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Rural students and the Philippine bilingual education program on the island of Leyte
... Multinational companies constantly search for more efficient and cost effective options of running their businesses, and many business leaders claim that in addition to cost saving, offshore locations such as India and Philippines offer improved quality, given that jobs that are carried out by high school graduates in the home country are typically done by college graduates offshore. It is estimated that by 2015, a total of 15 million jobs will be generated by this offshored and outsourced industry, turning over in excess of US$ 300 billion (NASSCOM, 2005). Although the call center industry overall is a relatively small segment of this market, in the Philippines it employs more than 150,000 young graduates, and this number is set to grow rapidly (75% in the next 5 years, according to Tuchman, 2004). ...
... For the last 30 years, most Filipinos have received their education in both Tagalog and English (Gonzalez 1997Gonzalez , 2004).The policy of bilingual education in the schools and universities continues to be controversial today. Private education in the urban areas is producing good language speakers, while the rural schools lag badly behind (Nical, Smolicz, & Secombe 2004). Two views prevail about this issue to the current day. ...
Workplace language assessment poses special issues for language testers, but also, when it becomes very large scale, it poses issues for language policy. This article looks at these issues, focusing on the offshore and outsourcing (O&O) industry as it is transitioning from native-speaking (NS) countries into nonnative-speaking (NNS) destinations such as India and the Philippines. This is obviously most impacted in call centers, where the ability of customer service representatives (CSRs) to communicate with ease with their native-English speaking customers is central to business success and can be key to a nation's economy. Having reviewed the (limited) research in this area, we take the Philippines as our example to explore how government, academe, and the business sector are dealing with the language proficiency and personnel-training issues caused by the exponential growth in this industry. Appropriate language assessments that are practical, while also being valid and reliable, are critical if the Philippines is to retain its position in this emerging market. Currently, call centers in Philippines complain of very poor recruitment rates due to poor language ability, and of poor quality communication outcomes measures: But how do they assess these key areas? We describe and evaluate the current situation in call center language assessment in the Philippines and discuss possible ways forward, for the Philippines and for the O&O industry more broadly.
... The implementation of the bilingual policy was to make its people bilingual, capable of communication both in English and Filipino. Consequently, such policy has contributed to the abandonment of minority languages in the Philippines (Grimes 2000;Jernudd 1999;Kaplan & Baldauf 2003;Nical, Smolicz & Secombe 2004;Young 2002). Under the policy, the Filipino language was used as the medium of instruction (MOI) in schools at the primary level. ...
Many countries in Asia, especially SEA, have as a result of independence, been insistent on having a national language policy for their respective countries. They have rationalised that a national language will bring the multiethnic groups of people in these countries together and create a united country. This paper traces choice and developments of language policy in Malaysia, Philippines and Pakistan and reveals that this objective is not always realised. In fact, the socio economic gap widens with those who can afford it sending their children to English medium schools and those who cannot attend national government schools where the superimposed national language is the medium of instruction. Furthermore, the national language policy even results in minority communities not being taught in their heritage languages and this further disadvantages learners. Malaysia Demographics of Malaysia Malaysia is made up of Peninsular Malaya and East Malaysia (consisting of the states of Sabah and Sarawak) and has an estimated population of 31 million. Its population is made up of the following ethnic groups: 50% Malays, 25% Chinese, 10% Indian and 15% indigenous people who are mainly from Sabah and Sarawak. The principal languages spoken in Peninsular Malaya are Malay, English, Mandarin, and Tamil while in East Malaysia a dialect of Malay known as Sarawak Malay and Sabah Malay and English (generally by the higher social and economic class) is used for intra ethnic communication by the Bidayuh and Kadazandusun. The number of individual languages listed for Malaysia is 140. Of these, 138 are living and 2 are extinct. Of the living languages, 11 are institutional, 6 are developing, 5 are vigorous, 100 are in trouble, and 16 are dying (Lewis, 2015:1). Thus, a number of speech communities are shifting away from the habitual use of their respective heritage languages and many minority groups in the country are increasingly using Malay or English to communicate (for details of these communities in Peninsular Malaya see David, Cavallaro and Coluzzi 2009 and for details of these see David and Dealwis 2008) Loss of minority languages could also at times result in loss of culture and ethnic identity (see David and Dealwis, 2009).
... The implementation of the bilingual policy was to make its people bilingual, capable of communication both in English and Filipino. Consequently, such policy has contributed to the abandonment of minority languages in the Philippines (Grimes 2000;Jernudd 1999;Kaplan & Baldauf 2003;Nical, Smolicz & Secombe 2004;Young 2002). Under the policy, the Filipino language was used as the medium of instruction (MOI) in schools at the primary level. ...
Many countries in Asia, especially SEA, have as a result of independence, been insistent on having a national language policy for their respective countries. They have rationalised that a national language will bring the multiethnic groups of people in these countries together and create a united country. This paper traces choice and developments of language policy in Malaysia, Philippines and Pakistan and reveals that this objective is not always realised. In fact, the socio economic gap widens with those who can afford it sending their children to English medium schools and those who cannot attend national government schools where the superimposed national language is the medium of instruction. Furthermore, the national language policy even results in minority communities not being taught in their heritage languages and this further disadvantages learners. Malaysia Demographics of Malaysia Malaysia is made up of Peninsular Malaya and East Malaysia (consisting of the states of Sabah and Sarawak) and has an estimated population of 31 million. Its population is made up of the following ethnic groups: 50% Malays, 25% Chinese, 10% Indian and 15% indigenous people who are mainly from Sabah and Sarawak. The principal languages spoken in Peninsular Malaya are Malay, English, Mandarin, and Tamil while in East Malaysia a dialect of Malay known as Sarawak Malay and Sabah Malay and English (generally by the higher social and economic class) is used for intra ethnic communication by the Bidayuh and Kadazandusun. The number of individual languages listed for Malaysia is 140. Of these, 138 are living and 2 are extinct. Of the living languages, 11 are institutional, 6 are developing, 5 are vigorous, 100 are in trouble, and 16 are dying (Lewis, 2015:1). Thus, a number of speech communities are shifting away from the habitual use of their respective heritage languages and many minority groups in the country are increasingly using Malay or English to communicate (for details of these communities in Peninsular Malaya see David, Cavallaro and Coluzzi 2009 and for details of these see David and Dealwis 2008) Loss of minority languages could also at times result in loss of culture and ethnic identity (see David and Dealwis, 2009).
... The same national language has served as lingua franca among Filipino workers scattered all over the world. Although still resisted along ethnolinguistic lines, research has shown that majority of Filipinos have come to accept the Filipino language as the country's national language (Nical, Smolicz & Secombe 2003). ...
The Bilingual Education Program of the Philippines (BEP), where English is the medium of instruction in Science and Mathematics and Pilipino or Filipino, the national language, in all other subjects, has been recognized as one of the earliest comprehensive bilingual education experiments in the world. The BEP was institutionalized in 1974 and since then, it has been the broad framework of the educational system in the country. Prior to 1974, English had been practically the sole medium of instruction in the Philippines since 1901 when the public education system was put in place by the Americans.
... 338) Nevertheless, the rapid spread of Pilipino (now called 'Filipino') across all sections of society could be seen as a direct consequence of the 1974 bilingual education policy, again a political compromise crafted out of the historically significant nationalist essentialisms of Pilipino. The vociferous criticisms of some antiTagalog speakers continue to animate language debates in the coun try, but sentiments from the ground as evidenced by research done on stu dents, teachers and parents from traditionally 'nonTagalog' provinces (Espir itu, 1999;Kobari, 1999;Nical, Smolicz, and Secombe, 2004), have shown grow ing acceptance of Pilipino as the country's national language (although not nec essarily as medium of instruction), especially as it has become the country's interethnic lingua franca (Espiritu, 1999;Tinio and Hau, 2003). The historical point at which the bilingual education policy was debated and institutionalized was characterized by a social order where there was a 'compelling need in the Philippines to create linguistic public spaces where different classes and groups can meet on a common linguistic ground' (Tinio and Hau, 2003: 347). ...
In recent years, it has been much more common to ground sociolinguistic studies in concepts of language practices, language crossings and communicative repertoires, owing to the field’s growing recognition of the complexity and dynamism of language use. However, in language policy-making in many parts of the world, where language and education specialists are directly involved in language and education policy-making, linguistic essentialism is prevalent but sometimes a necessary component of struggles for the official recognition of marginalized languages and communities. Linguistic essentialism mainly refers to the belief that languages are separate, idealized entities, and that they represent identities and cultures which do not intersect and remain unchanging. Yet, many deployments of linguistic essentialism have led to reconfigured systems of education which have, in many contexts, resulted in more democratic and more equitable learning spaces. How can/should we respond to such kind of essentialism? These could be strategic uses of essentialism because of their deployment as provisional necessary conceptual tools for specific political projects (Spivak, 1988). However, an examination of these essentialisms shows their unchanging nature or their lack of critical self-reflection, thus failing to account for changing sociolinguistic and socio-political realities. In the Philippines, linguistic essentialisms helped institutionalize the national language, Filipino, as a medium of instruction by discursively promoting it as the language of nationalism, cultural expression and identity, and anti-colonial struggle. In the process, these discourses undermined the hegemony of English as the sole language of instruction in the country, thus resulting in the promulgation of the bilingual education policy in 1974. At the same time, however, the same discourses marginalized the role of the country’s more than a hundred mother tongues as languages of instruction, nationalism, cultural expression and identity and political struggle. Linguistic essentialisms are part and parcel of language policy-making and should be viewed and appraised in the light of historically contingent political projects that deployed them. However, they must continuously change to remain relevant, self-critically nuancing their own positions and always open to reconfigurations of languages in society.
... With its two official languages (English and Filipino) and dozens of other local languages and dialects, the Philippines has a complex and politicized history of multilingualism (Gonzalez, 1998;Nical et al., 2004;Ang, 1978). Both the grammar and vocabulary of Filipino (also known as Pilipino) is based primarily from Tagalog, a language originating from the regions surrounding the capital city of Manila, although some scholars argue that Filipino is essentially Tagalog (Ang, 1978;Baumgartner, 1989). ...
... With its two official languages (English and Filipino) and dozens of other local languages and dialects, the Philippines has a complex and politicized history of multilingualism (Gonzalez 2010;Nical et al. 2004;Ang 1978). Both the grammar and vocabulary of Filipino is based primarily from Tagalog, a language originating from the regions surrounding the capital city of Manila, although some scholars argue that Filipino is essentially Tagalog (Ang 1978;Baumgartner 1989). ...
An investigation of language and emotion in tweets from the Philippines before and after 2013 supertyphoon Haiyan/Yolanda using breakpoint analysis and a computational clustering tool revealed differences in topics and emotions depending on whether messages were expressed in English or Filipino.
... The goal of this policy is to make the population bilingual. In fact, only about a quarter of the population is estimated to receive education in their first language (Grimes 2000;Jernudd 1999;Kaplan and Baldauf 2003;Nical, Smolicz and Secombe 2004;Young 2002). ...
... In the case of the Philippines, English has remained as one of the official languages together with Filipino, as indicated in both the 1973 and 1987 Philippine Constitution. Several studies have already been conducted concerning the bilingual education program in the country (Bernabe & Fonacier, 1987;Brigham & Castillo, 1998;Nical, Smolicz, & Secombe, 2004). The Philippines, having varied regional languages, is saddled not only with learning English but Filipino as well, thereby making language learning more challenging for most students. ...
Driven by the need to codify a language policy framework in a university setting, a researcher-made instrument, which was primarily aimed at describing language practices, was fielded to a group of 1014 students and 107 teachers representing various academic fields via the Blackboard (Bb) system in one of the comprehensive universities at the capital of the Philippines. Through the use of descriptive and inferential statistics, study results indicate that across the four macro skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing, a slight difference in the use of the English (x = 2.21) and Filipino (x = 1.50) language, was noted among university student respondents while a preference for the use of the Filipino language was observed among the teacher respondents. Results of t-test for independent sample showed that marked significant differences (p <.05) exist in the extent to which the English and Filipino language are used as communication means across the four skills areas with the student respondents showing extensive use of the English language. By and large, results of this study can expectedly yield valuable inputs in crafting policy measures and mechanisms that spell out maximum effective use of bilingualism in certain tasks and situations.
... The implementation of the bilingual policy was to make its people bilingual, capable of communication both in English and Filipino. Consequently, such policy has contributed to the abandonment of minority languages in the Philippines (Jernudd, 1999;Grimes, 2000;Young, 2002;Kaplan & Baldauf, 2003;Nical, Smolicz & Secombe, 2004). Under the policy, the Filipino language was used as the medium of instruction (MOI) in schools at the primary level. ...
This paper examines the impact of language planning and language policy in the
competing roles of the national language and English in the educational system of Malaysia and the
Philippines. These countries have emphasised the national language (i.e. Malay in Malaysia and
Filipino in the Philippines) to foster national unity, and the international language-English for global
communication. Educational expansion as documented with globalisation has also repositioned the
role of the English language. While English has become a necessary tool to increase competitiveness
in the global market, calls to 'switch back' or 'retain' the national language to instil a sense of
national unity has also been equally advocated. Although planning and policy may have specific
objectives, these may not be reflected in actual language use. The findings of this study reveal the
social reality of contrasting language planning and policy initiatives in Malaysia and the Philippines
and the actual use of these languages.
... The implementation of the bilingual policy was to ensure bilingual Filipinos used English and Filipino in their daily and formal conversations. Such a language policy contributed to the abandonment of the minority languages in the Philippines (Grimes 2000;Jernudd 1999;Kaplan and Baldauf 2003;Nical, Smolicz and Secombe 2004;Young 2002). Filipino (formerly Pilipino) was used as the medium of instruction in primary schools. ...
Personal, social, cultural, economic, and political factors influence the language/s used by family members in the home domain. This study examines how family language policies are planned and developed in Filipino-Malaysian families in Malaysia. The language used at home in such mixed or exogamous marriages is also influenced by the ethnicity of the Malaysian spouse. Exposure outside the home domain where people speak at least two languages also affects language choice and use. An ethnographic method which includes multiple interviews, participants' narratives and observations were used in gathering the data. Thirty Filipino-Malaysian families were the subjects of this study. Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) is used as the theoretical framework to explain the occurrence of language choice in the home domain and the creation of family language policy. CAT shows how families accommodate each other's language as they seek a lingua franca that binds the family together. The findings of the study would explain the complex phenomenon involved in language choice and the creation of family language policy of Filipino-Malaysian families.
... Even the bilingual education policy mandated by the Philippine Constitution constructs a rather simplistic view of the country's 'national culture' that marginalises the various local cultures of multilingual communities (Tupas, 1999). This is not to say that the consequence of the bilingual policy has been the permanent disappearance of the local languages; rather, these languages were left 'alone' to survive within their respective communities (Nical et al., 2004), thus their disappearance from mainstream Filipino life (e.g. formal education, national media), which actually devalues it. ...
This paper discusses particular uses of language in a specific social location in the Philippines drawn from the 15-volume ethnographic study of functional literacy in 14 marginal communities in the Philippines by Doronila (e.g. 1996). These are uses of language by people whose internal capacity to generate change is strong yet many of whom are officially ‘illiterate’, and the sort of participatory democracy that they advocate is challenged by extreme poverty, unemployment, drug abuse, economic exploitation, and so on. Therefore, my interest in these uses of language – (1) the use of a local language, (2) the use of metaphors and symbols, and (3) the construction of ‘new’ knowledge through novel word coinages is borne by the fact that they do not really constitute a central rallying point for the community's organised struggles, yet they are nevertheless ubiquitous elements in such struggles: they “are ‘invisible’ factors in the development process” (Aikman, 2001: 113). Unlike debates on language policies and educational acces which happen on the policy and national levels, these uses of language appear to be the ‘natural’ choice of the people in active search of a better future.
... Much of the literature on language planning concerns specific language situations (e.g. Gill, 2004;Nical, Smolicz et al., 2004). Welsh and Hebrew, two welldocumented international cases, informed language planning policy for te reo Māori, particularly in the earlier stages (1980)(1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990) of Māori-medium education. ...
This thesis investigates how Māori knowledge and language articulate with current discourses of Pūtaiao education, and possible alternative articulations. A Kaupapa Māori version of critical discourse analysis methodology is developed and applied to discourses relevant to Pūtaiao, or Māori-medium science education. This topic represents an intersection between language, science, education, and culture - fields which are all highly politically charged. Therefore, it is essential that a politically robust Kaupapa Māori position be taken in relation to the research topic. Not only the issues being investigated but the underlying research paradigm must be interrogated using Kaupapa Māori theory at each stage of the project. The goal is to study the range of possible meanings for the notions of 'Pūtaiao' and 'Māori science' by exploring the relevant dialectical issues, critiquing the assumptions and positions taken on language, knowledge, identity and ethos, in order to inform further Pūtaiao curriculum development. The research project is a narration of the larger story of Pūtaiao education: what is the current situation, how did it come about, what theoretical issues have been influential in this process, and what possibilities are there for further development of Pūtaiao curriculum and pedagogy? The thesis research consists of a series of discourse analyses of varying levels of focus and intersection with Pūtaiao: Wāhanga 1: Translated NCEA L1 science and mathematics examinations, and a traditional Taitokerau oral text; Wāhanga 2: Māori science curriculum policy; Wāhanga 3: Multicultural science education research; Wāhanga 4: Curriculum politics, preventive linguistics, language of science; Wāhanga 5: Mātauranga, rationality, philosophy of science. Each analysis takes the form of a narrative history, based on a selected corpus of previously published scholarship (in Wāhanga 1, including numerical data and oral tradition) on the issue under examination, from a Kaupapa Māori perspective. Mainly in the first two chapters, analysis at times also draws on 'personal narrative' accounts of previously unpublished details relating to Pūtaiao. Additionally, an investigation of various qualified notions of 'science' is undertaken, beginning in Wāhanga 2, concluding in Wāhanga 5, in order to explore the nature and boundaries of science as a system of knowledge, and its relationship to other types or systems of knowledge. Synopses are included of the following concepts and theoretical issues impacting on the discourses under analysis: Wāhanga 1: Ethnicity, 'race', critical theory, Kaupapa Māori theory. Wāhanga 2: Science, scientism, science ideology and anti-science. Wāhanga 4: Identity, linguistic purism, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Informed by this research, in Wāhanga 5 an original model for the relationship between mātauranga and science is proposed, and the notion of Kaupapa Māori science/epistemology is explored. An analogy between the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and multicultural science is used to draw together the cultural debates in language and knowledge, which are surmised to intersect at the level of discourse. The final chapter presents a re-articulation of Pūtaiao as the notion of Kaupapa Māori science education, and some recommendations for language and content knowledge in further development of Pūtaiao curriculum policy.
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/I5JZZ37TFVTP5T6CSG85/full?target=10.1080/14664208.2024.2368381
The medium of education (MoE) globally sparks controversy over the ideal medium—mother tongue, target language, or bilingual/multilingual policies. In Bangladesh, diverse MoE options (Bangla medium, English medium, and English version) fuel debates among stakeholders. Amidst this noise, systemic problems are often overlooked, diverting attention from critical educational issues. Drawing on qualitative data from parents' comments in a public Facebook forum in Bangladesh, this article explores factors influencing MoE choices and how this discourse distracts from pressing social and educational concerns. Findings indicate that the government promotes various MoEs for diverse political interests, often failing to provide inclusive and equitable quality education for all. The article also highlights that different factors distract parents from selecting a suitable MoE for their children's education. Social media, with parents' anecdotal comments, often misleads others. Additionally, parents may impose their aspirations on children, ignoring their interests and abilities. This neglect of students' basic needs while promoting diverse MoE exacerbates inequality and social injustice. The article advocates for an equitable, inclusive education system that offers quality education regardless of socioeconomic background, or MoE.
Bringing together an international team of scholars, this pioneering book presents the first truly systematic, cross-linguistic study of variation in literacy development. It draws on a wide range of cross-cultural research to shed light on the key factors that predict global variation in children's acquisition of reading and writing skills, covering regions as diverse as North and South America, Asia, Australia, Europe and Africa. The first part of the volume deals with comprehensive reviews related to the variation of literacy in different regions of the globe as a function of socio-political, sociocultural, and language and writing system factors. The second part of the volume deals with comprehensive reviews related to the variation of literacy in different world regions. Offering a pioneering new framework for global literacy development, this groundbreaking volume will remain a landmark in the fields of literacy development and literacy teaching and learning for years to come.
Language planning and policy (LPP), as a field of research, emerged to solve the
“problem” of multilingualism in newly independent nation-states. LPP’s principal
emphasis was the reproduction of one-state, one-language policies. Indigenous languages
were systematically erased through top-down, colonial medium-of-instruction
policies, such as in Canadian residential schools. To this day, ideologies and
policies still privilege dominant classes and languages at the expense of Indigenous
and minoritized groups and languages. To prevent further erasure and marginalization,
work is required at multiple levels. There is growing consensus that top-down,
government-led LPP must occur alongside community-led, bottom-up LPP. One
shared and common goal for Indigenous language reclamation and revitalization
initiatives across the globe is to promote intergenerational language transmission
in the home, the community, and beyond. The affordances of digital and online
technologies are also being explored to foster more self-determined virtual communities
of practice. Following an Indigenous research paradigm, this paper introduces
the TEK-nology (Traditional Ecological Knowledge [TEK] and technology) pilot
project in the Canadian context. TEK-nology is an immersive, community-led, and
technology-enabled Indigenous language acquisition approach to support Anishinaabemowin
language revitalization and reclamation. The TEK-nology pilot project
is an example of bottom-up, community-based language planning (CBLP) where
Indigenous community members are the language-related decision-makers. This
paper demonstrates that Indigenous-led, praxis-driven CBLP, using TEK-nology,
can support Anishinaabemowin language revitalization and reclamation and more
equitable, self-determined LPP. The CBLP TEK-nology project has implications for
status and acquisition language planning; culturally responsive LPP methodologies;
and federal, provincial, territorial, and family language policy.
Starting from this issue, JEMI is including this EMI Book Alerts section. It aims to be of service to the broader research and teaching community by keeping readers updated on recently published books covering areas of EMI-related research.
This first list presents a chronological catalogue of EMI books published to date, as well as upcoming books the publication of which has been announced. If you spot an omission, please contact JEMI's Book Review Editor so that the list can be amended: amywa@chalmers.se. Following the publication of this first list, this section will highlight recent EMI books that have been published since the previous issue, or are shortly forthcoming.
We welcome book recommendations (including your own book publica-tions). Books for inclusion in the list will be directly relevant to EMI stakeholders.
Examples are books that explore theoretical, methodological and empirical issues related to EMI and multilingual pedagogies in educational contexts in which the formal instructional language is English.
This article explores policy enactment processes in relation to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4), particularly its emphasis upon ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education. Specifically, as part of SDG4 in Laos, the research reveals how medium-of-instruction policy was enacted in relation to ethnic minorities, focusing upon three groups of policy actors in the Lao context – policymakers involved in developing education language policy; donor agencies that provided funds to support education reform in Laos, and; school teachers in an ethnic minority boarding school who were charged with enacting the policy. The findings, informed by relevant theorising about imagined communities and secrecy, including in the Lao context, revealed the central role of secrecy in this enactment process. The findings showed three types of secrecy at play which influenced policy actors’ imaginations and enactments of ethnic minority education in response to SDG4 in Laos: secrecy to create the image of national unity; secrecy arising from fear of reprisal, and; secrecy to safely resist dominant policy discourses. The research has implications for how global policy reforms, such as SDG4, are actually made sense of in low-income country contexts where such reforms are enacted.
Sub-Saharan Africa stands out as a part of the world that primarily uses, as its official languages, former colonial languages that are neither spoken at home nor in the community. In this paper, we elicit preferences for colonial versus local languages and analyse the role of perceived costs and returns to different languages. In order to do so, we elicit beliefs about the effects of hypothetical changes to Zambia’s language policy on schooling outcomes, income and social cohesion. Our results show overwhelming support for the use of the colonial language to act as official. Looking at the determinants, we find that fears of being disadvantaged by the installation of another group’s language, high perceived costs of learning in another group’s language and lack of association between retaining the elite language and socioeconomic inequality as crucial factors in affecting preferences over language policies.
OPEN ACCESS https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rclp20
Language policy and planning in Nepal has been contested due to the co-existence of multiple contradictory discourses concerning teaching and learning of local, national, foreign, and international languages. Recently a multilingual policy was issued to create space for the once-banned ethnic/indigenous languages in public schooling, further complexifying the landscape. A few studies have paid attention to teaching and learning of the lesser taught ethnic/indigenous and foreign languages; however, what discursive orientations have contributed towards enabling (or constraining) the use of such languages in education and how have yet to receive scholarly attention. Framed by the perspectives of the intersectionality of discourses, and drawing on in-depth interviews with policymakers, headteachers, teachers, students, and their parents of five schools of Nepal, this paper concludes that the interplay between broader discourses such as globalisation, neoliberal marketisation and nationalism has played a significant role in shaping language policy decisions and localised practice of language(s). It also reveals that the spaces for ethnic/indigenous languages in education are delimited, in preference of English, Nepali, and other emerging foreign languages, leading to their further marginalisation. Such trends diminish the potential use of lesser taught languages, threatening Nepal’s multilingual education policy towards sustaining existing linguistic diversity.
The concept of intercultural communication has become a focus in English language teaching (ELT) against the backdrop of globalization, as English is now used as a lingua franca (ELF) among people with different first languages (L1s). However, the current linguistic landscape of ELF does not reflect well in ELT practices in which native speakerism ideology persists and curriculum design and teaching materials largely remain oriented to native speakerism. To address this gap, data drawn from a participatory action research were analyzed to discuss students’ understanding and reflection of critical intercultural literacy. Several training activities in an adaptive English as a foreign language (EFL) course of intercultural communication that involved reading academic articles related to intercultural literacy were first implemented and two follow-up workshops were conducted with 10 Chinese university students as participants. Data from further interviews and reflective journals from the students in relation to critically evaluate the textbook contents of this course were analyzed using a qualitative content analysis. The results revealed that students acquired a sense of intercultural literacy and that they learnt to challenge textbook content from a critical perspective through the training. This article further addresses the importance of critical pedagogy in teaching linguistic and cultural literacy and concludes that ELT must be conducted from a multilingual and multicultural perspective.
English as a medium of instruction (MOI) has become an important tool for universities to produce knowledgeable and skilled graduates. In Bangladesh, public and private universities remain distant in terms of policies related to MOI. The current study was undertaken to reach a tangible conclusion that would reflect "what should be the MOI in Higher Education Institutes (HEIs), Bangladesh." This qualitative study involved seven senior university teachers with more than 15 years of teaching experience. Data were analyzed using discourse analysis. Findings show that the participants prefer the Bangla language as MOI to produce knowledgeable graduates, who would contribute to the growth of the nation. However, the authors strongly suggest the implementation of a bilingual curriculum in which instruction is delivered in both English and Bangla to impart knowledge to the students. It is also suggested that a national language-in-education policy be implemented, rather than the existing alien programs, to enrich students' knowledge acquisition.
School language policies shape the learning experiences of all students attending an educational institution, but they have a particularly strong and lasting impact on multilingual students. This qualitative research study employed a series of five semi-structured interviews to explore the past and present school language experiences of two Generation 1.5 Haitian-American students enrolled in their first semester of college. Findings indicate that in the participants’ Haitian primary schools and U.S. secondary schools, language-as-a-problem oriented policies contributed to discouraging the participants from drawing on their home language, Haitian Creole, as a resource for learning. These prior experiences seemingly continued to affect the participants in their first-year college writing courses, where they were hesitant to use Haitian Creole as a resource for composing writing assignments. It is argued that primary and secondary school language-as-a-problem oriented policies can have lasting effects on Generation 1.5 students, discouraging them from drawing on their multilingualism as a resource for completing school assignments. Suggestions for future research and the creation of educational and community resources promoting multilingualism as a resource for learning are provided.
This paper aims to make a contribution to the study of history and evolution of English in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a young country, twice-split once from India as a part of Pakistan and then from Pakistan as an independent nation. Therefore, to look at the history, we have to look at the history of English education first in India upto 1947, then in Pakistan (1947-1971) and then only in Bangladesh (since 1971 onwards). The paper begins with how English was brought into Bangladesh; language policy and use in Bangladesh; medium of instruction and also shed lights on the current status of English in Bangladesh.
This chapter presents a brief historical account of the changing policies surrounding medium of instruction (MoI) along with the developments of teaching approaches in CSL education since 1950s in China. Although globally practised, CSL teaching tends to favour a similar MoI policy regardless of the differences in sociopolitical and sociolinguistic contexts between various countries. The chapter argues that the widespread unproven assumptions about L2 acquisition and the antagonism against English during the promotion of Chinese as another international language could have resulted a deep-rooted monolingual ideology in CSL teaching. The chapter examines the ambiguous definition of ‘medium of instruction’ in the Chinese context and argues for the adoption of more inclusive terms and concept encompassing all linguistic and non-linguistic resources in second language teaching and learning.
The management of bilingualism in the Spanish autonomous community of Navarre is a source of tension. The implementation of English medium of instruction in the public educational system has clashed with attempts to break with the linguistic territoriality regime by promoting Basque schooling. This paper brings together ideologies on English and minority languages and explores how political practice is intertwined with language policy and planning and language ideology. More specifically, it examines the institutionalization of language ideologies through language policy-making in education and, particularly, through medium of instruction. The paper begins with a description of the bilingual regime in Navarre and an examination of how ideologies have shaped and legitimized language policy in education. It then moves on to an analysis of both Basque and English medium of instruction ideologies that inform policy-making. This paper shows that the dynamics introduced by multilingualism in education have had a reinforcing effect on previous language ideologies on bilingualism and, ultimately, have aggravated the language dispute. Finally, it discusses how medium of instruction serves as a terrain for language competition and as part of a broader struggle for language policy and institutional power.
Human rights lawyer Fernand de Varennes (see also 1996) writes on the back cover of Multilingual Education for Social Justice: Globalising the Local (Mohanty, Panda, Phillipson, & Skutnabb-Kangas, 2009), that the book “addresses directly a still surprisingly controversial topic: the indisputable value of education in one's own language.
Keywords:
educational linguistics;
first language acquisition;
language maintenance;
language policy;
second language acquisition;
multilingualism
English meant different things to different people in British India. For Ram Mohan Roy, a prominent Indian intellectual in the early 1800s, the English language was “the key to all knowledge-all of the really useful knowledge which the world contains.” A century later, the Indian nationalist leader Mohandas K. Gandhi felt it “a matter of deep humiliation” to have to address an Indian audience in English rather than a vernacular language and charged that the time spent learning English was a waste of six years for Indian youths. In Africa, such principled resistance to using English was much rarer, though the reason was not due to African nationalists’ lack of passion. Rather a dozen former British colonies there (plus Ethiopia and Liberia) chose English as a necessary and powerful tool for uniting their disparate populations and modernizing their societies. As Edward Wilmot Blyden, an Afro-Caribbean educator in Liberia, had predicted in the mid-1800s, when colonies were still few, “English is, undoubtedly, the most suitable of the European languages for bridging over the numerous gulfs… caused by the great diversity of language” among the peoples of Africa. In a postindependence essay in 1965 the Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe voiced a similar theme:
Let us give the devil his due: colonialism in Africa disrupted many things, but it did create big political units where there were small, scattered ones before… And it gave [Africans] a language with which to talk to one another.
Similarly, Tanzanian professor Ali A. Mazrui celebrated the role English has played in building pan-African unity, playfully referring to the great number of black English speakers as “Afro-Saxons.”1
In today's world, many countries are becoming increasingly multilingual ormultidialectal as people continue to travel, emigrate or immigrate. Multilingualism offersopportunities for linguistic, cultural, cognitive and pedagogical advancement. It alsooffers challenges for educators. Drawing on studies on bidialectism, diglossia,bilingualism, multilingualism and plurilingualism, a number of the key challenges facinglanguage teachers are highlighted. The chapter proposes that teacher-trainingprogrammes which expose teachers to the linguistic-variation issues relevant to theirlanguage setting are essential. Teacher training in linguistic variation is especiallyrelevant in today's world because, in virtually every country, speakers from diverselinguistic backgrounds are confronted by the burgeoning need to interface with oneanother. When designing such programmes, topics including the dominant role ofEnglish, language attitudes, mother-tongue use in formal education and teachercodeswitching ought to be understood in relation to the sociolinguistic landscape thatsurrounds the protagonists within a classroom. A number of pedagogical directions thatteacher-training programmes would do well to embrace are proposed. Because teachersare among the primary pedagogues of effective language use, it is paramount that theyare empowered to carry out this crucial role.
English is the language of learning and teaching in most schools in South Africa. The ability of teachers and students to understand and communicate with each other in English contributes to better performance in Science and Technology subjects. This article explores the challenges posed by the use of English in the teaching and learning of Technology at schools in Eastern Cape. The study was undertaken in order to gauge the commonness of problems related to the use of English. The sample for the questionnaire comprised 57 teachers who taught Technology at different schools in the district. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with five subject specialists in Technology. The findings revealed that the use of English militates against effective learning and teaching of Technology. In order to enhance the communication skills of students, it is recommended that teachers increase dialogue in English by means of small-group discussion, exploratory talk and argumentation.
Against the backdrop of the rejection of mother tongue-based bilingual education in Southern Nigeria and in Northern linguistic minority areas, this study investigates the micropolitics of language education by interrogating everyday language practices of education stakeholders which are at variance with language-in-education policy. It relied on a wide range of data collected through carefully documented observations of classrooms and school community language practices, semi-structured interviews with publishing managers, informal interviews with teachers as well as a questionnaire survey (covering a comprehensive cross-section of stakeholders across the country). Findings suggest that only a uniformly implemented education policy in all schools across the country can restore the use of Nigeria’s indigenous languages as media of instruction in primary schools. The study recommends a combination of advocacy and research findings to get the policy-makers and education stakeholders to accept first language-based (or L1 based) educational reform.
English as a medium of instruction (EMI) programs are an increasing phenomenon in European universities. This paper takes an ethnographic approach to understanding the impact of EMI on pedagogy in a private university in eastern Ukraine. Fieldwork was conducted over the 2010-2011 academic year in nine English-medium and three Russian-medium classes. Data indicated that EMI education posed staffing challenges, as teachers were either language experts with low content knowledge or were content experts with anxiety about their English language skills. In addition, it was at times difficult to obtain textbooks and other print resources in English. Some teachers found teaching in a foreign language necessitated adjustments to speaking pace, discipline, and general classroom discourse. Despite these issues, teachers and students saw teaching and learning in English as a worthwhile opportunity.
What effect does the experience of a coeducational boarding school education have upon a student's life? The aims of this study were to define an Australian boarding school and report upon the findings of a small-scale qualitative investigation of students' views in a co-educational boarding school. The personal documents-based humanistic approach of the Polish-American sociologist Znaniecki, as developed for the analysis of personal and group social systems in the culturally diverse context of Australia by Smolicz, was employed to interpret the personal documents data.
This study explored the common wisdom that sees Botswana as inherently ethnically homogenous. It used the existing Afrobarometer survey data drawn from Round 1 (1999), Round 2 (2003), Round 3 (2005) and Round 4 (2008). The findings of this study revealed that when using language spoken mostly at home, common wisdom is confirmed. However, it is disconfirmed when using disaggregated home language. This is more apparent when language is broken down according to district and rural-urban location. The implications of this study are that multicultural and linguistic diversity of Botswana compels us to view every group as heterogeneously unique and important in its own ways. While Botswana is generally viewed as a shining example of a successful African democracy, its policies towards language, especially within the education system, leave much to be desired. The education system should move beyond the homogenous-thinking doctrine and embrace multicultural diversity.
In this article, I address the miracle of human language from a socio-cultural perspective, emphasizing the role that language, and more explicitly, the critical study of language, can and should play in developing reflective, socially and politically aware and responsible teachers, administrators, and students. The article begins by examining the nature and focus of critical language awareness as it has emerged in the recent years, with particular focus on the implications of critical language awareness for educators. The framework established in discussing critical language awareness is then applied to several broad areas: critical discourse analysis, as a potentially powerful research methodology, and to the implications of critical language awareness for the concept of language rights in education in general and specifically in case of deaf children.
In a period of declining state support for education, we argue S/FL teachers and teacher educators would do well to become oriented to language program preservation and advancement. We discuss three areas such an orientation could take, namely organizing, direct action, and fundraising, so that teachers and students can become more involved in decisions affecting their programs. Following a brief review of literatures in these three areas, we describe the efforts of some K-12 ESL educators in Hawai'i, who suddenly found themselves thrust into the position of defending their program from the budgetary axe. We use the experiences of these educators as a point of departure for a discussion of how a program preservation and advancement orientation could be implemented.
The influx of outsourced call centers from the United States to the Philippines since the late 1990s has paved the way for the creation of thousands of jobs for Filipino professionals who are able to communicate in English and provide telephone-based customer services to American customers. The Philippines has become one of the major centers for outsourcing because of its tradition of bilingual education, affinity to the American culture, and cheap labor market. This study examined the effectiveness of micro language policies of a US-owned call center relative to the variety of English spoken in the Philippines in preparing Filipino professionals to work in outsourced call centers. The relationship between ESL proficiency and success in delivery of support was also analyzed by comparing English communication and transaction monitoring scores of Filipino customer service representatives (N = 74) collected for over a period of seven months in 2003–4. Although the initial English scores of participants were below the expected level of proficiency set by the call center company, assessment data indicated that with proper training and effective language-based programs, the participants exhibited improvement in English during transactions. ESL proficiency, however, only accounted for 10 per cent of the variability in the transaction monitoring scores of the participants.
The many failures of large-scale top-down educational reforms are well documented in the reform literature. These failures are most evident when they are reviewed from the advantageous perspective of hindsight. What are less well documented are the extraordinarily interesting, centrally driven educational changes that have had important and lasting impacts over time, not only because they are rare, but also because they have often occurred outside the mainstream (North American) focus of the reform literature. This article provides a retrospective review of one such educational reform as unique as the tropical island country in which it occurred. Revisiting this storied landscape (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995) provides insight into the process and potential of a systemwide educational reform.
After Independence in 1957, the government of Malaysia set out on a program to establish Bahasa Melayu as official language,
to be used in all government functions and as the medium of instruction at all levels. For 40years, the government supported
a major program for language cultivation and modernization. It did not however attempt to control language use in the private
sector, including business and industry, where globalization pressure led to a growing demand for English. The demand for
English was further fuelled by the forces of the internationalization of education which were met in part by the opening of
English-medium affiliates of international universities. In 2002, the government announced a reversal of policy, calling for
a switch to English as a medium of instruction at all levels. This paper sets out to analyze the pressures to which the government
was responding.
This study overviews current threats to the sustainability of the outsourced call center industry in the Philippines and discusses
implications for macro and micro language policies given the use of English in this cross-cultural interactional context.
This study also summarizes the present state of outsourced call centers in the Philippines, and describes the Philippine advantage
in outsourcing as well as English education programs that affect the employment of Filipino professionals in U.S.-owned call
centers. A brief qualitative analysis of excerpts of service transactions is provided to illustrate common communication problems
potentially impacting the quality of service transactions in outsourced call centers. It is argued that the use of English
by Filipino agents, together with the prevailing U.S. perceptions of outsourcing and the dynamics of cross-cultural interactions,
largely influence the success or failure of service encounters. The findings here point to the need for more detailed analysis
of communication in this context, which will help improve the quality of service in Philippine call centers and better define
the language-based needs of Filipino professionals in serving their U.S. customers.
This article considers approaches explaining the revival of ethnic‐nationalist phenomena in the face of globalizing influences. It argues that these are best understood in terms of ethnic identity based on the core values of a group's cultural heritage. Australia is presented as an example of a plural society that has dealt with minority ethnic inputs through the adoption of a multicultural policy which gives recognition to minority ethnic cultures and identities within a framework of shared values for the whole society. Research evidence on the patterns of cultural interaction among a group of university graduates is presented to illustrate changing patterns of attitudes and cultural activation under Australia's multicultural policies.
The paper considers ways in which a language can form a bridge or a barrier to communication, particularly in relation to the multilingual context of Australia. The barrier of an unfamiliar language can be overcome by the dominant group's elimination of a minority linguistic group, or the suppression of its language or, alternatively, through some members of the dominant group learning the minority language and becoming bilingual. Australian data provide evidence that many minority groups regard their language as the core value of their culture. Although English is supported overwhelmingly as the language common to all Australians, many members of minority ethnic groups seek to maintain their home language as well. In this way they can be seen as contributing to the development of Australia's linguistic resources. For those of English-speaking background, learning a second language is increasingly being advocated for economic, as well as cognitive and social reasons. The National Policy on Languages, released in 1987, argued that all Australians should have the chance to learn English and at least one other language at school. The need to defend the full thrust of this policy direction and to develop strategies to stem declining enrolments in languages other than English at secondary and tertiary levels are seen as the most immediate challenges for languages education in Australia.
Languages are today being killed at a much faster pace than ever before in human history and linguistic diversity is disappearing relatively faster than biological diversity. Still, linguistic diversity is as necessary for the existence of our planet as biodiversity, and the two are correlated. Linguistic human rights are a necessary (but not sufficient) prerequisite for the maintenance of linguistic diversity. Violations of linguistic human rights, especially in education, may lead to both ethnically articulated conflict and to reduction of linguistic and cultural diversity on our planet. The article analyses to what extent present linguistic human rights, especially in education, are sufficient to protect and maintain linguistic diversity and to function as the necessary corrective to the `free' market.
Spain is a crucial case study in assessing the relationship between cultural distinctiveness and regional identities. The Spanish case suggests that the state is a key variable in shaping regional-cultural identification in Catalonia, the Basque Country, Galicia and other areas, more so than the cultural markers themselves. This article uses historical institutionalism, a general approach to politics that gives theoretical importance to political institutions, to explain Spain's contemporary regional-cultural identities. It shows how these identities were moulded by the various historical forms of the Spanish state. It discusses four such forms in light of their impact on the country's identity landscape: the early Spanish state, whose loose structure generated a tradition of territorial autonomy which rendered difficult subsequent attempts at national integration; the centralising state of the late 19th century that threatened the power of regional elites and led them to formally articulate distinct identities; the authoritarian state whose cultural repression had the unintended consequence of bolstering and spreading them to the masses; and the democratic state whose framework of Autonomous Communities triggered a multiplication of regional-cultural identities.