This paper will identify the major trends that can be determined from an overall study of recent language policies
across Asia. The trends can be seen across three interrelated themes, namely: the promotion and privileging of one language as the
national language as part of an attempt to create a nation state, often in polities that are linguistically extremely diverse; a
decrease in the promotion of indigenous languages other than the national language and the neglect of these in education in many
countries; and the promotion of English as the first foreign language in education systems, often giving other ‘foreign’ languages
a minimal role in education. Possible reasons and motivations for these trends will be discussed and countries where exceptions to
these trends can be identified will be illustrated. The aim of the paper will be to discuss these trends and to critically
evaluate selected language policies. The paper will conclude with predictions for the future linguistic ecology of the region and for the interrelationships of respective national languages, indigenous languages and English
(2013) Keynote address by H. E. Le Luong Minh, Secretary-General of ASEAN at the British Council Conference on ‘Educating the next generation of workforce: ASEAN perspectives on innovation, integration and English’. Bangkok, June24 2013.
Benson, C.
(2019) Li-based multlingual eduation in the Asia and Pacific region and beyond. Where are we and where do we need to go? In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 29–41). Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Bolton, K. & Bacon-Shone, J.
(2020, in press). The statistics of English across Asia. In K. Bolton, W. Botha & A. Kirkpatrick (Eds.), The handbook of Asian Englishes. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell.
Bradley, D.
(2019) Minority language learning in mainland Southeast Asia. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 14–28). Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Bydanova, L., & Rozmetov, D.
(2014) Évolutions récentes du système éducatif de l’Ouzbékistan. Revue internationale d’éducation de Sèvres, 651, 1–7.
Chandralal, D.
(2010) Sinhala. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Ding, P. S.
(2015) Value of Primi: knowledge of traditional culture in a threatened language. In Indigenous languages: Value to the community. Bath: Foundation for Endangered Languages, 21–26.
Dovchin, S.
(2017) Translocal English in the linguascape of Mongolian popular music. World Englishes 36(1), 2–19.
Draper, J.
(2019) Language education policy in Thailand. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 229–242). New York: Routledge.
Dukpa, L.
(2019) Language policy in Bhutan. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 355–363). New York: Routledge.
Feng, A. and Adamson, R. A.
(2019) Language policies in education in the People’s Republic of China. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 45–59). New York: Routledge.
Feng, A. & Adamson, R. A.
(Eds.) (2015) Trilingualism in education in China: models and challenges. Dordrecht: Springer.
Gnanadesikan, A. E.
(2017) Dhivehi: The language of the Maldives. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.
Gonzalez, A. B.
(1996) The history of English in the Philippines. In M. L. Bautista (Ed.). English is an Asian language: the Philippine context. (pp 25–40). Sydney: The Macquarie Library.
Graddol, D.
(2010) English next: India. London: The British Council.
Hamid, M. O., & Erling, E. J.
(2016) English-in-education policy and planning in Bangladesh: A critical examination. In R. Kirkpatrick (Ed.), English language education policy in Asia (pp. 25–48). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Hamid, M. O., & Rahman, A.
(2019) Language education policy in Bangladesh: A neoliberal turn? In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 382–390). Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Hasanova, D.
(2016) English education in Uzbekistan. In E. S. Ahn & J. Smagulova (Eds.), Language change in Central Asia (pp. 245–265). Boston, Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.
Honna, N. & Saruhashi, J.
(2019) Langugae education policy in Japan. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 97–110). New York: Routledge.
Jain, R., & Wee, L.
(2019) Language education policy: Singapore. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 272–285). New York: Routledge.
Jeon, J.
(2019) Language education policies in Siuth Korea. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 111–123). New York: Routledge.
Kalainathan, R.
(2000) Linguistic heritage of Sri Lankan Tamil. In O. N. Koul & L. Devaki (Eds.), Linguistic heritage of India and Asia (pp. 300–304). Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages.
Kan, V., K. C. Lai, A. Kirkpatrick, & A. Law
(2011) Fine-tuning Hong Kong’s medium of instruction policy. Hong Kong: Strategic Planning Office & Research Centre into Language Education and Acquisition in Multilingual Societies, The Hong Kong Institute of Education.
Khruslov, G.
(2006) Функционирование русского языка в странах СНГ [Functioning of the Russian language in CIS countries]. Russian Language Journal, 56(5), 131–166.
Kirkpatrick, A.
(2010) English as a lingua franca in ASEAN: A multilingual model. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Kirkpatrick, A. & Liddicoat, A. J.
(2019) Overview. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 3–13.). New York: Routledge.
Kirkpatrick, A. & Liddicoat, A. J.
(2017) Language policy in Asia. Language Teaching 50(2), 155–188.
Kohler, M.
(2019) Language education policy in Indonesia: a struggly for unity in diversity. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 286–297). New York: Routledge.
Kosonen, K.
(2019) Language education policy in Cambodia. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 216–228). New York: Routledge.
Landau, J. M.
(2010) Alphabet reform in the six independent ex-Soviet Muslim republics. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 20(01), 25–32.
Landau, J. M., & Kellner-Heinkele, B.
(2001) Politics of language in the ex-Soviet Muslim states: Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Liddicoat, A. J.
(2019) Language-in-education policy in the Central Asian republics of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 452–470). New York: Routledge.
Liyanage, I.
(2019) Language education policy in Sri Lanka. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 399–413). Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
(2019) Mongolia: Language education policy In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 137–150). New York: Routledge.
Mohamed, N.
(2019) From amonolingual to a multilingual nation: Analysing the language education policy in the Maldives. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 414–426). Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Mohanty, A. K.
(2019) Language policy in education in India. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 329–340). Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Moody, A.
(2019) Educational language policy in Macau: Finding balance between Chinese, English and Portuguese. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 77–96). New York: Routledge.
Phyak, P., & Ojha, L. P.
(2019) Language education policy and inequalities of multilingualism in nepal: Ideologies, histories and updates. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 341–354). Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Piller, I. & Cho, J.
(2013) Neoliberalism as language policy. Language in Society, 42(1), 23–44.
Poon, A. Y. K.
(2019) Language education policy in Hong Kong. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 60–75). New York: Routledge.
Rahman, T.
(2010) A multilingual language-in-education policy for indigenous minorities in Bangladesh: Challenges and possibilities. Current Issues in Language Planning, 11(4), 341–359.
Rahman, T.
(2019) Mother tongue education policy in Pakistan. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 364–381). Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Regan, T.
(2019) Language planning and language policy in Kazakhstan. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 442–451). New York: Routledge.
Republic of the Philippines
(2013) An act enhancing the Philippine basic education system by strengthening its curriculum and increasing the number of years for basic education, appropriating funds therefor and for other purposes. Retrieved from [URL]
Song, J.
(2019) Language education policy in North Korea. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 124–136). New York: Routledge.
Spooner, B., & Nawad, S.
(2019) Language education policy in Afghanistan. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 429–441). Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Tupas, R.
(2007) Go back to class: the medium of instruction debate in the Philippines. In L. H. Guan & L. Suryadinata (Eds.). Language, nation and development. (pp: 39–50). Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Wang, L. & Kirkpatrick, A.
(2013) Trilingual education in Hong Kong primary schools: a case study. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 1691), 100–116.
Wang, L. & Kirkpatrick, A.
(2019) Multilingual Education in Hong Kong Primary Schools. Dordrecht: Springer.
Wu, L. & Lau, K.
(2019) Language education policy in Taiwan. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 151–162). Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Young, C. & Igcalinos, T.
(2019) Language-in-education policy development in the Philipppines. In A. Kirkpatrick & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 165–184). Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Cited by
Cited by 5 other publications
Calafato, Raees
2021. “I'm a salesman and my client is China”: Language learning motivation, multicultural attitudes, and multilingualism among university students in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. System 103 ► pp. 102645 ff.
Poudel, Prem Prasad & Tae-Hee Choi
2021. Discourses shaping the language-in-education policy and foreign language education in Nepal: an intersectional perspective. Current Issues in Language Planning► pp. 1 ff.
Sung, Chit Cheung Matthew
2021. English only or more?: Language ideologies of international students in an EMI university in multilingual Hong Kong. Current Issues in Language Planning► pp. 1 ff.
Tao, Yuan
2021. Russian language teachers’ professional agency against the backdrop of the New National Teaching Quality Standards in China: an ecological perspective. Current Issues in Language Planning► pp. 1 ff.
Zhang, Xinyi, Carrie Lau & Yufen Su
2021. Home Environment and Development of English as A Second/Foreign Language for Young Children in Asian Contexts: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Early Education and Development► pp. 1 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.