The maintenance of the Malay language in Singapore has been largely attributed to the domain of religion (Islam). In the context of the rising influence of English, this report looks into the language use and attitudes of Malay-Muslim youths in the domain of religion. The study aims to address the question of whether or not the religion domain is experiencing a shift to English. A total of 124 Malay Singaporean participants between the ages of 19 to 25 took part in this survey-based study. Results reveal that Malay is largely central to the Islamic practices of Malay youths, although they do hold favourable attitudes towards the use of English in religion. Qualifications were found to have an effect on language use, with the higher the qualification level, the more English used. Considering the rising influence of English in the religion domain, the fate of the Malay language is worth revisiting in time to come.