This study investigated language shift among middle-age, adult, and youth age groups of the Bajau Sama Kota Belud indigenous people. The cross-sectional study involved 243 participants, selected ...using stratified sampling. The questionnaire was based on language transmission assessment by Brenzinger et al. (2003). Results showed that language shift across different skill areas — speaking, understanding, reading, and writing — showed that the Malay language in everyday life is more dominant than their mother tongue among adults and youths. The language skills and the language daily use scores of Bajau Sama adults and youths are not significantly correlated. The two groups manifest the four variables of language shift in Bajau Sama. This study shows that the language shift phenomenon in Bajau Sama is accelerated in the younger generation, and they serve as the living agent of language shift. Following this, there is an urgency to develop a Bajau Sama language corpus and to implement revitalisation initiatives in Kota Belud, Sabah.
The Rungus are the indigenous people in Sabah, Malaysia. Malay as a second language and the primary instruction in schools seems inevitable. The study aims to determine the effects of reading ...strategies in the L2 reading comprehension tests on textual content and vocabulary. Participants consisted of twenty-six Form Four Rungus tribe pupils from Kudat Sikuati II Government Secondary School. The study used an ex-post facto research design. The researchers employed cognitive and metacognitive strategy questionnaires and two reading comprehension tests on L2 textual content and vocabulary. The researchers applied Cronbach alpha reliability statistics, paired sample test, and regression analysis. The study indicates that the L2 reading comprehension test on textual content and cognitive strategy were linearly related. Also, the factors related to L2 vocabulary in the reading comprehension test and metacognitive strategy are statistically significant. There is a very substantial relationship between past knowledge and reading comprehension among the participants. This study found that the use of cognitive strategies facilitates L2 reading comprehension with first language translation. The participants use translation strategies at a high level. However, they often use the metacognitive strategy more than the cognitive strategy. There is a significant positive relationship between metacognitive awareness and high-skilled readers’ performance. Low-level skilled readers choose the cognitive strategy. Meanwhile, the regression analysis between the L2 reading comprehension test on textual content and cognitive strategy revealed a positive association (β=.435) that is statistically significant (p<.05). The regression analysis between the L2 reading comprehension test on vocabulary and metacognitive strategy indicated a positive association (β=.440) and statistically significant (p<.05). Reading strategies facilitate students to understand the text, thereby improving their reading comprehension tasks. In addition to demonstrating positive implications on teaching students to read a second language, the findings are essential for teaching Malay language vocabulary. The schema theory employed in the study implicates that reading comprehension performance is generated from the interaction between top-down strategy (metacognitive) and bottom-up strategy (cognitive). A large-scale study could potentially reveal the use of translation strategy as a strategic trait associated with high-achievement readers or is, in fact, a bilingual additive.
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