By Hannaan Fuad
Edited by Fasihah Zulkifli
GOMBAK, 23 October 2023: The research sharing was done by Dr. Rabiah Tul Adawiyah Mohamed Salleh, more known as Dr. Ruby, on her team’s research, ‘Translanguaging in Narrative: The Case of Malay-English Bilingual Children’.
The seminar that was held in HS LT1 from 9.30 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. with 30 attendings received positive responses from students who had high enthusiasm to learn more about Dr Ruby's research.
The research was conducted by asking 7 bilingual Malaysian children to narrate a story based on textless pictures in two language modes. These children were separated into two groups after interviewing their parents on children's linguistic background and exposure;
Group A was the simultaneous bilinguals, as they were exposed to English by their parents since birth, and Group B was the sequential bilinguals, which means English was introduced to them after Malay was already established.
The children were first asked to narrate the story using Malay as one of Dr Ruby’s research assistants posed as a monolingual who could only speak and understand Malay. Later, another research assistant joined them, giving the children the freedom to use English in their narration as she code-switched between Malay and English.
The research found that group B children were balanced bilinguals, meaning that both their English and Malay competencies were equally good, while group A children were clearly dominant in English at the expense of their Malay competency.
The session concluded at 10.30 on the dot, after Dr Ruby answered a few questions from the audience, followed by a photography session.
The Department of English Language and Literature (DELL) organises a research seminar that will be held throughout this semester fortnightly every Friday, with the hope of exposing the students to selected research done by the researchers (lecturers and postgraduates) in the department.***
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