Language Planning for Medium of Instruction in Asia

This volume investigates the policy and practice of medium of instruction at different levels of education in Asian polities including Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Maldives, Nepal, Timor-Leste and Vietnam. The chapters provide an informed understanding of the context, process, actors, goals and outcomes of medium of instruction policies from a language policy and planning perspective. The volume has an emphasis on the exploration of medium of instruction in action which brings into focus the perspectives of micro policy enactors including teachers, students, and parents in the local context, generating crucial empirical insights. This critical analysis of the goals, outcomes and experiences of this trend in global language-in-education will be of interest to language and education students, researchers, practicing teachers, executives in academia and language studies and to education policymaking authorities in Asia and other parts of the world. The volume updates existing research on medium of instruction and takes the field forward in a fast-changing world as English medium instruction policies are globalised. This book was originally published as a special issue of Current Issues in Language Planning.

1. Medium of instruction in Asia: Context, process and outcomes M. Obaidul Hamid, Hoa Thi Mai Nguyen and Richard B. Baldauf Jr 2. ‘English-only’, but not a medium-of-instruction policy: the Japanese way of internationalising education for both domestic and overseas students Kayoko Hashimoto 3. Will the new fine-tuning medium-of-instruction policy alleviate the threats of dominance of English-medium instruction in Hong Kong? Anita Y.K. Poon 4. The impacts of globalisation on EFL teacher education through English as a medium of instruction: an example from Vietnam Dang Thi Kim Anh, Hoa Thi Mai Nguyen and Truc Thi Thanh Le 5. A changing paradigm in language planning: English-medium instruction policy at the tertiary level in Malaysia Nor Liza Ali 6. Navigating through the English-medium-of-instruction policy: voices from the field Nugrahenny T. Zacharias 7. Finding space for non-dominant languages in education: language policy and medium of instruction in Timor-Leste 2000–2012 Kerry Taylor-Leech 8. Language ideologies and local languages as the medium-of-instruction policy: a critical ethnography of a multilingual school in Nepal Prem Phyak 9. Medium of instruction policies and language practices, ideologies and institutional divides: voices of teachers and students in a private university in Bangladesh M. Obaidul Hamid, Iffat Jahan and M. Monjurul Islam 10. Mediating inequalities: exploring English-medium instruction in a suburban Indian village school Usree Bhattacharya 11. The challenge of medium of instruction: a view from Maldivian schools Naashia Mohamed

M. Obaidul Hamid is Lecturer in TESOL Education at the University of Queensland, Australia. His research focuses on the policy and practice of TESOL education in developing societies. He has published his work in a number of language and education journals. Hoa Thi Mai Nguyen is a research fellow at the University of Sydney, Australia. She has experience teaching TESOL and training pre-service and in-service teachers. Her ongoing research interests have been in the areas of TESOL, language planning and policy, and teacher education. Richard B. Baldauf Jr. is Professor of TESOL Education at the University of Queensland, Australia. He focuses on language policy and planning as it relates to education in the Asia-Pacific region. He has written numerous articles and co-edited or co-authored 15 language planning-related books with Multilingual Matters, Routledge and Kluwer-Springer.