Original scientific paper
Shy Speakers: Hearing Their Voices
Caesar Dealwis
Maya Khemlani David
Abstract
When a speech community is noted for its inhibitions and reservations with outsiders, researchers, who are not members of that speech community, will find difficulty in making inroads and obtaining information. This research of the Bidayuh community in Kuching will firstly discuss the general attitudes and characteristics of the community. The foregrounding of the community is based on descriptions both by European writers of the 19th century and modern day Bidayuh writers. This paper documents the range of strategies which can be used by researchers, who are outsiders, to obtain information from this speech community. One major strategy which will be discussed is language choice. The Theory of Accommodation contends that rapport and solidarity are more easily established if a speaker shifts to the preferred language of the recipient or subject. Researchers have to determine which language to switch to: Malay, English or Bidayuh? If Bidayuh, then which dialect? The attendant problems associated with code choice will also be discussed.
Keywords
Bidayuh; research methodology; language choice; East Malaysia; Bidayuh Belt; accommodation
Hrčak ID:
14471
URI
Publication date:
29.6.2007.
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