Post on 12-Nov-2021
LanguageLanguage--inin--education policies education policies in Southeast Asiain Southeast Asia
Kimmo Kosonen Kimmo Kosonen SIL International & Payap UniversitySIL International & Payap University
Chiang Mai, ThailandChiang Mai, Thailand
Many ethnolinguistic minority (and other) groups face a ‘language barrier’ in education
‘Language barrier’ – Access
Primary Level Net Enrolment Ratios in Lao PDR (Source: Lao National Literacy Survey 2001)
65.6
77.2
53.747.8 46.3
64.1
75.4
52.8
44.7 44.2
0102030405060708090
National average Thai-Kadai Austroasiatic Sino-Tibetan Hmong-Yao
Language Family
% MaleFemale
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”
‘Language barrier’ - Quality
ØMinority children with poor Standard Thai skillshad 50% lower learning results than Thai-speaking students in all main subjectsØAbout 13% of Grade 2 students could not read
or write Standard ThaiØOver 25% of students in 10 education areas
have problems in reading and writing Standard ThaiØA reason: teachers and students speak different
languages
Thailand – surveys on educational quality
Quality of Literacy in OECD’s PISAPISA (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)
http://www.pisa.oecd.org
Lao PDR - Tested "Secured Functional Literacy" rate in the Lao Language (Lao National Literacy Survey 2001)
37.4
47.6
28.6
22.1
28.724.5
33.5
17.214.6
6.8
05
101520253035404550
National rate Tai-Kadai Austroasiatic Sino-Tibetan Hmong-Yao
Language Family
Perc
ent
MaleFemale
Language policyLanguage policy•• Legislation on (and/or practice of) the use Legislation on (and/or practice of) the use
of languages in a societyof languages in a society
LanguageLanguage--inin--education policy & education policy & practice:practice:•• Language (or medium) of instruction (Language (or medium) of instruction (LoILoI))•• Language of literacyLanguage of literacy
Key ConceptsØMother tongue – first / home language – L1ØLocal & regional languageØSubject of study vs. language of instructionØOral use of a language
• An auxiliary language helping learners understand
ØBilingual / multilingual education (MLE)ØMother tongue- / L1-based MLEØFirst language first MLEØMother tongue as a ‘bridge’
What do they look like?What do they look like?
Sustainable strong Sustainable strong programmesprogrammesof mother tonguemother tongue--based based multilingual education multilingual education ……
The New York Times, 19 July 2005Data: Ethnologue, 2005
The World According to Linguistic Diversity
Number of Languages- Southeast Asia (Source: Ethnologue 2005)
742180
147113
1048684
30241917
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Indonesia
Philippines
Malaysia
Myanmar
Vietnam
Laos
Thailand
Singapore
Cambodia
Timor Leste
Brunei
Number of Languages spoken in AsiaNumber of Languages spoken in AsiaCountry LanguagesCountry Languages
•• UzbekistanUzbekistan 4040•• TajikistanTajikistan 3333•• KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan 3232•• BhutanBhutan 3131•• SingaporeSingapore 3030•• Turkmenistan 27Turkmenistan 27•• CambodiaCambodia 2424•• Timor Timor LesteLeste 1919•• BruneiBrunei 1919•• JapanJapan 1616•• MongoliaMongolia 1515•• Sri Lanka Sri Lanka 77•• Korea, SouthKorea, South 22•• MaldivesMaldives 2 2 •• Korea, NorthKorea, North 11
TOTAL: ~ 2200TOTAL: ~ 2200Source: Ethnologue (2005)Source: Ethnologue (2005)
Country LanguagesCountry Languages•• IndonesiaIndonesia 742742•• IndiaIndia 427427•• ChinaChina 241241•• PhilippinesPhilippines 180180•• MalaysiaMalaysia 147147•• NepalNepal 125125•• MyanmarMyanmar 113113•• VietnamVietnam 104104•• Lao PDRLao PDR 8686•• ThailandThailand 8383•• PakistanPakistan 77 77 •• IranIran 7575•• Afghanistan Afghanistan 5151•• BangladeshBangladesh 4646•• Kazakhstan Kazakhstan 4343
(30 countries)(30 countries)
National or Official Languages in AsiaNational or Official Languages in Asia
• Kazakh,• Kirghiz,• Khmer,• Konkani,• Korean 2,• Lao,• Maithili,• Malay 3,• Malayalam,• Maldivian (Diwehi),• Mandarin Chinese 2,• Marathi,• Meitei,• Myanma,• Nepali 2,• Northern Uzbek,• Oriya,
• 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,
(50 languages) (50 languages) (22 in India)(22 in India)
• Portuguese,• Russian 2,• Sanskrit,• Santhali,• Sindhi 2,• Sinhala,• Southern Pashto,• Tajiki,• Tamil 2,• Telugu,• Tetum,• Thai,• Turkmen,• Urdu 2,• Vietnamese,• Western Farsi
Source: Ethnologue (2005)
Language map of Thailand (70
living languages)
Language map of Thailand (70
living languages)
ØØ LinguisticLinguisticdiversitydiversity is is evidentevident
ØØ FewFewmonolingualmonolingualnationsnations
ØØ ManyManyeducationeducationsystemssystems useuseonlyonly oneonelanguagelanguage
Population with access to education in mother tongue in 2000
(Source: UNDP 2004, SIL International 2004)
13
62 66 7487 91
0
20
40
60
80
100
Sub-SaharanAfrica
East Asia andthe Pacific
South Asia Central andEastern
Europe andthe CIS
High-incomeOECD
Latin Americaand the
Caribbean
Region
Perc
ent
Estimated population with access to education in first language - Southeast Asia (no info on bilingualism) (Source: Ethnologue, 2005)
91 90
61
50 5045
3326
105 2
0102030405060708090
100Vi
etna
m
Cam
bodi
a
Mya
nmar
Laos
Thai
land
Mal
aysi
a
Sing
apor
e
Philip
pine
s
Indo
nesi
a
Tim
or L
este
Brun
ei
Perc
ent
VietnameseVietnamVietnamPortuguese, Tetum (Eng. and Indo. working la)Timor Timor LesteLesteThai (de facto national language)ThailandThailandEnglish, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil SingaporeSingaporeFilipino, EnglishPhilippinesPhilippinesBurmese (Myanmar, Bamar)MyanmarMyanmarMalayMalaysiaMalaysiaLaoLao PDRLao PDRIndonesianIndonesiaIndonesiaKhmerCambodiaCambodiaStandard Malay, EnglishBrunei DarussalamBrunei Darussalam
Official / national languageCountry
No (1992)VietnamVietnamYes (2002), Tetum & NLs valued & developedTimor Timor LesteLesteNo (1997), No (2007)ThailandThailandYes (1965), preserve & sustain the use & studySingaporeSingaporeYes (1987), LLs auxiliary languagesPhilippinesPhilippinesYes (1974), ? (2007)MyanmarMyanmarYes (1957), preserve & sustain the use & studyMalaysiaMalaysiaNo (1991)Lao PDRLao PDRYes (1945), RLs respected & preservedIndonesiaIndonesiaNo (1993)CambodiaCambodiaNo (1959)Brunei DarussalamBrunei Darussalam
Minority languages in the ConstitutionCountry
Vietnamese, some LLsVietnamVietnamPortuguese, TetumTimor Timor LesteLesteThai, some LLsThailandThailandEnglishSingaporeSingaporeFilipino, English, some LLsPhilippinesPhilippinesBurmeseMyanmarMyanmarMalay, English, Tamil, Mandarin, some LLsMalaysiaMalaysiaLaoLao PDRLao PDRIndonesianIndonesiaIndonesiaKhmer, 5 LLsCambodiaCambodiaMalay, EnglishBrunei DarussalamBrunei Darussalam
Languages of InstructionCountry
YesVietnamVietnam?Timor Timor LesteLeste
YesThailandThailandYesSingaporeSingaporeYesPhilippinesPhilippines
?MyanmarMyanmarYesMalaysiaMalaysia
?Lao PDRLao PDRYesIndonesiaIndonesiaYesCambodiaCambodiaNoBrunei DarussalamBrunei Darussalam
Local languages as medium of instruction - allowed/legal? Country
Languages-in-education: SEA•• National languages used as the main mediaNational languages used as the main media•• BruneiBrunei, , MalaysiaMalaysia, , thethe PhilippinesPhilippines and and
SingaporeSingapore use several languages as media of use several languages as media of instruction (including English) instruction (including English)
•• BruneiBrunei, , LaosLaos and and SingaporeSingapore do not use local do not use local languages at alllanguages at all
•• LaosLaos uses national language only uses national language only •• MyanmarMyanmar has NFE in has NFE in LLsLLs by NGOs onlyby NGOs only•• CambodiaCambodia, , the Philippinesthe Philippines, , ThailandThailand and and
VietnamVietnam have pilot MLE projects which use have pilot MLE projects which use local languageslocal languages
•• CambodiaCambodia, , ThailandThailand and and Timor Timor LesteLeste reviewing reviewing their languagetheir language--inin--education policies (inclusion education policies (inclusion of local languages?)of local languages?)
Regional Trends in the Use of Local Languages in Education
•• Promising pilots in several SE Asian countriesPromising pilots in several SE Asian countries•• Increased interest in the use of local languages Increased interest in the use of local languages
by govt agencies, UN agencies, INGOs, local by govt agencies, UN agencies, INGOs, local NGOsNGOs
•• Local languages used more in NFE than FELocal languages used more in NFE than FE•• Local languages used orally quite widely, even Local languages used orally quite widely, even
without official endorsementwithout official endorsement•• NGOs provide more education in local NGOs provide more education in local
languages than governmentslanguages than governments•• Policies on paper vs. implementation & practicePolicies on paper vs. implementation & practice
Thank you!
kimmo_kosonen@sil.org
• Educational efficiency and quality• Social, political, and economic participation• Social equality & equity• Language endangerment, maintenance,
and revitalization• Multilingualism, pluralism• Human rights
Key Issues 1 – Language-in-education policies
Rationale for policies supporting the use Rationale for policies supporting the use of local languages:of local languages:
• Economic factors- Multilingual education is too costly
• National unity- Using many languages in education disintegrates the nation
• Power issues- Distribution of power, decentralization
Key Issues 2 – Language-in-education policies
Rationale for monolingual and Rationale for monolingual and elitist policies: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
Key Issues 3 – Language-in-education policies
Rationale for monolingual and Rationale for monolingual and elitist policies: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
Key Issues 4 – Language-in-education policies
Rationale for monolingual and Rationale for monolingual and elitist policies: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
Key Issues 5 – Language-in-education policies
Rationale for monolingual and Rationale for monolingual and elitist policies:elitist policies:
Language classificationLanguage classification
Tai Tai ThanhThanh (20,000)(20,000)
Tai Tai DaengDaeng (140,000)(140,000)
PhuPhu ThaiThai (209,000)(209,000)Thai Thai (1,370,000)(1,370,000)
Tai Don Tai Don (280,000)(280,000)
Tai Tai DamDam (699,000)(699,000)LanguageLanguage ((populationpopulation))NationalityNationality
Ethnicity vs. language Ethnicity vs. language e.ge.g. the Thai in Vietnam. the Thai in Vietnam
Additional issues
• Role of media (TV, Radio, Internet, print)• Role of English