This paper discusses how the concept of ?bilingualism? canbe used to reflect changes within Bruneian society since the1940?s. It argues that within the context of a linguisticallydiverse population, the various indigenous groups of Bruneiused to speak their own traditional languages, but eventuallylearned to speak the language of the politically dominantMalays. The Malay language became a necessary additionallanguage, hence leading to a population which could speaktheir own languages, alongside the Malay language. But therise of schools teaching in English in the 1970?s began tosow seeds of a different kind of bilingualism, encouraged bylanguage shift processes among ethnic minority groups.