Introduction to the special issue: multilingual and multicultural English education in Asia

Abstract

This special issue of Asian Englishes carries the theme ‘Multilingual and Multicultural English Education in Asia.’ In the development of ideas on languages and language learning, educational linguists have always promoted the benefits of embracing first languages in educational policies and practices. In the 1953 report of a meeting of language specialists in Paris, entitled ‘The Use of Vernacular Languages in Education,’ UNESCO (1953) declared that ‘it is axiomatic that the best medium for teaching a child is his mother language’ (p. 11). However, the report also recognizes that various forces that include political, sociocultural, economic, and even linguistic factors complicate the delivery of multilingual education. The result is the predominance of a monolingual mindset that constrains educational practices to one language, usually a prestige language such as English. This is the case in Asia, where English arrived as either a transplanted language brought by colonizers or a foreign language desired because of the perceived stature it bestows upon its speakers. Of late, paradigms and mindsets have shifted to what we now know as the ‘multilingual turn,’ a term first used in two separate works in 2014 (May, 2014; Conteh & Meier, 2014). The multilingual turn is described by Meier 2017as ‘a critical movement in education’ (Meier, 2017, p. 131) that may be associated with the following ideas: languages are resources for learning; languages afford status and power; language learners are diverse multilinguals; and learning is a multilingual social practice. The contributions in this special issue tackle these ideas. This special issue presents works from the Philippines, Malaysia, and India – three Outer Circle Asian countries – as well as works from the Expanding Circle countries of Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Each article examines a different aspect of English language education, with a particular emphasis on the local or regional factors that influence language education practices and policies, all in the contexts of multilingualism and multiculturalism. The issue opens with Marianne Perfecto’s article entitled ‘Situated and Localised Learning: Examining the Case of two English Language Teachers in Multilingual Settings in the Philippines During the COVID−19 Pandemic.’ Perfecto explores the teaching practices of English language teachers in the Philippines during the COVID−19 pandemic,