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This chapter investigates whether bilingual and transitional literacy programmes can effectively be developed in multilingual and culturally diverse social contexts, such as the Philippines and other Asian nations. It argues that educational policies play a critical role in recognising the place of languages in Indigenous identity. The chapter describes current innovations in first language education in the elementary years in the Philippines. It draws on examples from Manobo and Kalagan language communities in Mindanao and the Kalinga languages of northern Luzon.

This chapter begins with a discussion of historical reports of sign language. It then discusses sign language in the education of deaf children, attempts to join the “oral” and “manual” approaches to education into what was originally referred to as “the combined system”, progress in linguistic studies of sign language development, and the contemporary context for studies of sign language development.

This chapter follows the lead of Pennycook's study concerning the relationships between the English language and colonialism. It notes that Pennycook warns that to characterize colonialism according to simple stereotypes of a colonizer's oppression and exploitation of a colonized people draws attention away from the constant cultural and micropolitical operations of colonialism, although the complexities of related issues co-exist with the daily presence of simple dichotomizing. It notes however, that the focus in this chapter limits itself neither to colonial discourses in a narrow sense nor to Hong Kong per se; rather, it pits the colonialism-English relationships against the complex formation of collaborative colonial power in both Hong Kong and China. It shows that the privileged status of English-language education in Hong Kong was more likely to stem from irregular changes in policy and societal orientation than from an ingrained imperialist imperative.

This chapter discusses the big differences of how refugee children are incorporated into school systems in three European countries (Sweden, Germany and The Netherlands) and in Turkey. Over the past 5 years many refugee children made their way from war-torn countries to neighboring countries in the Middle East or to Europe. This chapter compares how they are incorporated into education. The four countries each represent very different responses to receiving children in their education system: from fully integrating them as soon as possible in regular classes to developing an actual parallel school system. The chapter highlights which national institutional arrangements impede refugee children to become successful in school, and which national institutional arrangements help children in their educational career, comparing access to compulsory school, access after compulsory school age, welcome or immersion classes, second language education and tracking mechanisms.

This chapter examines the implications for language-education policy behind three questions concerning the English language. These include the questions about the introduction of English into school curriculums and the introduction of English either as a subject or as a medium of instruction. The chapter discusses the ways in which Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries implemented their respective language-education policies with a particular focus on the teaching and learning of English.

This chapter examines the processes involved in the implementation of innovation in the teaching of English language in Singapore. It highlights the proactive management of educational policies and the decisiveness and expedience with which these policies are generally implemented. It provides a critical review of the structures and practices involved in the English language syllabus over the years and identifies the distinct stages in its evolution.

This chapter provides a historical description and comparison of the role of the English language in members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that were previously colonies of English-speaking empires including Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines. It suggests that the major motivation for language-education policies in Malaysia has been ethnicity and race, while the major motivation in the Philippines has been class. In all countries discussed, the need to modernize acted as a power motivator for English.

This chapter explores how the unique South African context affects the way one evaluates the right to own-language education of the White Afrikaans minority. International human rights law affords linguistic minorities the right to education in the language of their choice. However, for one particular minority community, the Afrikaners, the protection of that right is complicated by South Africa's history of racial inequality, particularly in the area of education. As such, the chapter argues that it is not possible to apply the ordinary principles concerning minority languages to Afrikaans. However, that does not mean that Afrikaners are not entitled to some protection for their language. Rather, it requires looking for compromises and innovative solutions that acknowledge both the position of privilege built on a history of racial discrimination and the legitimate demand for protecting Afrikaans-language education.

In this chapter, the major findings on learner experience in the last half century in China have been summarized and the implications for the study of multilingualism have been discussed. Some current trends in language education in China in the teaching of Chinese, the promotion of English and the development of minority education have been highlighted and a few areas for further research have been pointed out. It remains for me to hope that a multilingual orientation in studying language education in China can continue to be adopted, not only because that is a more fruitful approach to understand the circumstances in China but also because a multilingual outlook to linguistic developments around the world is more culturally enriching. In modern human history, the language that spreads to other nations is often the language that has economic and political power. When the English-speaking world loses its pre-eminence by those yardsticks, other European languages and Asian languages may return to their former positions in the world. Hopefully, no single language will predominate over the globe ever again and the world will be truly multilingual.

This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about English language in Singapore. This book describes Singapore's language policy and provides an overview of the ecology in which English exists. It examines the glocalization of English in Singapore and investigates the relation between language and social capital. It also discusses the problems concerning English language education and the possibility for English to become lingua franca in Singapore.

This chapter examines how lingua franca as a theoretical concept applied to the sociolinguistic realities of English use in Singapore may assist us in negotiating Singapore's English language education. It discusses the concept of the English as Lingua France (ELF) movement and research in world Englishes and International English (IE), and explains their pedagogical and educational implications. It also explores the continuity, innovation, and diversity in Singapore's English language education.

This chapter discusses how the general educational crisis, which emerged in many colonized societies, shaped the way in which British imperial authorities employed English-language education in Hong Kong and China. It examines how English education emerged as a new colonial governmentality, both as a response to the crisis situation wherein the old Anglicist belief that the English language embodied moral superiority was on the wane, and as an occasion for the rise of educational managerialism, by focusing on Frederick Lugard's project for the establishment of the University of Hong Kong (HKU). It also demonstrates that such a reconfiguration of the imperial “civilizing mission” would have been impossible without the enthusiasm of Chinese collaborators both in China in Hong Kong, all of whom were involved not only in shaping the post-Qing Chinese political order but also in the continuation of the British imperial mission in the new Republican China.

This chapter examines the pedagogical implications of the multilingual model and the lingua franca approach in English Language Teaching (ELT) in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. It attempts to answer the questions concerning the teaching of English in schools and who should teach it. The chapter suggests that English should not be used as a medium of instruction in primary schools and that the linguistic focus of primary schools in ASEAN should be on local languages, not English.

In this chapter, a historical account of the development of the language-in-education (LIE) policy in Hong Kong is provided. The socio-political context is also described in an attempt to situate this policy in the historical context. Major policy developments including the MIGA exercise introduced in 1994, the mandatory linguistic streaming policy introduced in 1998, and recent policy revisions, are also discussed. We make the observation that Hong Kong's postcolonial LIE policy has been plagued with charges of elitism and social stratifying effects. Ironically, the situation seems to be worse than it was during colonial times. In conclusion, we discuss how Hong Kong's postcolonial mother-tongue education policy seems to be more a result of narrowly focused technical rationality than of postcolonial nationalism, and how this decontextualized rationality has run into trouble by failing to pay attention to the larger socio-economic and socio-political effects of the policies. Discussion is also given to the recent policy of implementing Putonghua as MOI for Chinese Language and Literature which, although likely to be driven by the agenda to spread China's national language to Hong Kong, is legitimized in the Hong Kong government's discourse by the pedagogical benefits of Putonghua teaching on the writing skills of Modern Standard Chinese.

This chapter demonstrates that no language bears a permanent essence, remains an unchanging signifier. English is no longer seen as a marker of Englishness, a symbolic capital which only some — the privileged — might lay claim to. Today, English no longer carries the colonial marks of its origin. Instead, it is reinscribed with new meanings. Everyone in India — the poor and the marginalized — wants to learn English. It is a language that is Indian, like many other languages are, but it is perceived as enabling access to the world. Increasingly, it is the language seen as belonging to the present, a language that everyone can and ought to learn to be modern, ‘to be a true Indian’.

This chapter focuses primarily on the incorporation of francophone Canadian literature as an object of study in the curriculum of French-language schools in Quebec and draws on curriculum documents, material submitted to the Parent Commission, the Parent Report, as well as material relating to examinations. After an introductory section on the situation of French-language education in Quebec, successive sections discuss the teaching of literature in Quebec from 1900 to 1960; the findings and recommendations of the Parent Report in the 1960s; developments in the curriculum from the 1960s onwards; it concludes with a consideration of the place of francophone Canadian literature in the curriculum today, both within and beyond Quebec.