Brunei English Research Articles

Critical Discourse Analysis of Brunei's English Mainstream Media Perceptions on the Laos-China Railway

This study aims to comprehensively analyze the coverage of the Laos-China Railway project by mainstream media in Brunei and its impact on public perception. Utilizing web scraping tools such as Octoparse and Heritrix, this paper systematically collected relevant reporting data from two major English news platforms in Brunei, the Borneo Bulletin and Brunei News. Quantitative tools such as AntConc and Excel were employed to process and analyze the data, revealing the frequency, temporal distribution, and emotional orientation of the reports. The qualitative component utilized Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to delve into the language use, discourse structure, and implicit meanings within the reports, further exploring how the media shapes the social reality and public cognition of the Laos-China Railway topic.The findings indicate that Brunei media not only frequently and comprehensively report on the Laos-China Railway project but also cover the project's political, economic, environmental, and social implications from multiple perspectives. Additionally, the media coverage reflects a keen awareness of the project's potential risks and a positive appraisal of its developmental benefits. The novelty of this research lies in its mixed-methodological approach and unique perspective on public opinion cognition, providing insights for policymakers on public opinion guidance and project promotion, as well as offering a rich theoretical and methodological reference for the academic community.

China English or Chinese English?

The distinction between ‘Singapore English’ and ‘Singaporean English’ is interesting. It appears that small places tend to use the bare name of the country, while larger countries use the derived adjective. So we find: Singapore English, Hong Kong English, Brunei English; but American English, German English, Malaysian English. On this basis, we might favour Chinese English over China English, because China is big.

The role of English and the sociocultural structure of Bahasa: a study of Brunei Darussalam

This paper looks at the role of English in Brunei and the sociocultural structure of Bahasa/language in Brunei Darussalam. The aim of this research is to critically analyse sociocultural theory from Vygotsky’s “peak psychology” approach and understand depth-knowledge of sociocultural theory from other scholars’ perspectives. The scholars’ views on education, language and sociocultural importance-related topics have been analysed by Barry, Goode, Jones, Haji-Othman, Sharbawi and Gardiner. These scholars’ ideas give a better understanding of the sociocultural importance of Bruneian’s individual development. For this research, a qualitative method applies and collected data is critically analysed in detail. This research has the potential to discuss the link between language evolution and Bruneian sociocultural development. The “Citizenship Acts 1961” is relevant to discuss the theoretical concepts like, ‘nationality’ and ‘ethnic identification’ from the Bruneian context. To put it in a nutshell, the ratification of “Melayu Islam Beraja” or “Malay Islamic Monarchy” and the impact of linguistic diversity in Brunei consist of a Bruneian identity. In bilingual education policy, Bahasa Melayu and English have a major role in the child development. Although a balance of regional languages and English is essential to maintain the “Bruneian” identity. Brunei is a small country but it is diverse, multilingual and multicultural.

The Americanisation of English in Brunei

AbstractPrevious studies investigating postulations that Brunei English was being shaped by American English did not yield any conclusive findings. In recent years, claims of young English‐speaking Bruneians sounding American have become more persistent, thereby precipitating this research. Data was collected from 38 Bruneian Malays who are in their late teens and mid‐twenties and over 900 tokens representative of American English features were analysed. Outcomes reveal that Brunei English is indeed diverging from its traditional exonormative norm, British English, and is displaying new and incipient pronunciations that are indicative of on‐going sound changes. While Americanisation accounts for some of these changes, it is not the only force at play. The findings of this study provide ample evidence that Brunei English is in active state of dynamic change and is steadily progressing towards the next stage of its evolutionary cycle.

The Use of American and British Lexis in Brunei English

In pronunciation, influenced by American English, a shift in Brunei English can be observed in the increasing use of [r] in tokens such as car and heard particularly among younger speakers whose pronunciation may be influenced by American English. In contrast, older speakers tend to omit the [r] sound in these tokens as their pronunciation may be more influenced by British English. However, it is unclear whether American English has influenced the vocabulary of Brunei English speakers as the education system in Brunei favours British English due to its historical ties with Britain. This paper analyses the use of American and British lexical items between three age groups: 20 in-service teachers aged between 29 to 35 years old, 20 university undergraduates aged between 19 to 25 years old, and 20 secondary school students who are within the 11 to 15 age range. Each age group has 10 female and 10 male participants and they were asked to name seven objects shown to them on Power point slides. Their responses were recorded and compared between the age groups and between female and male data. The analysis is supplemented with recorded data from interviews with all 60 participants to determine instances of American and British lexical items in casual speech. It was found that there is a higher occurrence of American than British lexical items in all three groups and the interview data supports the findings in the main data. Thus, providing further evidence for the Americanisation of Brunei English and that Brunei English is undergoing change.

English language in Brunei: Use, policy, and status in education – A review

This paper explores the literature on the status of the English language in Negara Brunei Darussalam, particularly in education. The review encompasses a total of 103 sources, including 44 journal articles, 27 book chapters, 15 books, and 17 other items (institution/organisation websites and reports, government documents, newspaper articles, and conference presentations), published between 1985 and 2020, with at least 70 sources published in the last decade. The author summarises findings from research in key areas in the Bruneian context including bilingual education, linguistic diversity, the status of English, educational policies, educational divides, and challenges to the student experience, particularly in higher education in the bilingual setting. The author found that: i) while there are concerns over the impact of English on the Malay language and on indigenous languages in the Sultanate, and apprehension around an educational divide, the majority of attitudes appear to be very positive about the use of English in Brunei, including in education; ii) the bilingual education policy has evolved over time, and now places an emphasis on English as a key competency for the 21st century; iii) the student experience in the bilingual context is a particularly under-researched area. Staff working in tertiary education can always benefit from further insights into different aspects of learning, teaching, and content delivery, which may be applicable in many settings. The paper concludes with recommendations for further research in Brunei.

An English-centric monolingual Brunei? Predictions and reality

ABSTRACT This article revisits a 1996 study on the unplanned use of Englishin Brunei, in which it was found that in addition to being regarded as the most important language in the country, Malay was also the dominant code in most of the domains investigated. The conclusion also stated that it was unlikely for English to ever be regarded as a first language by the Bruneians. The current findings differ in substantial ways from the 1996 study such that the role of Malay has diminished and code-switching now dominates in most of the settings. English has also surpassed Malay as the language regarded as most important. A trend appears to be emerging showing a relationship between age and language preference and the relationship was found to be statistically highly significant. It is concluded that should this trend continue, the prediction that Brunei will one day be monolingually English-centric could may well come true.

Intelligibility of an L2 variety in ELF interactions

AbstractThis paper investigates the occurrence of misunderstandings in ELF (English as a Lingua Franca) interactions caused by vowel pronunciation in Brunei English. The study is based on ten audio recordings, each consisting of conversations between two participants: a Bruneian (L2 speaker) and a non-Bruneian speaker. Out of a total of 152 tokens (occurrences) of misunderstandings identified, 36 of them (23.7%) are found to involve vowel pronunciation. Data analysis includes examining vowel length, the vowels offace, goat, price, mouth, monosyllabic triphthongs,trap, vowel reduction, spelling pronunciation and American pronunciation in causing misunderstandings. The findings indicate that misunderstandings may be caused by a change in vowel length and quality in 28 tokens. The study concludes that vowel pronunciation in Brunei English conversational speech, particularly in the lack of vowel length distinction and absence of diphthongs in closed syllables may occasionally lead to a loss of intelligibility in ELF settings.

The Lingua Franca Core and Englishes in East and Southeast Asia

It has been argued, especially by Jenkins (2000, 2007), that it should not be the goal of learners to imitate speakers from the UK or USA. Instead, they should aim to achieve mutual intelligibility with other speakers of English as a Lingua Franca from around the world. This led her to propose the Lingua Franca Core, an inventory of pronunciation features that she suggests are necessary for maintaining intelligibility in international communication, while features outside the core are unimportant. However, the Lingua Franca Core remains controversial. This paper presents an overview of the pronunciation features of four varieties of English in the Outer Circle (using the Three Circles model of Kachru, 1985), Brunei English, Hong Kong English, Malaysian English and Singapore English, and one variety in the Expanding Circle, Chinese English, to assess the implications of the Lingua Franca Core for these varieties that have developed their own styles of pronunciation that increasingly distinguish them from Inner Circle styles of pronunciation.Â

Question intonation in Brunei English

ABSTRACTThis article explores the prosodic marking of questions in Brunei English. Ten ethnically Malay female speakers of Brunei English were recorded doing a Map Task in pairs. From these dialogues, 94 questions were identified and classified according to their syntactic and functional type. Their nuclear pitch movement and overall intonation contour was determined auditorily and pitch alignment for rising nuclei was measured acoustically. The results show that the Brunei speakers of English use systematic prosodic marking of different syntactic and functional types of question that differs from British English usage. No evidence for an influence of their L1 Malay prosodic patterns was found. Differences from question intonation produced by Malaysian and Singaporean speakers of English are explained by the Brunei speakers’ different norm orientation.

A research bibliography for Brunei English

ABSTRACTThis bibliography sets out to provide a guide to research publications dealing with the status, functions and features of English in Brunei. It includes publications related to the sociolinguistic background, the linguistic features of Brunei English, discourse studies, literary studies and creative writing, English language teaching, language policy and planning, and scholarly theses.

The pronunciation of Brunei English

ABSTRACTAfter briefly reviewing previous studies into the pronunciation of English in Brunei, this article provides an overview of the phonology of Brunei English. It considers rhoticity, the pronunciation of the TH sounds, the simplification of word‐final consonant clusters, devoicing of syllable‐final fricatives, the merging of vowels such as the trap and dress vowels as well as the absence of vowel length distinctions, the use of spelling pronunciation, the occurrence of full vowels instead of reduced vowels, and the role of rising intonation at the end of a statement. These features are then compared with the phonology that has been reported for other Englishes in the region, and finally the status of Brunei English as an emergent variety is considered.

The grammar of Brunei English

ABSTRACTThis article provides an overview of past and current studies on the grammar of Brunei English with a focus on prominent features that distinguish it from standardised varieties of English: the simplified use of tense; the flexible use of plural suffixes, especially on logically plural nouns; the variable occurrence of verbal suffixes; non‐standard use of modal verbs like will, would, can and could; article usage; insertion of a preposition after transitive verbs; and topic‐fronting. In addition, the article discusses the question of whether there is a distinct and identifiable grammar operating in Brunei English based on the presence of systematic and recurrent patterns of occurrence of such features.

The role of noun phrases in misunderstandings in Brunei English in ELF settings

Abstract Innovative usage of noun phrases is among the most widely reported features of new varieties of English throughout the world and also in discourse in ELF settings, but its effect on intelligibility has not been extensively investigated. In an attempt to remedy this, ten conversations in English between Bruneians and people from elsewhere were recorded, and a total of 153 tokens were identified in which the non-Bruneians did not understand the Bruneian speakers. In twenty of these tokens, the grammar of a noun phrase may be one factor in giving rise to the misunderstanding, involving added or absent articles, innovative use of plurals, and the unexpected gender of a pronoun. Further analysis suggests that non-standard grammar was probably the main factor in just four of these tokens, two involving an added article before a proper noun, one with a spurious -s on the end of other, and one in which she was used to refer to a male. There were many instances of non-standard grammar in noun phrases throughout the conversations, but this rarely caused a problem, which suggests that the innovative structure of noun phrases seldom impacts on the intelligibility of Brunei English in ELF settings.

English in Brunei

ABSTRACTThis article uses a kuih lapis (layer cake) analogy to describe English as one layer contributing to the diversity of indigenous and immigrant languages used in Negara Brunei Darussalam (Brunei). We then review some previous studies of bilingualism among Bruneians before outlining three major challenges facing researchers studying English in Brunei. These challenges comprise: the balance, or imbalance, between English‐medium and Malay‐medium in the national education system since 1985, the question of whether Brunei English is a distinct variety and the issue of whether English has become part of Brunei's identity. These challenges are framed within the dualities of Malay as national and official language, and the nation's need for English for increasing international and global connectedness. The discussion of future directions draws on recent research by Bruneians; these directions include the growing number of first‐language users of English, the position of Brunei English within Schneider's () Dynamic Model, the identification of subvarieties of Brunei English, and the notion of Brunei English as a code‐mixed variety.

Foreign Language Learners’ Motivation and Its Effects on Their Achievement: Implications for Effective Teaching of Students Studying Japanese at Universiti Brunei Darussalam

An increasing number of students at the University of Brunei Darussalam are studying the Japanese language. However, research on the relationship between learners’ motivation and their achievement has not been given sufficient attention in Japanese foreign language education compared to English in Brunei. The present study, which utilized a quantitative survey, attempted to address this information gap. Based on the Brunei university student sample, five main motivational factors were extracted by factor analysis, namely: (1) Interest in Japanese pop culture and traditional culture; (2) Interest in Japanese language orientation; (3) Understanding Japanese people and society orientation; (4) Career use of Japanese language orientation; and (5) Self-satisfaction orientation. Participants differed significantly in their Japanese language learning motivation by gender and age. Male students were more driven to study Japanese language by Factor 1–Interest in Japanese pop culture and traditional culture orientation while females were inspired mostly by Factor 5–Self-satisfaction Orientation. In addition, students placed in the oldest age-group category (24-27) scored significantly higher on Factor 3–Understanding Japanese people and society orientation, than members of the other two age-groups. Based on these findings, nine recommendations were made to improve the teaching and learning of Japanese language at the university. Further mixed-methods research was also recommended to gain additional insights.

Revisiting the vowels of Brunei English

ABSTRACT: This paper presents findings of a phonetic investigation of the 11 monophthongal vowels produced by 18 speakers of Brunei English (BrunE). Data for the current study was also collected from 12 Singapore English (SgE) speakers. In order to avoid a prescriptive approach, the description of the vowels was carried out using a modified inventory of vowel contrasts for the monophthongs following Wells’ model of standard lexical sets. The findings revealed that BrunE speakers are inconsistent in their vowel productions in which there is indeterminate usage of American English (AmE) and BrE vowels. The Singaporeans, however, show more uniformity across the subjects. It is proposed that the lack of consistency in BrunE vowel pronunciations may be explained in terms of the maturity of the English varieties. Whereas Schneider places SgE in an advanced phase 4 of his dynamic model of the evolution of postcolonial Englishes, the findings of the current study seems to indicate that BrunE belongs in the third phase. Statistical tests, however, do not seem to support the claim that BrunE and SgE are in different stages of development. It is also concluded that use of the lexical keywords may not be feasible in the description of an emerging English variety since the lexical sets are fixed and are based on the pronunciation of an Inner Circle variety. As such, an improvised lexical keyword set has been proposed for the description of BrunE vowels.

Brunei English: a developing variety

ABSTRACT: A considerable amount of time has elapsed since the existence of a distinct variety of English, Brunei English (BNE), was mooted in the early 1990s. A subsequent study conducted by Svalberg in 1998 suggested that BNE was then in its infancy and that its speakers were largely unaware of the differences between it and Standard British English (STE). However, it was predicted that BNE would, in all likelihood, expand and stabilise over time. This paper seeks to explore how BNE has evolved and is developing in a contemporary context. An adapted and extended version of Svalberg's original grammaticality judgement test was given to a class of 29 Lower Sixth Form students aged 16–17 at DPMAMB College. The participants involved had relatively high proficiency levels in STE, having all achieved credit grades in the Brunei-Cambridge GCE O Level English Language examination the previous year. The original test had focused solely on the grammatical acceptability of featured items. In extending it I added a number of lexical items commonly heard in everyday conversations and exchanges and some that emerge consistently in both student and public texts. It was considered that having participants assess both lexicality and grammaticality would yield a wider-ranging picture of the forms and functions characteristic of BNE today and a greater illumination of its role in meeting the expressive needs of Bruneians.

Rhoticity in Brunei English

We might expect Brunei English to be non-rhotic, as the Englishes of both Singapore and Malaysia are non-rhotic and Brunei has strong ethnic, historical, economic and cultural ties with those two countries. The current study compares the R-colouring of read data from female undergraduates in Brunei and Singapore, and it finds that the Brunei data is substantially more rhotic than that of Singapore. It is suggested that this is for two reasons: the main indigenous language of Brunei is Brunei Malay, which is rhotic; and Brunei English is at an earlier stage of development than Singapore English and so it is more susceptible to outside influences, particularly from American media.

Exponents of politeness in Brunei English

ABSTRACT: This paper is based on the premise that not much is known about how English modal verbs are used to express politeness in Non‐Native English speaking (NNEs) contexts. It explores the use of the past and non‐past forms of the request modalswillandcanin Brunei, a NNEs country located in Southeast Asia. Specifically, it examines the use of these modals in the Request for Corrective Action (RCA) move in personal complaints written to the local English‐language newspaper by local Bruneian speakers of English. In addition, reasons for a particular usage are extrapolated from those elicited from a questionnaire carried out among local university students. This paper provides an exploratory study of modal verb use from a pragmatics perspective, with the purpose of investigating the extent to which the request modal verbswill/wouldandcan/couldexpress the attitudes of the complainant when it comes to requesting corrective action in complaints of a personal nature. The findings yielded a number of surprising observations that highlight the different ways in which these English request modal verbs are perceived and used in a NNEs context.