The Teaching of Indigenous Orang Asli Language in Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

According to Krauss (2007) there are approximately six thousand languages still spoken by mankind, between twenty and fifty percent of the 6,000 are no longer spoken by children or will no longer be spoken by children by the end of this century. Of the six thousand or so languages spoken on earth, three hundred to five hundred can still be considered “safe.” i.e., will continue to be learned by children in the traditional way for the foreseeable future. This has prompted a need to stabilization, revival, and maintenance of our indigenous languages. This paper presents the Semai indigenous Orang Asli language teaching programme as an effort of maintaining the indigenous Orang Asli language in Malaysia. The Semai language teaching programme was implemented in 1998 in Semai schools in Peninsular Malaysia as part of preserving the minority indigenous language from endangerment. The programme was an outcome of the efforts made by the Semai indigenous Orang Asli community by engaging themselves with relevant government authorities particularly the Curriculum Development Division, Ministry of Education, Malaysia. Semai belongs to the Senoic, Central Aslian sub-group of indigenous Orang Asli. The Senoi are the largest sub-group of the Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia and make up about 53.4% of the Orang Asli population.