Looking At The Bilingual Bruneian
By Sonia K.

Bandar Seri Begawan - A lecture on 'English and the Bilingual Bruneian' by Dr Noor Azam bin OKMB Hj-Othman will be held on Wednesday (April 18) 2.30pm at the Central Lecture Theatre G.12, UBD.

The general thesis is that as Brunei got more modernized, the greater the role of English became in the daily lives of Bruneians. This will be discussed in light of the change in the description of bilingualism in Brunei. Dr Noor Azam bin OKMB Hj Othman is the Deputy Director of the Language Centre at UBD and teaches language skills as well as linguistics courses in the Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics.

His PhD research was on the changes to linguistic diversity in Brunei Darussalam, with emphasis on native languages. Dr Noor Azam continues to conduct research on the languages of the seven `puak jati' of Brunei, and in languages use in Brunei in general. Brunei as a young nation-state began to develop rapidly only in the later half of the latest century, thanks to the discovery of oil in 1929. Prior to achieving its status as a 'modern nation-state' under the leadership of Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien III in the 1960s and 1970s, Brunei's culturally and linguistically diverse population lived in virtual pockets of homogenous communities, whose ethnic identity was easily identifiable in terms of their respective location of residence.

Inter-group communication was minimal due to lack of contact between the different groups which in turn was due to a lack of access, resulting in a high degree of societal monolingualism in indigenous languages.

Using the notion of 'societal bilingualism' (Romaine 1994), and relating it to events in Brunei's social history, this paper discusses how the notion of bilingualism has evolved over time in Brunei, and the position of English in the 'bilingual equation' It draws its findings from a larger study which analysed interview as well as documentary data. Thus, Dr Noor Azam's thesis of a bilingual Bruneian.

Admission to the lecture, organized by the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences of UBD, is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Dr Noor Azam bin OKMB Hj Othman at 2463001 ext 1407 or Dr Debbie Ho at 2463001 ext 1409. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

Click Here To Have Your Say On This Story

Brudirect.com News

Brunei's Fastest Growing Website with