Innovative Second and Foreign Language Education in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Southeast Asia, situated between India and China, represents approxi-mately 9% of the world's population (580 million), and more than 15% of the world's languages. With a heritage of over 2,000 years, Southeast Asia contains all the religions and cultures of the world, giv-ing it a distinctive character of cultural diversity and plurality. Modern Southeast Asia consists of ten countries belonging to the regional orga-nization called the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) formed in 1967. With its population of more than half a billion, a total area of 4.5 million square kilometers, a combined gross domestic product of US737 billion, and a total trade of US720 billion, the ASEAN region cooperates on economic growth, social progress, and cultural development. Thumboo (1998) provides country studies of each ASEAN nation in terms of their rich cultures and the likely direc-tions of their development. Among the ten ASEAN countries comprising Brunei, Indonesia, Kampuchea (Cambodia), Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, four will be examined in terms of the research on the status and role of the second language and on innovative teaching/learning strategies employed in the instruc-tion of the second language. The four countries—Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore—have had a long internal history with English, a natural second language because of an extended formal association with Britain (till 1984 in the case of Brunei), with British colonialism (till 1957 in the case of Malaysia; till 1963 in the case of Singapore), and with American colonialization (till 1946 in the case of the Philippines). The fifth, Indonesia, went through a Dutch coloni-zation period (lasting till 1949) but in recent decades has turned increasingly to English as an additional language especially with inde-pendence in 1949. As for the rest of the ASEAN countries, Kampuchea (which was a protectorate of France till 1863, went through six different regimes thereafter, and did not have access to English until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989), Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) which had French influence and later Russian influence until 1995, Myanmar (which was a British colony till 1948), Thailand (which was never colonized) and Vietnam (which attained national independence from France in 1954), English is considered a foreign language, albeit an important one. In fact, in some ASEAN countries (e.g., Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam), English is a compulsory foreign language taught in schools. English is taken to be the " second language " in all of the four " English associated " nations, although its status and role will differ from country to country. The first point to note in this survey of inno-vative second language education in Southeast Asia is that all of the nations in focus here are multiracial, multilingual, and multicultural; the diversity of population in each and its geographical distribution affect the patterns of language acquisition and use among the young school-going populace. The second point is that these ASEAN coun-tries have, in recent years, undergone impressive economic growth and rapid sociocultural transformation through the use of English, a language which enables these industrializing economies to continue plugging into the international grid of finance and industry but at the same time seems to threaten their national identity. This trend continues especially in this era where globalization is the new catchphrase. The experiences and practices of second language education in such multi-lingual communities provide new perspectives, whether one focuses on language policy and development, curriculum planning and practice, materials and media development, teacher training, or language learning. Research on the topic of how English language education has been handled in the four ASEAN English-knowing countries, and some innovative practices are reviewed below. A statement at the end will highlight future developments for these member countries and the remaining ASEAN countries of Southeast Asia which are not covered in this review.