Maya Khemlani DavidUniversity of Malaya | UM · Asia- Europe Institute
Maya Khemlani David
PhD
Currently working on the elderly and aegist language directed at them , their perceptions of such aegist language.
About
489
Publications
336,246
Reads
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1,741
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Honorary Professor, Asia Europe Institute University of Malaya, Adjunct Professor UCIS, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Associate, International Institute of Public Policy and Management, University of Malaya. Headed the department which focussed on Soft Skills in UM for 6 years and was in charge of online ELT. Editor in Chief IARS' International Research Journal, EISSN1839-6518. Researcher of Ethnicity language and Identity of the diasporic Sindhi community. My orchid no is 0000-0002-5569-3
Additional affiliations
January 2021 - January 2022
Position
- Professor (Associate)
Description
- Giving Online webinars on Academic Writing , Research Methodology, Learning from Reading, Language Maintenance and Shift, Language Revitalisation
November 2020 - present
Modern Journal of Studies in English Language Teaching and Literature
Position
- Editor
Publications
Publications (489)
This study investigates the clashing discourses of linguistic human rights in Pakistan’s multilingual Sindh province, where Sindhis are the majority, and English, Urdu, and Sindhi are used as official languages. The Sindhi language activists want Sindhi to be used as the medium of instruction for the first five formative years of education, while m...
Criminal rehabilitation is a process which involves rehabilitating criminals so that they may abandon crime and become good members of society. The process mostly takes place in prisons and is targeted at rectifying criminals/prisoners’ thoughts and behaviors. Although legal and psychological approaches have been adopted to investigate the process...
Balochistan is a southwestern province in Pakistan (Murtha, 2011), where different language groups, such as Baloch, Brauhis, Pashtuns, Sindhis, Hazaras, and others live (Malghani et al., 2020). Population statistics published in Pakistan Statistical Year Book (2017) demonstrate that Baloch and Brauhis constitute forty percent (40%) and twenty perce...
In this chapter, the importance and link between social research and theory are discussed. Social research is taken as the sociological understanding of connections—connections between action, experience, and change—and it is the major vehicle for realizing these connections. The debate on using theory in any scope of social research is being delib...
Discrimination against older citizens in Pakistan’s Sindh province is a
serious issue, and the provincial Government of Sindh is introducing
laws and health care policies to protect these residents. Before
hastening to introduce such laws and policies, it is important to
comprehensively investigate ageism. Anti-discrimination policies
cannot be eff...
Conceptual metaphor theory explains conceptual systems through cross-domain mappings. The mapping occurs on a conceptual level in a way that one conceptual domain is understood in terms of another conceptual domain. It also shows how target domain is perceived or understood through numerous source domains. Daily life experiences of people create pa...
Forensic linguists are increasingly hired in many Western countries, and their need is also emphasized in some developing countries. However, the idea of hiring forensic linguists in Pakistan's Sindh province is still novel. This exploratory research surveys language and law courses in universities in Sindh to determine awareness of Forensic Lingui...
This research examines data from English newspapers in Malaysia, Singapore and Pakistan in order to determine the extent of nativization of local varieties of English. The papers examined are 'The New Straits Times' and 'The Star' from Malaysia, 'The Straits Times', 'Sunday Times', 'Today' and 'The New Paper' from Singapore 'The Nation' and 'The Ne...
Drastic changes in the wake of COVID-19 have been witnessed in many sectors. The education sector has also been affected due to lockdowns. Exclusive online teaching methodologies were used due to the closing of schools. Platforms such as Zoom, Eventbrite, Microsoft Teams and many others were used for language teaching. Language teachers were traine...
This research explores how racist language in service interactions in the health and education sectors affects service consumers belonging to the Sheedi community in Pakistan’s Sindh province. This research questions the use of racist language and proposes the use of inclusive language in service sectors to reduce the discrimination the Sheedi comm...
Purpose
This research aims to explore how racist language in service interactions in the health and education sectors affects service consumers belonging to the Sheedi community in Pakistan’s Sindh province. This research questions the use of racist language and proposes the use of inclusive language in service sectors to reduce the discrimination...
Social media has become a common means of communication. Like face to face communication it too encounters cultural and generational misunderstandings. In this talk I will provide some examples of such misunderstandings in a number of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Building on different stories posted on social media, this researc...
The reasons for language shift must be investigated prior to initiating revitalization strategies. A revitalization programme taking a bottom-up approach that explains the cause of the shift and links strategies to encouraging the use of community languages will be more successful compared to one that focusses merely on documenting and storing ling...
This research explores how in the wake of a spouse’s death, the cultural and religious norms of a community impact the resilience of senior citizens in Pakistan’s multilingual, Sindh province. Resilience is the ability to bounce back and recover physical and psychological health in the face of adversity (Kessel, 2013). Sadness, self-abnegation, nar...
Although Sindh, a linguistically and ethnically diverse province in Pakistan, uses three official languages, namely English, Sindhi and Urdu, which are supposed to enjoy equal status, there appears to be a pecking order to these languages. English and Urdu seem to be the dominant languages when taking into consideration the language policy, numerou...
In the plenary talk, the researcher builds upon Saaz Aggarwal's book, Sindhi Tapestry: Reflections on the Sindhi Identity: an Anthology, and discusses how the process of migration after the partition of the subcontinent in 1947 affected Sindhis, causing the diaspora community to make certain language choices and accommodate to the linguistic expect...
Sindh is a multilingual province in Pakistan where politics of language and clash of language ideologies have played a significant role. English is viewed as a language of power, and Urdu is generally considered as a symbol of national cohesion in Pakistan. In Sindh both these languages are used in official and educational domains In Sindh's langua...
When a minority group interacts and comes into contact with individuals from the dominant language, they tend to choose a commonly understood language. Language choice is forced to negotiate their own identity and cultural practices with their dominant culture. This can create a conflict, as in the case of the Punjabi community, who try to adopt ne...
The focus of language teaching at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels has generally been on grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing; however, many language teachers today use both fiction and non-fiction literary texts to teach language (see Seo and Kim, 2020; Mallet, 2020). These include short stories, poetry, and novels commonly used as teac...
Sindh was occupied by the British colonizers in 1843, and they ruled over it till 1947, year in which India and Pakistan were partitioned, and Sindh was made a province of Pakistan. Myths of the Sindhis had been created by the British to justify their rule over Sindh. This study describes these constructions and analyzes how Sindhis have resisted a...
A mentor’s role in training and teaching mentees with respect to writing postgraduate research has always been important. Mentees rely on their mentors for guidance and
suggestions to develop their postgraduate thesis/article. Mentees write a research paper/thesis and develop many drafts of the manuscript to enhance its rigor and improve its quali...
The Sindhi language, a descendent of a pre-Vedic Prakit language is the most widely spoken language in South-Asia. Sindhi speech community comprises of both Muslims, and Hindus which have distinct cultural and religious practices, yet they are socially connected because of the geographical link with their land. However, due to the partitioning of t...
The Sindhi language, a descendent of a pre-Vedic Prakit language is the most widely spokenlanguage in South-Asia. Sindhi speech community comprises of both Muslims, and Hindus whichhave distinct cultural and religious practices, yet they are socially connected because of thegeographical link with their land. However, due to the partitioning of the...
This study investigates speech acts of insult in speeches made by members of Provincial Assembly of Sindh, Pakistan using Austin's (1962) and Searle's (1969) Speech Acts Theory. This theory implies that language is used to perform acts, such as commanding, requesting, complaining, admiring, apologizing, insulting, and many others. However, in this...
This research discusses the importance of developing cross-cultural competence among students of English language. It is argued that examples taken from real life conversations enacted in different contexts can be used as pedagogical material to teach students of English how the use of speech acts varies from one cultural context to another cultura...
As a sociolinguist, my research has focussed on the language used in society by people when
speaking to members of their own community or with members of other ethnic groups and cultures.
Inevitably, this research interest was useful when I became a language teacher. In this presentation,
I will be sharing how some of the data arising from my re...
This research focuses on why language shift among the global Sindhi Hindu diasporic community and language
maintenance among Sindh’s Hindu community has occurred. Many of the Hindu Sindhis had to flee from
their one-time Homeland, Sindh in the wake of the partitioning of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, while
some remained and are still living i...
UNESCO has emphasised the importance of mother tongue based multilingual education. Many countries like Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines and more recently India have initiated or are initiating MTE as a Medium of Instruction in the early stages of prekindergarten, kindergarten and even primary level education arguing that this will help minority...
Drastic changes in the wake of COVID-19 have been witnessed in many sectors. The education sector has also been affected due to lockdowns. Exclusive Online teaching methodologies were used due to the closing of schools. Platforms such as Zoom, Eventbrite, Microsoft Teams and many others were used for language teaching. Language teachers were traine...
As a sociolinguist people tend to ask me how many languages I speak, and I have to explain that a sociolinguist researches the connection between linguistic or language related features with a speaker or speakers including age, gender, aim or motivation of the speaker, who the listener is and where the discourse is taking place. Moreover, how power...
I discuss the importance of developing cross-cultural competence among students of English language. I argue that novels written in different contexts can be used as pedagogical material to teach students how the use of speech acts vary from one cultural context to another cultural context. Understanding this difference can help encourage mutual un...
Politicians’ speeches are carefully worded with the aim of conveying
their messages effectively and achieving their objectives of gaining public
support. Such speeches usually contain rhetorical devices used to emo-
tionally and politically exploit people. There is a need to point out how
politicians use rhetoric in their speeches to easily conv...
Due to COVID-19 and the repeated imposition of lockdowns in Pakistan's Sindh province, the life of senior citizens has become challenging. Given the scarcity of health care policies targeted at Sindh's aged persons, the use of folk literature as therapy has increased to support against isolation , depression, and distress caused by COVID-19 and loc...
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, we conducted qualitative research on the Bagri community in Pakistan's Sindh province. The Bagri community is considered an indigenous community in Pakistan's Sindh and Punjab provinces. They also live in some states in India. The community has been referred to as 'scheduled caste' in Pakistan's constitution. T...
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed social mechanisms of our world causing many countries to impose either partial or complete lockdowns. Consequently, many people have resorted to online platforms for undertaking their daily business activities and jobs. Similarly, there is also an increasing trend of online education followed by both teachers and s...
https://melbourneasiareview.edu.au/pakistan-needs-a-multilingual-education-model-to-protect-minority-language-groups/
This study examines translanguaging as a political tool in Pakistan used to exploit ethnic sensitivities of speech communities. Building upon the grounded theory, concept of translanguaging was reconsidered to examine the politicized use of codes. The modified concept has been used to analyse the discourse of politicians and to demonstrate that suc...
Sindh, a province of Pakistan, was a seat of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization during
the third millennium BC as shown by Mohen-jo-Daro excavations (Mukherjee 2020). The people
of this land known as Sindhis have followed and practiced religious harmony and peace since
ancient times. There were times when both Hindus and Buddhists lived in pe...
In light of the historic linguistic vibrancy, Manglish, the unique Malaysian patois, emerges as a survivor through the hybridization of its words, expressions, and idioms that consists of local languages. The de facto national code of Malaysia, with all its creativity & complexity, is exhibited as aversive to Standard English. This study explored t...
This research investigates the evolution of language regimes and politics of language/s in Pakistan by making use of Selma K. Sonntag and Linda Cardinal’s Historical Institutionalism Approach (2015). Secondary data, such as policy documents, policy statements, newspapers, magazines, and webpages collected through purposive sampling have been coded...
As I have been reviewing grants for revitalisation for a number of years
for an international NGO I have noticed that applicants often ask for
funds for collecting data and for documentation, for running classes and
creating handbooks and for travelling to hold interviews with the
remaining speakers and for also purchasing technological inputs....
This study explores issues related to the use of Hindko in the multilingual settings through a sociolinguistic survey conducted among 60 Hindko speaking and 60 non-Hindko speaking participants in the Mansehra region. The focus is on the expanding use of Hindko among Hindko-speaking respondents and on the limited use of non-Hindko speaking responden...
How does a researcher move from an interest in Sociolinguistics to Discourse Analysis and to topics which are normally considered within the realm of Social Psychology? Are these disciplines really distinct and separate? In this presentation I would like to discuss my research first starting on an important topic in Sociolinguistics-Language Mainte...
Language performs different roles, such as a tool of communication, identity development, and transmitting information. Researchers have studied the roles of languages in different contexts. In the wake of the Covid-19 and the new normal many people used language to comfort
and console each other against the backdrop of the ensuing lockdowns. Whil...
Questions
Questions (17)
With increasing numbers of senior citizens in many countries we are planning to work on a publication focussing on the elderly. The study could be sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic , or even discourse oriented. Topics could be wide ranging e.g how the elderly are perceived by service providers, what the views of the elderly are to elderese, their views of their changing world as they age etc If you are currently working on such issues do provide a synopsis of your study.
Language Teachers when teaching reading, would you prefer to be in a teacher fronted classroom or online teaching? Does it not depend on the specific reading strategy you are teaching?
For senior academics and retirees
Have you felt a difference in the way you ( as a senior citizen ) are talked to ? Do you experience aegist language- pejorative and patronizing terms that describe older adults?
Would that help in appropriate solutions to revitalisation strategies?
Is it only the language on shops signboards, street names or more than that?
Another question for RG
As a language teacher do you make your learners aware of cross cultural differences in the performance of speech acts like greetings, compliments, etc? If yes how do you do it?
Answers shared will be appreciated.
If yes what links would you make?
Projects
Projects (23)
The purpose of this project is to work on different aspects of English language especially on the teaching and learning of the language. The project will focus on highlighting the importance of English language as well as research on improving the process of teaching and learning English in Pakistan.