CM 3: LANGUAGE-IN-

EDUCATION POLICY 2: LEPs

OF SOUTHEAST ASIA AND
COMMON ISSUES AND
CHALLENGES
(ENG ELT 2: LANGUAGE PROGRAMS AND POLICIES IN
MULTILINGUAL SOCIETIES)

ASKIN D. VILLARIAS
Faculty, Languages Department
 KEY POINTS IN
THE LANGUAGE-
01 IN-EDUCATION
POLICIES OF
SOUTHEAST ASIAN
NATIONS

LEARNI LANGUAGE-IN-

NG
EDUCATION
02 POLICIES:
ISSUES AND

CONTE CHALLENGES

NT
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

TERM/CONCEPT ANIMATED VIDEO

IDENTIFICATION PRESENTATION
Produce an informative, multimedia
Recall key points of presentation on how key issues and
linguistic backgrounds and POLICY ANALYSIS challenges of Southeast Asian
language policies in language-in-education policies must
Southeast Asian countries. Analyze common issues and be intervened and must be improved.
challenges contextualized in
a language-in-education
policy case.
ASSESSME
NT TASKS
Assessment Task 1 (Knowledge-
Building)
Remember!

o For online students, secure pictures of your written

answers or place your answers in a separate document file
to be uploaded in the corresponding Classwork tab in our
Google classroom.

o For BDO students, place your answers in a separate sheet

of long-sized bond paper.
Assessment Task 2 (Critical Thinking)
Case to Analyze
Assessment Task 3 (Creating)
Reminders and other Considerations
DO YOU HAVE
ANY
QUESTION?
 01
KEY POINTS IN THE
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION POLICIES
OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN
NATIONS
 SOUTHEAST
ASIAN MAP QUIZ
 5 Myanma
r
4 Lao
PDR 11
Vietnam
Thailan 6
2
d Philippines
8 Cambodia
Brune 1 3
Malaysi i Indonesi
a a
9
10
7
Singapore East Timor
BRUNEI DARUSSALAM
ETHNOLINGUIST
IC BACKGROUND
 With an approximate land area and population of 5,765 square
kilometers and 357, 800 respectively, Brunei is still an
ethnolinguistically diverse country mainly composed of the ff.
groups and their corresponding proportion rate:

 Malay Indigenous Community- 66.4%

 Unspecified Races (expatriates from Indonesia,
Philippines, and India)- 19%
 People of Chinese Origin- 11.2%
 Other Indigenous Groups- 3.4%
ETHNOLINGUIS
TIC The census where the aforementioned estimation of proportion
was derived also significantly suggests that young people
BACKGROUND dominates the population in Brunei
 Brunei’s ethnolinguistic diversity paves to the development of
different languages internally practiced by ethnic groups:

 Belait, Bisaya, Dusun, Murut, and Kedayan

(Malay indigenous community)
 English as a lingua franca (unspecified races)
 English and Mandarin Chinese as lingua
francas (people of Chinese origin)
ETHNOLINGUIS
TIC
BACKGROUND
 CURRENT
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION
POLICIES
  The 1959 Constitution of Brunei states:

“The official language of the State shall be the Malay

language and shall be in such script as may by written law
be provided.”

 Before being officially declared as official, Malay was

used alongside English for all official purposes in the
previous five years.

CURRENT  The choice of assigning Malay with such status was

borne out of the perspective towards English as a
LANGUAGE-IN- language of opportunity, and the function of assigned
language by integrating heritage and local culture of the
EDUCATION population.

POLICIES
  The enactment of 1984 Education System of
Negara Brunei Darussalam has adopted the
transformation of basic language education, per
recommendation made by the 1972 Education
Report, from Malay-only model to a bilingual
education system. The said LEP has also
emphasized the concept of solidarity and nation-
building in its language provisions.

 The aforementioned LEP functions as a balancing

CURRENT act, promoting linguistic inclusivity while firmly
considering the global importance of the English
LANGUAGE-IN- language.
EDUCATION
POLICIES
 SIGNIFICANT PROVISIONS OF
THE 1984 EDUCATION SYSTEM OF
BRUNEI

3.1 The concept of a bilingual system is a means of ensuring the

sovereignty of the Malay Language, while at the same time
recognising the importance of the English Language. By means of the
Education System of Negara Brunei Darussalam a high degree of
proficiency in both languages should be achieved.
(Brunei Government Publication, 1984: 4)
 SIGNIFICANT PROVISIONS OF
THE 1984 EDUCATION SYSTEM OF
BRUNEI

3.2 This recognition of the importance of the English Language is partly

based on an assumption of its importance for academic study, and thus
its ability to facilitate the entry of students from Brunei Darussalam to
institutions of higher education overseas where the medium of instruction
is English. Such a perception may, of course, be subject to review
should Brunei Darussalam itself be able, in the future, to provide its own
facilities for higher education.
` (ibid: 4)
 STATUS OF NON-
DOMINANT
LANGUAGES (NDLs)
  The Director of Curriculum Development, Ministry of
Education identified the ff. factors influencing the
skepticism towards the usefulness of non-dominant
languages in education :

● Those languages cannot perform the formal

and official function as a language of
education, compared to Malay and English
which have a complete corpus in terms of
lexis, phonology, morphology and syntax.
STATUS OF NON-
DOMINANT ● The area of spread of these languages is
limited and does not transcend the speakers’
LANGUAGES geographical boundaries.
  The Director of Curriculum Development, Ministry of
Education identified the ff. factors influencing the
skepticism towards the usefulness of non-dominant
languages in education :

● The number of speakers of those languages

is small and limited to each ethnic group. In
the ASEAN region, Malay is spoken by
STATUS OF NON- roughly 250 million people while English is
DOMINANT used by the global population.
LANGUAGES
CAMBODIA
ETHNOLINGUIST
IC BACKGROUND
  Cambodia is approximately composed
of 14 million people, wherein the Ethnic
Khmer, whose namesake is their mother
tongues, dominates the entire population
with an approximate proportion rate of
90%.
ETHNOLINGUIS
TIC  A census recorded around 21 spoken
languages within the nation.
BACKGROUND
ETHNOLINGUIS
TIC
BACKGROUND
 CURRENT
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION
POLICIES
  The 1993 Cambodian Constitution states:

“The State shall protect and promote the Khmer language

as required.”

(Ibid.: Article 69)

● In December 2007, the Cambodian National Assembly

adopted a new Education Law. Article 24 of the Law
states that:

CURRENT “The Khmer language shall be the language of instruction, and a

subject of the core curriculum used for general education in public

LANGUAGE-IN- schools. Private, general-education schools must have the Khmer

language as a subject in their curriculum. . . . The language used

EDUCATION by Cambodian learners of minority origin shall be determined by

the Prakas2 of ministries responsible for education.”

POLICIES (Cambodia, 2007: Article 24)

  In 2004, the Pedagogic Research Department of the
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports developed
its Policy for Curriculum Development 2005-
2009 emphasizing some key points relevant to
bilingual education for ethnic minorities:

Schools, local authorities, community groups, NGOs,

and private education providers are expected to
develop programmes that will enrich and broaden
CURRENT the national curriculum. (MoEYS, 2004: section 3.3)

LANGUAGE-IN- Schools, in partnership with parents, their local

EDUCATION community organizations, and NGOs, develop and
administer a Local Life Skills Programme of 5 45-
POLICIES minute lessons per week to supplement the national
curriculum. (Ibid.: section 3.4)
 OTHER SIGNIFICANT PROVISIONS OF
THE POLICY FOR CURRICULUM
DEVELOPMENT 2005-2009

3.1 The standard medium of instruction is Khmer. Textbooks will be

published in Khmer except for foreign language textbooks. In schools
where there is a large number of speakers of minority languages,
teachers may conduct some instruction of the class in the minority
language, and may translate key vocabulary contained in textbooks from
Khmer to the minority language as a means of assisting student learning.
(Ibid.: section 3.19)
 STATUS OF NON-
DOMINANT
LANGUAGES (NDLs)
  Non-dominant languages have not been
explicitly supported for its important use in
education until the enactment of the 2007
Education Law.

 With the enactment of 2007 Education

Law, the Royal Government of Cambodia
prioritizes on language education to non-
Khmer ethnic minorities by establishing
community schools and closely
STATUS OF NON- collaborating with international non-
DOMINANT government organizations (INGOs) in the
LANGUAGES orthography development of NDLs and
establishment of literacy classes in minority
communities.
INDONESIA
ETHNOLINGUIST
IC BACKGROUND
 As the most linguistically diverse Asian country around
the globe, Indonesia, a wide archipelago composed of
around 17,000 islands, has recorded 742 spoken
languages. Ten major languages among these are as
follows:

Balinese Achinese

Banjar Batak

Bugis Minang

Javanese Sasak

ETHNOLINGUIS Madurese Sudanese

TIC From a young learner’s point of view, a multilingual

BACKGROUND situation is complicated as local languages first acquired
by children might be different from the children in other
villages, wherein these are not mutually intelligible.
 CURRENT
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION
POLICIES
  After the nation’s independence from Dutch colonial
government, Indonesia pursued the adoption of Bahasa
Indonesia as the language of the state through the
Chapter XV, Article 36 in the 1945 Constitution.

 The status of Bahasa Indonesia was officially declared

through the resolution Sumpah Penada, commonly
known as the “Youth Pledge,” at a congress on October
28, 1928, highlighting the following provisions:

CURRENT ● Firstly: We the sons and daughters of Indonesia declare

that we belong to one fatherland, the land of Indonesia.
LANGUAGE-IN- ● Secondly: We the sons and daughters of Indonesia
declare that we belong to one nation, the Indonesian
EDUCATION nation.
● Thirdly: We the sons and daughters of Indonesia
POLICIES uphold the language of unity, the Indonesian language.
  Since a general program of Indonesia
language teaching was launched to
address the previous widespread
illiteracy of Indonesia on the
national/official language, the success
of increasing literacy rate has urged
CURRENT the enactment of The National
LANGUAGE-IN- Education System Act (No. 20 Year
2003, Chapter VII, Article 33).
EDUCATION
POLICIES
 OTHER SIGNIFICANT PROVISIONS OF
THE INDONESIAN NATIONAL
EDUCATION SYSTEM ACT

(1) Indonesian, as the state language, is to be the language of

instruction in national education;
 OTHER SIGNIFICANT PROVISIONS OF
THE INDONESIAN NATIONAL
EDUCATION SYSTEM ACT

(2) local and regional languages may be used as languages of instruction

in the early stage of education as far as they are needed to transmit
certain types of knowledge and skills;
 OTHER SIGNIFICANT PROVISIONS OF
THE INDONESIAN NATIONAL
EDUCATION SYSTEM ACT

(3) foreign languages may be used as languages of instruction at certain

levels of education to strengthen students’ ability in foreign languages
 STATUS OF NON-
DOMINANT
LANGUAGES (NDLs)
 ● Non-dominant languages, which are
often use at home, are used orally by
teachers on a supplementary basis,
and these languages are not
STATUS OF NON- generally utilized as primary media
DOMINANT of instruction.
LANGUAGES
MALAYSIA
ETHNOLINGUIST
IC BACKGROUND
  As a federation of two states composed of two
regions, Malaysia has a population of around
2.6 million, and is made up of three ethnic
groups, and they are provided below with their
corresponding proportion rate:

1) Malays- 50.8%
2) Chinese- 23.3%
ETHNOLINGUIS 3) Indigenous non-Malays- 11.1%
TIC 4)
5)
Non-citizens (immigrant workers)- 6.9%
Other citizens (Europeans, Americans,
BACKGROUND Eurasians, Arabs, and Thais)- 1.5%
  At present, there are 141 spoken
languages in Malaysia wherein
significant numbers distributed to the
major geographical areas, and they are
presented below:
1) Peninsular Malaysia- there are forty
ETHNOLINGUIS languages
TIC 2) Sarawak- forty-seven
3) Sabah- thirty-two
BACKGROUND
 CURRENT
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION
POLICIES
  The Article 152 of the 1957 Malaysia Federal
Constitution has stated:

The national language shall be the Malay language…

provided that (a) no person shall be prohibited from using
(otherwise than for official purposes) or from teaching or
learning any other language… and (b) nothing in this
CURRENT Clause shall prejudice the right of the Federal Government
or any State Government to preserve and sustain the use
LANGUAGE-IN- and study of the language of another community in the
Federation.
EDUCATION (Malaysian Federal Constitution, 1957: Article 152.)

POLICIES
  Education Act of 1961
 Adhering to the recommendations made by the
1960 Education Review Committee, this education
policy identified the three types of primary schools to
be established namely the national primary school
(using Malay as the medium of instruction), Chinese
national-type primary school (using Chinese as the
medium of instruction), and the Tamil national-type
primary school.

 Despite the classification of primary schools, English as

CURRENT a second language is taught as a compulsory subject in
all primary and secondary schools.
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION ● Chinese is used as a medium of instruction in Chinese
national-type primary schools, while Tamil is used as a
POLICIES medium of instruction in Tamil national-type primary
schools.
 ● Chinese and Tamil are taught as
subjects in national primary and
secondary schools. Other non-
dominant languages, such as
Kadazandusun, Iban, and Semai,
are taught as subjects of study in the
CURRENT states of Sabah, Sarawak, Pahang
LANGUAGE-IN- and Perak, respectively.
EDUCATION
POLICIES
 CURRENT
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION
POLICIES
 STATUS OF NON-
DOMINANT
LANGUAGES (NDLs)
  Some non-dominant languages, such
as Kandazandusun, Iban, and
Semai, are introduced in the
education system to enable the
speakers of these languages to
communicate among themselves
STATUS OF NON- and, most important of all, to ensure
DOMINANT the maintenance of minority
LANGUAGES cultures.
LAO PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC
REPUBLIC
ETHNOLINGUIST
IC BACKGROUND
  The country has an estimated number of eighty-
six (86) languages wherein Lao is the dominant
language in the country, with more than 3
million first language speakers.

 Aside from Lao as dominant language, there are

at least nine (9) languages spoken by 100,000
people.

 In the approximate number of 100,000

ETHNOLINGUIS occupants within the territory of the nation,
there are 132 ethnic groups. Though Lao has
TIC been regarded as the dominant language, only
BACKGROUND less than half of the population speaks Lao as
their first language.
 CURRENT
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION
POLICIES
  The Educational Law of 2000 stipulates the use of
Lao in education, and is usually interpreted to
allow the use of Lao only despite how this
interpretation hinders the introduction of NDLs in
education has been centered in political dynamics.

 In 2006, the National Socioeconomic Development

Plan promoted the use, teaching, and learning of
NDLs that already have orthographies, estimated to
be less than twenty (20).
CURRENT
LANGUAGE-IN-  Furthermore, Lao People’s Party proposed further
research on orthography development of NDLs,
EDUCATION and suggested that they should be based on Lao-
POLICIES script.
 STATUS OF NON-
DOMINANT
LANGUAGES (NDLs)
  No non-dominant languages are currently used in
education, though some small pilot projects are
being planned.

 Nevertheless, the political environment is

becoming more NDL-friendly, and various
departments of the Ministry of Education and
STATUS OF NON- Training, in collaboration with international
agencies, are raising awareness of how NDLs may
DOMINANT be used in education.
LANGUAGES
SINGAPORE
ETHNOLINGUIST
IC BACKGROUND
  Despite its small geographical area, Singapore
has a multi-ethnic population and a diverse
language environment, composed of the
following ethnic groups:

1) Chinese- 76.5%
2) Malay- 13.6%
3) Indians- 8.7%
4) Other Ethnic Groups- 2.1%
ETHNOLINGUIS  The four major languages spoken in the country
TIC are Malay, Mandarin Chinese, English, and
BACKGROUND Tamil though certain Chinese and Tamil dialects
are spoken by their respective groups as home
languages.
 CURRENT
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION
POLICIES
  The 1965 Constitution of the
Republic of Singapore mandated
Malay, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil,
and English as official languages.

 Specifically, English is used as a

language of administration and the
common language or lingua franca
CURRENT spoken by Singaporeans of various
LANGUAGE-IN- races while Mandarin Chinese is
EDUCATION widely used among the Chinese
population
POLICIES
 THE BILINGUAL EDUCATION
POLICY OF SINGAPORE

 It is language-in-education policy that

primarily requires all Singaporean students to
study both English and a mother tongue
language from the early years of primary
education through to the secondary education.
CURRENT
LANGUAGE-IN-  In this policy, English is the principal medium
EDUCATION of instruction in schools, except for the
teaching of civics and moral education.
POLICIES
 BILINGUAL EDUCATION POLICY OF
SINGAPORE

Though some significant changes occurred in the Singaporean education structure

and system since its enactment in 1965, the essence and framework of policy
has remained largely unchanged.
  One of the major challenges met in the
implementation of Singaporean BEP is the
demanding nature of learning two languages
from the early years of primary education.

 For most primary school students, one of their

home languages will be used in school because
provision.

 For non-English speaking immigrants, neither

CURRENT English nor the official mother tongue languages
are spoken at home.
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION  The most common challenge encountered by
students in learning two languages stems from
POLICIES the difference between the standard variety and
colloquial variety spoken at home.
 STATUS OF NON-
DOMINANT
LANGUAGES (NDLs)
  The existing Singaporean LEP evidences the
elevated status of mother tongues as required
courses in the basic education level.

 The most pressing issue surrounding the

implementation of bilingual education policy
lies on the strategies of motivating students to
learn their mother tongues without
compromising the existing standards of
STATUS OF NON- English instruction, which implies the
DOMINANT necessity to consider the changing linguistic
LANGUAGES demographics of Singapore in addressing
such.
MYANMAR
ETHNOLINGUIST
IC BACKGROUND
  Myanmar has over 100 spoken languages, wherein
around 75% of the entire population speaks Burmese
as their first language.

 Other ethnolinguistic groups have large populations,

such as the Shan comprise more than 10% of the
nation, with a population of around 3 million. The
Arakanese, Sgaw Karen, Pwo Karen, Pa’o Karen,
ETHNOLINGUIS Mon, and Jingpho populations are estimated to be
TIC around or over a million each, and another thirty
ethnolinguistic groups have populations over 100,000.
BACKGROUND
 CURRENT
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION
POLICIES
  The 2008 Constitution declares the Burmese
language as the official language, making it as the
main medium of instruction in basic education. The
said fundamental law no longer includes provisions
on the language of education, but it mentions about
vesting rights to minorities about their use and
development of their first languages to be funded
by the state in the process.

 Due to the rough estimation of 30% among the

children who are unable to speak their first
CURRENT language before starting the early years in
LANGUAGE-IN- education, the national Education For All plan
recommends special strategies to teach the national
EDUCATION language to minority children in the pre-primary
POLICIES level.
 STATUS OF NON-
DOMINANT
LANGUAGES (NDLs)
  Non-dominant languages are not relevantly used in
the government system, though in Mon state
schools, the Mon language is taught as a subject
outside of regular school hours.

 Non-dominant languages are primarily used in

informal education by civil organizations and
language communities, particularly in areas settled
STATUS OF NON- by ethnolinguistic minorities dominated by religious
DOMINANT groups.
LANGUAGES
THAILAND
ETHNOLINGUIST
IC BACKGROUND
  Located in the mainland Southeast Asia, Thailand is
one of the most linguistically diverse nations in the
world wherein its estimated population of 65,232,000
is classified into five language families which are:
1) Tai Language Family
2) Austro-Asiatic Language Family
3) Sino-Tibetan Language Family
4) Malayo-Polynesian Language Family
ETHNOLINGUIS 5) Miao-Yeo Language Family
TIC  The classifications of language groups include the total
BACKGROUND number of 70 languages.
  In the educational context, the Ministry of Education has
determined three classifications of Thai languages:
1) Standard Thai- the standard, official, and legal
language used for national level communication
2) Regional Thai languages- languages used in
each region for communal communication
3) Local community languages- languages
ETHNOLINGUIS spoken in areas smaller than regions consisting
of ethnic languages, market and urban
TIC languages, languages of border areas, and
enclave languages
BACKGROUND
 CURRENT
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION
POLICIES
  Since there is no clear policy document explicitly
stipulating provisions about the status and function
of Standard Thai, scholars treat Standard Thai as a
de facto or working official and national language
of the Kingdom of Thailand.

 Despite the growing significance of Standard Thai,

the 1997 Thai Constitution provides sufficient
opportunities to ethnolinguistic minorities to
cultivate their own languages.
CURRENT
 Though the Ministry of Education never prohibits
LANGUAGE-IN- the use of local languages in different domains,
EDUCATION only some schools teach local languages as
additional languages, and use them as auxiliary
POLICIES media of instruction to the Standard Thai.
  There were no explicit language-in-
education policies mandating the use
of local or non-dominant languages in
education .In the following slides are
some projects, mechanisms, and
CURRENT reviews carried out towards language
LANGUAGE-IN- education reforms in Thailand:
EDUCATION
POLICIES
 SOME THAI LANGUAGE EDUCATION
INITIATIVES, PROJECTS, AND REVIEWS

The Ministry of Education-Office of the Primary Education Committee conducted

a project on teaching techniques through language acceptance, and teaching
Thai as second language for kindergarten students in five provinces situated
within Southern Thailand from 1987 2001.
 SOME THAI LANGUAGE EDUCATION
INITIATIVES, PROJECTS, AND REVIEWS

On the other hand, the Office of the Basic Education Committee of the same
ministry initiated a reward system for teachers in using local languages and
folklore in educational management.
 SOME THAI LANGUAGE EDUCATION
INITIATIVES, PROJECTS, AND REVIEWS

Though are no specific provisions stating about the use of local languages in
formal learning, the 1999 National Education Act highlights the importance of
local communities’ involvement as a crucial element in educational
management..
 STATUS OF NON-
DOMINANT
LANGUAGES (NDLs)
  The use of non-dominant languages in
education is not concretely supported by any
policy document as exiting educational
policies are generally ambiguous. Instead,
committee-based projects and micro-
mechanisms are implemented in order to
STATUS OF NON- minimally preserve the relevance of these
DOMINANT languages in education.
LANGUAGES
TIMOR LESTE
ETHNOLINGUIST
IC BACKGROUND
  Timor Leste (also known as East Timor)
has an estimated number of nineteen
(19) existing languages, wherein Tetum
and Portuguese are the official
languages, and English and Indonesian
ETHNOLINGUIS as working languages as long as their
use is crucially necessary.
TIC
BACKGROUND
 CURRENT
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION
POLICIES
  The 2002 Constitution supported the
declaration of the de jure status of Tetum and
Portuguese and the de facto status of English
and Indonesian in the country.

 Through the 2008 Basic Law on Education,

a new language-in-education policy was
adopted to make both Portuguese and Tetum
CURRENT as primary media of instruction in the basic
LANGUAGE-IN- education. The following are the proposals
EDUCATION made by the bilingual model introduced in the
policy:
POLICIES
 KEY POINTS OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION
SYSTEM IN TIMOR LESTE

In Grade 1, Tetum is the main language of instruction, though some latitude is

given to Portuguese as well.
 KEY POINTS OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION
SYSTEM IN TIMOR LESTE

In Grade 2, half of the curriculum is taught in Tetum, and half is in Portuguese.

 KEY POINTS OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION
SYSTEM IN TIMOR LESTE

In Grade 3, Portuguese dominates.

 KEY POINTS OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION
SYSTEM IN TIMOR LESTE

In Grade 4 onwards, Portuguese is the only medium of instruction and literacy,

while Tetum assumes as a subject of study.
 STATUS OF NON-
DOMINANT
LANGUAGES (NDLs)
  The use of other non-dominant
languages in education is not
emphasized in any written language
STATUS OF NON- policy.
DOMINANT
LANGUAGES
VIETNAM
ETHNOLINGUIST
IC BACKGROUND
  The entire population of Vietnam is composed of
fifty-four (54) ethnic groups, wherein around
86% comprise of the Kinh and the remaining
groups encompass the remaining 14% as well.

 All the ethnic groups are given the right to enjoy

ETHNOLINGUIS the use of local languages in daily
communication, and they also acknowledge the
TIC use of Vietnamese as the national language and
language of wider communication.
BACKGROUND
 CURRENT
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION
POLICIES
  The Vietnamese government has always
internalized the importance of language in the
development a society and its culture, and has
respected and protected the linguistic
development of all ethnolinguistic groups.

CURRENT  Their language policies of Vietnam are anchored

LANGUAGE-IN- on the following general points:

EDUCATION
POLICIES
 THE THREE FOCUS POINTS OF
VIETNAMESE LANGUAGE POLICIES

1) respect for the equality of languages

 THE THREE FOCUS POINTS OF
VIETNAMESE LANGUAGE POLICIES

2) support for ethnic minority people to promote their

languages and cultures
 THE THREE FOCUS POINTS OF
VIETNAMESE LANGUAGE POLICIES

3) encouragement for ethnic minority to learn Vietnamese

  The Education Law of 2005 states:

“Vietnamese is the official language used in schools and

other educational institutions.” (Education Law, 2005:
Article 7)

 In promoting equality in the use of languages, the same

law specifically states:

“The State shall create favourable conditions for ethnic

CURRENT minority people to learn their spoken and written language
in order to preserve and promote ethnic cultural identity,
LANGUAGE-IN- and to enable ethnic minority students to learn subject
materials in schools and other institutions. The teaching
EDUCATION and learning of the spoken and written ethnic minority
POLICIES languages will be implemented by the government’s
decision.”
(Education Law, 2005: Article 7)
 The Decision No. 153 of the Ministry of Education mentions:

Wherever ethnic minorities have writing systems, ethnic

minority language writing systems are to be used to
eliminate illiteracy and provide continuing education.
Wherever people do not know or know only a little of the
national language, the ethnic minority language is to be
taught together with the national language in primary
CURRENT [continuing education] classes. . . . Wherever the people
wish to and can learn in the national language, the
LANGUAGE-IN- national language should be taught in the literacy and
continuing education courses, but explanations must be
EDUCATION given in the ethnic minority language to help learners
understand more quickly and grasp firmly
POLICIES
 The Decision No. 153 of the Ministry of Education mentions:

what they have learned, and at the same time the writing
systems of their mother tongue should also be taught, so
that they can read books and newspapers written in their
mother tongue. . . . The ethnic minority languages should
be taught together with the national language in
kindergartens and primary schools and children should be
CURRENT given opportunity to become familiar with the national
language as early as possible. In secondary schools, the
LANGUAGE-IN- national language is a focal point, and at the same time, the
EDUCATION ethnic minority language is taught as a subject.
(Decision No.153/CP, 20th August, 1969)
POLICIES
  The Ministry of Education and
Training issued the Circular No.
1/GDDT which provides curricular
specifications on the teaching and
learning of ethnic minority/non-
CURRENT dominant languages.
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION
POLICIES
 The Vietnamese Bilingual Education Policy

 The Vietnamese bilingual education system is

divided into three different models:
CURRENT
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION
POLICIES
 CURRENT
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION
POLICIES
 CURRENT
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION
POLICIES
 CURRENT
LANGUAGE-IN-
EDUCATION
POLICIES
 STATUS OF NON-
DOMINANT
LANGUAGES (NDLs)
  The outlined language-in-education
policies testify that the use of non-
dominant language(s) in education are
not solely supported by the purpose of
preserving cultural and linguistic
STATUS OF NON- diversity, but they are geared towards
DOMINANT the creation of effective and
LANGUAGES responsive language bridging program
in the basic education.
 02
LANGUAGE-
IN-
EDUCATION
POLICIES:
ISSUES AND
CHALLENGES
FIXITY IN LANGUAGE-IN-EDUCATION
POLICIES

According to Lorente (2016), migration entails

cultural and linguistic integration, and the gradual
assimilation in the host country. Initially,
multilingualism in languages not identified as part
of the nation has been treated as a hindrance to
nation-building processes. With such issue at hand,
the common goal of language-in-education policies
is of that fixity or of explicitly/implicitly requiring
migrants to learn the standardized variety of a
national language for the sake of accessing benefits
of inclusion in the state.
FLUIDITY IN LANGUAGE-IN-EDUCATION
POLICIES
The commodification of English as a basic
skill equates to the implementation of a
multilingual education program wherein the
second or foreign language being learned in
English. The connection between English
language-in-education policies and the
mobility of citizens is conspicuously explicit
in countries which are positioned as primary
sources of labor resources in the global
market. The promotion of English as a
language of globalization takes a vital role in
nation-building.
KEY ISSUES AND
CHALLENGES OF
SOUTHEAST ASIAN
LANGUAGE-IN-EDUCATION
POLICIES
1) Economic
Factors

 Multilingual education is
claimed to be expensive.
KEY ISSUES AND
CHALLENGES OF
SOUTHEAST ASIAN
LANGUAGE-IN-EDUCATION
POLICIES
2) National Unity and Political
Factors
 Using many languages in education
presumably fragments the nation.
 The national or official language
supposedly cannot be taught as the
‘second language’ to ethnolinguistic
minorities, because some people
consider it inappropriate to call the first
language of a nation a ‘second
language’ in the context of education.
KEY ISSUES AND
CHALLENGES OF
SOUTHEAST ASIAN
LANGUAGE-IN-EDUCATION
POLICIES
 Nation-building is not yet
complete, and therefore it is
asserted that the use of the
national language should be
preferred.

 Using multiple languages may

lead to uncontrollable
empowerment of linguistic
minorities.
KEY ISSUES AND
CHALLENGES OF
SOUTHEAST ASIAN
LANGUAGE-IN-EDUCATION
POLICIES
3) Misunderstanding of Language
and Education Issues and
Multilingualism

 Using several media of

instruction supposedly confuses
students.
 Using non-dominant languages
presumably delays the learning
of dominant (national, official,
international) languages.
KEY ISSUES AND
CHALLENGES OF
SOUTHEAST ASIAN
LANGUAGE-IN-EDUCATION
POLICIES
 It is claimed that parents want only
the national/international language
for their children, as they do not
understand the possibilities of
multilingual approaches.

 It is difficult to distinguish between

languages and dialects, and between
the official as opposed to a linguistic
classification of languages.
KEY ISSUES AND
CHALLENGES OF
SOUTHEAST ASIAN
LANGUAGE-IN-EDUCATION
POLICIES
4) General, Technical, and
Logistical Challenges
 There are no orthographies for non-
dominant languages.

 There is no literature or learning

materials in non-dominant languages.

 Multilingual classrooms and linguistic

diversity in schools cause problems.

 There are not enough teachers from

minority language groups.
KEY ISSUES AND
CHALLENGES OF
SOUTHEAST ASIAN
LANGUAGE-IN-EDUCATION
POLICIES
 Minority communities are supposedly
not interested in the use of their
local/non-dominant language in
multilingual education.

 One ethnic group speaks many ‘dialects,’

as the official ethnolinguistic
classification may not reflect current
linguistic reality.

 Multilingual education is not seen as a

high priority by donors/program
implementers.
KEY ISSUES AND
CHALLENGES OF
SOUTHEAST ASIAN
LANGUAGE-IN-EDUCATION
POLICIES
5) Written Policies versus
Implementation

 Supportive policies exist on paper,

but policies are not always
implemented, as it is said, for
example, “the prevailing
conditions are not yet supportive.”
DO YOU HAVE
ANY
QUESTION?
 REFERENCES
TEXTBOOKS AND E-BOOKS
Lim, J. M. (2021). A Course Module for Language Programs and Policies in Multilingual
Societies. Rex Book Store.

WEBPAGES AND OTHER ONLINE

REFERENCES
Kosonen, K. and Young, C. (2009). Mother Tongue As Bridge Language of Instruction: Policies and
Experiences in Southeast Asia. Bangkok: Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization.
http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/527021468104056444/pdf/563290PUB0Box31guage0of0
Instruction.pdf

Lorente, B. (2016). Language-in-Education Policies and Mobile Citizens.

https://www.academia.edu/31543288/Language-in-education_policies_and_mobile_citizens