In Malaysia and some parts of Southeast Asia, efforts to decolonise the English language classroom remain minimal. While there are scholars who advocate criticality towards western-centric perspectives on language education, related work has largely been confined to individual teachers' classrooms. This is further problematised when students'…

This paper discusses structural and ideological challenges to mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) which has in recent years been gaining ground in many educational contexts around the world. The paper argues, however, that MTB-MLE is set against these challenges - referred to here as inequalities of multilingualism - which prevent…

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 first briefly trace the development of English in ASEAN and demonstrate that, even in those countries of the ASEAN group…

This study surveys the history of English language and the roles of English language education in Asian context. Through the historical survey on English dispersal in Asian countries, the first section of this study traces the dispersal of English from the 18th century and the development of English in Asian countries. The second section of this…

The paper will explore the challenges students from selected South East Asian countries (Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia) face while studying English in Australia before entering into Australian University courses. These students must contend not only with different styles of teaching and learning, but also with the challenge of adapting to a new…

In any discussion of multilingual Asia, caution is in order, for two reasons. One is that Asia is a vast land mass connecting variegated peoples cartographically but not sociologically. Second, describing and accounting for the sociolinguistic complexities of Asia (or anywhere else, for that matter) is history in the making in that, just like…

"Reading in Asian Languages" is rich with information about how literacy works in the non-alphabetic writing systems (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) used by hundreds of millions of people and refutes the common Western belief that such systems are hard to learn or to use. The contributors share a comprehensive view of reading as construction…

Trinity College Dublin was proud to host, in April 2016, the Second International Conference on Telecollaboration in Higher Education, with the theme "New Directions in Telecollaborative Research and Practice." Over two and a half days, 150 participants offered 95 research presentations, posters, and "problem shared" sessions.…

A study of the various facets and dimensions of literacy programs in South Asia indicates that literacy is viewed as a means of human resource development geared toward meaningful participation of all sectors in society, with individual programs varying according to the magnitude of illiteracy, national goals, linguistic setting, and regional…

Summaries of eight language-related research projects are presented from Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. Topics include a sociolinguistic profile, teacher and learner views of language lessons, Malay-accented English and employability, reading difficulties, language culture disjunction, placement interviews, and…

This book offers 21 papers in three parts. After (1) "Introduction" (Jacques Maurais and Michael A. Morris), Part 1, "Global Communication Challenges," includes (2) "Towards a New Global Linguistic Order?" (Jacques Maurais); (3) "The Geostrategies of Interlingualism" (Mark Fettes); (4) "Language Policy…

Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) need to address the cultural components of the language they are teaching, specifically the "unwritten" rules of time and space that are expressed in English. Techniques for addressing the sociolinguistic differences between English and students' native language are presented, focusing on…

Examines the field of Spanish linguistics over 100 years, subdividing Spanish linguistics into several subdisciplines: historical grammar, descriptive phonetics, Spanish phonology, contrastive structures, descriptive grammar, Spanish syntax, specific Spanish dialectology, Spanish in Africa and Asia, sociolinguistics of Spanish-speaking societies,…

Discusses the effects of new national economic priorities in Australia and of that country's desire for closer trade and cultural ties in the area on European minority languages and Asian "priority" languages. The article argues that equity and mobility for those with a less preferred language background are best achieved via English…

A study of the English of British schoolchildren of South Asian extraction looks at ways of examining the relationship between their English and two ethnic processes, called "interactive" and "reactive". The way in which Network Analysis permits investigation of the interactive process is outlined, and the use of Identity…