English in ASEAN: implications for regional multilingualism

Abstract

The Charter of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was officially adopted in February 2009. Article 34 of the Charter states that, 'The working language of ASEAN shall be English'. In this article, I shall first briefly trace the development of English in ASEAN and demonstrate that, even in those countries of the ASEAN group, which were not colonies of Britain or the United States, English has become increasingly important. I shall show that, in almost all cases, the language policies of ASEAN countries require people to learn their respective national language and English. This combination of the learning of English is along with the national language, which can be a national lingua franca such as Bahasa Indonesia in Indonesia and Filipino in the Philippines. As a consequence, local and indigenous languages, other than the national language, are being replaced by English in many school curricula and in other domains. It is also rare to find government schools in ASEAN teaching the national languages of other ASEAN states. I shall conclude by considering the implications of this for multilingualism in the region.

An Exploratory Study of Thai University Students’ Understanding of World Englishes

“…Over the past three decades, World Englishes (WEs) (Baker, 2009;Bennui & Hashim, 2014;Higgins, 2003;Jenkins, 2006;Kachru, 1990;Kirkpatrick, 2012) has been extensively researched in fields that run the gamut of sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, English education and intercultural communication. While it is considered a "realistic" linguistic phenomenon due to its emphasis on a sociolinguistic reality (Yano, 2009), educated laypersons who nevertheless are key stakeholders may not necessarily be aware of its existence.…”

Investigating the Relationship between Foreign Language Anxiety and Oral Performance of Non-English Major University Students in Indonesia

“…Despite the Indonesian government's explicit legal encouragement on studying foreign languages and Indonesia's having one of the biggest numbers of English as Foreign Language (EFL) speakers in the world, studies of Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) among students in Indonesia are, unfortunately, still very rare. Besides, most EFL learners in Indonesia may use very little English outside classroom contexts due to the extensive use of Indonesian as well as various regional languages at homes (Kirkpatrick, 2012). As such, many students may feel anxious when using English.…”

Đề Án Ngoại Ngữ Quốc Gia 2020 Có Thể Học Được Gì Từ Kinh Nghiệm Châu Á?

“…Rất nhiều nước ở châu lục này đã đưa tiếng Anh vào chương trình giáo dục từ bậc tiểu học (Baldauf, Kaplan, Kamwangamalu & Bryant, 2011;Nunan, 2003) hoặc sử dụng tiếng Anh làm ngôn ngữ giảng dạy một số môn khoa học ở bậc đại học (Kirkpatrick, 2012), sử dụng Khung tham chiếu ngôn ngữ châu Âu (Khung CEFR) để xây dựng chương trình và đánh giá năng lực tiếng Anh của giáo viên và học sinh (Read, 2014).…”