Language Choice among Malaysian-Indians in Speech Repertoire of Tamil and English Language

Multilingualism is a common occurrence in Malaysia, which is a pluralistic society. The Malaysian-Indians, are commonly exposed to three languages; Tamil language (mother tongue), Malay language (National language) and English (Second language). This study focuses on Malaysian-Indians with Tamil language as their mother tongue above the age of 21 years. After school education, Malaysian-Indians mainly use either English or Tamil language to communicate while in intra-ethnic group conversations. The language choice of predominant language in daily speech repertoire was investigated. In daily conversation, some speakers give more preferences to English language and less importance to Tamil language; while those who prefer Tamil language, withdraw from speaking in English language. This study is to create awareness in the usage of both Tamil and English Language among Malaysian-Indians. The study compared language choice among Malaysian-Indians speakers by comparing their Tamil and English language usage in social context within the same ethnic group. A descriptive comparative design using mixed research method of quantitative and qualitative were employed in this study on a group of 82 Malaysian-Indians from three major states in the central region of peninsular Malaysia. The results revealed that majority of the respondents were aware of the importance of Tamil language as mother tongue and their language choice. However, the results also showed that the importance of English language as global language is undeniable. Therefore, Malaysian-Indians in recent years have resorted in code-mixing in their speech repertoire to create a win-win situation to uphold their mother tongue as well to progress in career and education.