ABSTRACT This article revisits a 1996 study on the unplanned use of Englishin Brunei, in which it was found that in addition to being regarded as the most important language in the country, Malay was also the dominant code in most of the domains investigated. The conclusion also stated that it was unlikely for English to ever be regarded as a first language by the Bruneians. The current findings differ in substantial ways from the 1996 study such that the role of Malay has diminished and code-switching now dominates in most of the settings. English has also surpassed Malay as the language regarded as most important. A trend appears to be emerging showing a relationship between age and language preference and the relationship was found to be statistically highly significant. It is concluded that should this trend continue, the prediction that Brunei will one day be monolingually English-centric could may well come true.

中文翻译：

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一个以英语为中心的单语文莱？预测与现实

摘要 本文回顾了 1996 年一项关于文莱无计划使用英语的研究，其中发现除了被视为该国最重要的语言外，马来语也是大多数调查领域的主要代码。结论还指出，英语不太可能被文莱人视为第一语言。目前的研究结果与 1996 年的研究有很大不同，马来人的作用已经减弱，而现在在大多数情况下，代码转换占主导地位。英语也超过马来语成为最重要的语言。一种趋势似乎正在出现，表明年龄和语言偏好之间存在关系，并且发现这种关系在统计上非常显着。结论是，如果这种趋势继续下去，