1. Language-in-education policies in Southeast Asia
Kimmo Kosonen
SIL International & Payap University
Chiang Mai, Thailand

2. Many ethnolinguistic minority (and other) groups face a ‘language barrier’ in education
UNESCO, UNICEF and many NGOs strongly support the use of learners’ first language as the initial media of instruction.
See e.g.
UNESCO: Education in Multilingual World
UNICEF: Ensuring the Rights of Indigenous Children.

3. ‘Language barrier’ – Access

4. 60 Million Out-of-School Girls (Lewin & Lockheed, 2007)
Nearly 70% of out-of-school girls belong to the ethnic, religious, linguistic, racial and other minorities,
Many ethnolinguistic minorities are poor in remote rural areas,
Significant increases in primary education have not helped these “doubly disadvantaged” girls,
Language of education is a reason for exclusion,
Mother tongue-based bilingual education can help get girls in school and learn.
World Bank (2005): “50% of the world’s out-of-school children live in communities where the language of schooling is rarely, if ever, used at home”

5. ‘Language barrier’ - Quality
Thailand – surveys on educational quality
Minority children with poor Standard Thai skills had 50% lower learning results than Thai-speaking students in all main subjects
About 13% of Grade 2 students could not read or write Standard Thai
Over 25% of students in 10 education areas have problems in reading and writing Standard Thai
A reason: teachers and students speak different languages

6. Quality of Literacy in OECD’s PISA (2000-2002) report
In Indonesia 69% of 15-year-old students performed at or below the lowest of five proficiency levels for reading literacy.
(94% at level 2 or below)
In Thailand the figure was 37%
(74% at level 2 or below)

8. Language-in-education policy & practice:
Language policy
Legislation on (and/or practice of) the use of languages in a society
Language-in-education policy & practice:
Language (or medium) of instruction (LoI)
Language of literacy

9. Key Concepts Mother tongue – first / home language – L1
Local & regional language
Subject of study vs. language of instruction
Oral use of a language
An auxiliary language helping learners understand
Bilingual / multilingual education (MLE)
Mother tongue- / L1-based MLE
First language first MLE
Mother tongue as a ‘bridge’

10. Begin in the mother tongue of the learner and promote full, continuing literacy in the mother tongue and oral and literacy skills in the additional languages of education. It is found that the most effective programmes maintain the use of the mother tongue for as long as possible – up to six years or more. The first language of the learner should be used not only for basic literacy but also to support transfer of learning to additional languages throughout schooling.

11. Sustainable strong programmes of mother tongue-based multilingual education …
What do they look like?

12. Components of a sustainable MLE programme

13. The World According to Linguistic Diversity
The New York Times, 19 July 2005
Data: Ethnologue, 2005

16. Number of Languages spoken in Asia
Country Languages
Indonesia 742
India 427
China 241
Philippines 180
Malaysia 147
Nepal 125
Myanmar 113
Vietnam 104
Lao PDR 86
Thailand 83
Pakistan 77
Iran 75
Afghanistan 51
Bangladesh 46
Kazakhstan 43
Country Languages
Uzbekistan 40
Tajikistan 33
Kyrgyzstan 32
Bhutan 31
Singapore 30
Turkmenistan 27
Cambodia 24
Timor Leste 19
Brunei 19
Japan 16
Mongolia 15
Sri Lanka
Korea, South 2
Maldives 2
Korea, North 1
TOTAL: ~ 2200
Source: Ethnologue (2005)
(30 countries)

17. National or Official Languages in Asia
Portuguese,
Russian 2,
Sanskrit,
Santhali,
Sindhi 2,
Sinhala,
Southern Pashto,
Tajiki,
Tamil 2,
Telugu,
Tetum,
Thai,
Turkmen,
Urdu 2,
Vietnamese,
Western Farsi
Assamese,
Bengali (Bangla) 2,
Bodo,
Dogri,
Dzongkha,
Eastern Farsi (Dari),
Eastern Punjabi,
English 4 (1),
Filipino,
Gujarati,
Gurung,
Halh Mongolian,
Hindi,
Indonesian,
Japanese,
Kannada,
Kashmiri,
Kazakh,
Kirghiz,
Khmer,
Konkani,
Korean 2,
Lao,
Maithili,
Malay 3,
Malayalam,
Maldivian (Diwehi),
Mandarin Chinese 2,
Marathi,
Meitei,
Myanma,
Nepali 2,
Northern Uzbek,
Oriya,
(50 languages) (22 in India)
Source: Ethnologue (2005)

18. Few monolingual nations
Linguistic diversity is evident
Few monolingual nations
Many education systems use only one language

21. Official / national language
Country
Official / national language
Brunei Darussalam
Standard Malay, English
Cambodia
Khmer
Indonesia
Indonesian
Lao PDR
Lao
Malaysia
Malay
Myanmar
Burmese (Myanmar, Bamar)
Philippines
Filipino, English
Singapore
English, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil
Thailand
Thai (de facto national language)
Timor Leste
Portuguese, Tetum (Eng. and Indo. working la)
Vietnam
Vietnamese

22. Country Minority languages in the Constitution
Brunei Darussalam
No (1959)
Cambodia
No (1993)
Indonesia
Yes (1945), RLs respected & preserved
Lao PDR
No (1991)
Malaysia
Yes (1957), preserve & sustain the use & study
Myanmar
Yes (1974), ? (2007)
Philippines
Yes (1987), LLs auxiliary languages
Singapore
Yes (1965), preserve & sustain the use & study
Thailand
No (1997), No (2007)
Timor Leste
Yes (2002), Tetum & NLs valued & developed
Vietnam
No (1992)

23. Languages of Instruction
Country
Languages of Instruction
Brunei Darussalam
Malay, English
Cambodia
Khmer, 5 LLs
Indonesia
Indonesian
Lao PDR
Lao
Malaysia
Malay, English, Tamil, Mandarin, some LLs
Myanmar
Burmese
Philippines
Filipino, English, some LLs
Singapore
English
Thailand
Thai, some LLs
Timor Leste
Portuguese, Tetum
Vietnam
Vietnamese, some LLs

24. Local languages as medium of instruction - allowed/legal?
Country
Local languages as medium of instruction - allowed/legal?
Brunei Darussalam No
Cambodia
Yes
Indonesia
Lao PDR ?
Malaysia
Myanmar
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand
Timor Leste
Vietnam

25. Languages-in-education: SEA
National languages used as the main media
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore use several languages as media of instruction (including English)
Brunei, Laos and Singapore do not use local languages at all
Laos uses national language only
Myanmar has NFE in LLs by NGOs only
Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam have pilot MLE projects which use local languages
Cambodia, Thailand and Timor Leste reviewing their language-in-education policies (inclusion of local languages?)

26. Regional Trends in the Use of Local Languages in Education
Promising pilots in several SE Asian countries
Increased interest in the use of local languages by govt agencies, UN agencies, INGOs, local NGOs
Local languages used more in NFE than FE
Local languages used orally quite widely, even without official endorsement
NGOs provide more education in local languages than governments
Policies on paper vs. implementation & practice

27. Thank you!

29. Key Issues 1 – Language-in-education policies
Rationale for policies supporting the use of local languages:
Educational efficiency and quality
Social, political, and economic participation
Social equality & equity
Language endangerment, maintenance, and revitalization
Multilingualism, pluralism
Human rights

30. Key Issues 2 – Language-in-education policies
Rationale for monolingual and elitist policies:
Economic factors
- Multilingual education is too costly
National unity
- Using many languages in education disintegrates the nation
Power issues
- Distribution of power, decentralization

31. Key Issues 3 – Language-in-education policies
Rationale for monolingual and elitist policies:
Misunderstanding of language & education issues and multilingualism
- Using several media of instruction confuses students,
- Using non-dominant languages will delay the learning of dominant (national, official, international) languages,
- Parents want the national/international language only, as they don’t understand multilingual approaches

32. Key Issues 4 – Language-in-education policies
Rationale for monolingual and elitist policies:
Technical and ‘logistical’ challenges
- Non-dominant languages: no orthographies, ‘modern’ terminology & standard form
- No literature and learning materials
- No teachers speaking non-dominant languages
- Multilingual classrooms / linguistic diversity in schools
- Minority communities not interested (or this is what the decision-makers think)
- MLE not seen as high priority by donors / program implementers

33. Key Issues 5 – Language-in-education policies
Rationale for monolingual and elitist policies:
Policies vs. implementation
- Supportive policies exist in documents, but policies not implemented
Colonial “legacy” and example
- Colonialists supported elitist and dominant language only-policies
- Major issue in Africa, less so in Asia
Language classification

34. Language classification
Ethnicity vs. language e.g. the Thai in Vietnam
Nationality
Language (population)
Tai Dam (699,000)
Tai Don (280,000)
Thai (1,370,000)
Phu Thai (209,000)
Tai Daeng (140,000)
Tai Thanh (20,000)

35. Additional issues Role of media (TV, Radio, Internet, print)
Role of English