Language education policy in Asia

Abstract

Language education polices are a form of human resource development planning (Kaplan & Baldauf, 1997)that operate to develop language abilities that a society identifies important for social, economic or other objectives. They make statements about which languages will be included in education and the purposes for which those languages will be taught and learned. Policies therefore project an imagined future linguistic situation and make provisions to bring this into existence (Liddicoat, 2013). Understanding such policies is important for understanding how authoritative institutions such as governments and education systems construct the future possibilities for languages within their jurisdictions and attempt shape emerging linguistic ecologies. The goal of this book is to understand language policy for education, how they have evolved over time and what they have to say about the future of linguistic diversity in this vast region. The focus of the book is on explicitly stated language policies; that is policies that are enshrined in various forms of language legislation, policy documents, curricula and other educational texts. Such policies are inevitably accompanied by implicit policies, which equally shape language practices and can contribute significantly to what happens educationally (Spolsky, 2004). As public statements of governments’ intentions and values in relation to language, explicit policies documents have a particular place within the policy context as they are “explicit, tangible and authoritative statements of policy positions and as such can form a useful focus for study” (Liddicoat, 2013, p. 4).