Malaysia’s linguistic landscape and language practices in Chinese private clinics

Focus on the Klang Valley

Xiaomei Wang | Xiamen University Malaysia

Jin Zhuo Lee | Free University Berlin

Yi Chern Koh | University of Malaya

This paper reports on the organization of Malaysia’s linguistic landscape and the implications of this situation for contacts between providers of medical service and patients. The main purpose of this study is to clarify the position of Chinese private clinics in Malaysian society and to better understand language use between Chinese medical personnel and Chinese patients. The fieldwork focused on clinics in the Klang Valley, Malaysia and was carried out between December 2016 and March 2017. The results reveal the complex linguistic situation in the medical domain reflecting the general hierarchical social structure in Malaysia. Chinese patients have different wishes as regards their preferred language environment in these clinics, but generally prefer to use Mandarin Chinese for interaction with doctors. Medical staff also tend to prefer the use of Mandarin Chinese but also understand the need for dialect based interactions to create a feeling of harmony and belonging. The data are used to clarify existing problems in doctor-patient interaction and contribute to the debate of communication discordance in the healthcare domain.

Keywords: linguistic landscape, language practices, medical domain, Malaysia, Mandarin

Published online: 30 June 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/japc.00045.xia

References

Asmah, H. O.

(2004) Language and literature, The Encyclopedia of Malaysia, vol. 9. Singapore: Archipelago Press.

Azizam, N. and Shamsuddin, K.

(2015) Healthcare provider-patient communication: A satisfaction study in the outpatient clinic at Hospital Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian Journal of Medical Science, 22(3), 56–64.

Canfield, D. and Diamond, L. C.

(2017) Language concordance between limited English proficient patients and their clinicians. In Jacobs, E. A. and Diamond, L. (eds.) Providing health care in the context of language barriers: International perspectives (pp. 102–115). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

[ p. 81 ]

Cheng, S.

(2004) The patients’ linguistic right and the essentiality of medical Taiwanese education in medical schools. Retrieved on 14 August 2018. http://ip194097.ntcu.edu.tw/giankiu/GTH/2004/LanguageRights/lunbun/3C03-sichong.doc

Coluzzi, P.

(2017) Language planning for Malay in Malaysia: A case of failure or success? International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 244, 17-38.

Crystal, D.

(1997) English as a global language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Fernandez, A. et al.

(2011) Language barriers, physician-patient language concordance, and glycemic control among insured Latinos with diabetes: the diabetes study of northern California. Journal of general internal medicine, 26(2), 170–176.

Johari, R. and Tahirm, A.

(2006) Patient satisfaction in Klang hospital. Malaysian Journal of Health Management, 1(1), 55–62.

Irvine, F., Partridge, M. & Yeung, E.

(2017) Chinese voices: Improving access to health care. In Jacobs, E. A. and Diamond, L. (eds.) Providing health care in the context of language barriers: International perspectives (pp. 170–189). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Iwaki, H.

(2015) A brief introduction on the research methods of medical clinical dialectology in Japan. China language strategies, 3 (2), 193–196.

Karliner, L. S.

(2017) Three critical steps to enhance delivery of language services in health care. In Jacobs, E. A. and Diamond, L. (eds.), Providing health care in the context of language barriers: International perspectives (pp. 20–34). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Ke, C. & Cheng, S.

(2007) The doctor-patient communication and the patient linguistic rights in Taiwan. Taiwan Medical Journal, 50(9), 37–39.

Ngo-Metzger, Q., Sorkin, D. H. & Phillips, R. S.

(2007) Providing high-quality care for limited English proficient patients: The importance of language concordance and interpreter use. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 22(Suppl. 2), 324–330.

Sin Chew Daily

Understanding Mandarin can help many people. Page 2, Retrieved on 3 September 2016.

Spolsky, B.

(2009) Language management. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Squires, A.

(2017) The drivers of demand for language services in health care. In Jacobs, E. A. and Diamond, L. (eds.), Providing health care in the context of language barriers: International perspectives (pp.1–19). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Sudore, R. L., Landefeld, C. S., & Perez, S.

(2009) Unraveling the relationship between literacy, language proficiency and patient-physician communication. Patient education counselling, 75(3), 398–402.

Wang, X.

(2007) Roufozhou sandaitongtang huaren jiating de yuyan zhuanyong [Language shift among the three-generation Chinese families in the State of Johore], in Chong, S. L. & Chiah, S. (eds.) Discovering the language: diversity, variation and standardization (pp. 142–155). Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya.

(2010) The sociolinguistic realignment in the Chinese community in Kuala Lumpur: past, present and future, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 31 (5), 479-489.

[ p. 82 ]

Zhang, J., Borjigin, B. & Li, Q.

(2016) A study on doctor-patient communication from the perspective of language service. In Li, X. (ed.), Studies on language and culture of Macau (pp. 326–346). Macau: Macao Polytechnic Institute.