Constructing Vocational Aspirations Linguistically

Abstract

We show that Malaysian Commerce students construct a future for themselves as they construct a vocation through education. Such a vocation is dependent on aspirations which are culturally and linguistically constructed. The students we taught were participating in an English medium Commerce degree taught at a Malaysian university. We enquired as to their home language use and the language they expected to use once they had graduated and were in a position in commerce. They appeared to downgrade the significance of their home languages in preference to English. Such a preference is understandable and advantageous in their educational setting. Whilst it is possibly disadvantageous for a realistic assessment of the linguistic capacities which they will need in the workplace, it reflects an awareness that standard English is advantageous for selection and promotion purposes. We take this to be an example of a neo-colonialist affective stance.

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