Medium of instruction in Asia: Context, processes and outcomes

Medium of instruction in Asia: Context, processes and outcomes

• Hamid, M. Obaidul School of Education, University of Queensland
• Hoa, Nguyen Thi Mai Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney
• Baldauf, Richard B.

Current Issues in Language Planning, 14(1), 1-15, 2013

Great Britain

Routledge

2013

• F Learning & Teaching
  • FE Medium of Instruction, Language of Teaching, Bi-& Multilingual Education, Problems of Bilingualism, Code-mixing & Code-switching
• P Social Context of Education
  • PJ External Impact

Language Planning Globalisation Medium of Instruction English Asia

• Hong Kong
• Bangladesh
• India
• Indonesia
• Japan
• Malaysia
• the Maldives
• Nepal
• Timor-Leste
• Vietnam

• 1997.7 onwards

• Unknown or Unspecified

One major impact of globalisation on education is denoted by the growing trend to use English, the global language, as a medium of instruction (MOI) in emerging polities that are trying to enhance their English-speaking capacities. This article emphasises developing an understanding of MOI from a language policy and planning as well as an educational perspective. It explores the policy and practice of MOI in 10 polities in Asia including Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Maldives, Nepal, Timor-Leste and Vietnam, using a broad-based framework that aims to explicate the context, motivation, goals, actors, implementation process and outcomes of MOI. The article points out the dominance of English as MOI which is used in eight of the polity studies included in the analysis. It concludes that while the Asian region as a whole reflects the globalisation of English as medium of instruction policies, individual polities may have specific motivations and goals and that they may develop specific strategies to protect their own interests and identities. More crucially, at the macro-policy level, there seems to be a simplistic understanding of MOI as a cheap solution to complex language problems for achieving overly ambitious politico-economic goals and that this leads to less than ideal MOI implementation illustrated by teachers' and students' struggles as policy actors at the micro level.
[Copyright of Current Issues In Language Planning is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2013.792130]

• English

Journal Articles

• 14664208

• 10.1080/14664208.2013.792130

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/ecc92554

2014-05-29