Thirty years of French language planning in Malaysia: From individual attempt to national strength

Abstract

AbstractFrench language teaching (FLT) started in Malaysian boarding schools in the 1970s due to the initiative of a few Malaysian teachers who had acquired some knowledge during colonial times. It was formally implemented by the Malaysian Ministry of Education (MOE) in 1984 and in the 2000s, FLT developed greatly in parallel with the internationalisation of higher education. The country had no former expertise in teaching French on a larger scale and future teachers had to be sent abroad to be trained in French. Thirty years later, this language has not only become part of the linguistic scenery in Malaysian boarding schools, as the MOE has also extended the teaching of French to normal day schools. This article will review the language planning regarding French language teaching in Malaysia as an example of foreign language planning in the country, and will focus on its implementation in the Malaysian secondary schools from the 1970s to 2014. Issues of teaching hours and textbooks will not be dealt with, as these matters are left to the circumspection of the respective schools.