Language-in-education policies in Southeast Asia Kimmo Kosonen Consultant to SEAMEO SIL International & Payap University Chiang Mai, Thailand

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.

‘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

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

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 7 Korea, South 2 Maldives 2 Korea, North 1 TOTAL: ~ 2200 Source: Ethnologue (2005) (30 countries)

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)

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

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

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), No (2008) 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)

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

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 ? (KK: Likely yes) Vietnam

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?)

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

Thank you! kimmo_kosonen@sil.org