I AGREE with the views expressed by Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani in his letter "Social sciences vital, too" (NST, Feb 28).
As argued by Azizuddin, we cannot afford to sideline research and development (R&D) in social sciences and humanities.
As a linguist, I believe that R&D should also include linguistic studies in Malaysia, pertaining to the national language, vernacular languages and the ethnic languages of Sabah and Sarawak. Some of these ethnic languages are on the verge of extinction.
I had written about this before in my letter "Work on stopping language death" (NST, Nov 11, 2008).
Academics at the tertiary level lament that more students are shying away from linguistic studies as they foresee no prospects in it.
This is probably due to the trend of overemphasising science and technology in education.
I hope more and more R&D grants will be provided to the social sciences and humanities, including linguistic studies on the languages spoken in the country.
It will be a novel idea to allow each university to focus on selected areas of research as advocated by Azizuddin. Let R&D in Malaysia include all fields of knowledge, not only science and technology.
As a linguist, I believe that R&D should also include linguistic studies in Malaysia, pertaining to the national language, vernacular languages and the ethnic languages of Sabah and Sarawak. Some of these ethnic languages are on the verge of extinction.
I had written about this before in my letter "Work on stopping language death" (NST, Nov 11, 2008).
Academics at the tertiary level lament that more students are shying away from linguistic studies as they foresee no prospects in it.
This is probably due to the trend of overemphasising science and technology in education.
I hope more and more R&D grants will be provided to the social sciences and humanities, including linguistic studies on the languages spoken in the country.
It will be a novel idea to allow each university to focus on selected areas of research as advocated by Azizuddin. Let R&D in Malaysia include all fields of knowledge, not only science and technology.
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