English in General Education: Current Issues and Possible Solutions

Abstract

English has become the second language of basic education in many countries and jurisdictions within the Asia Pacific region, and it is now second only to the countries’ respective national languages. It is also being introduced earlier and earlier into the school curriculum, now often at Grade/Primary 3 (Kirkpatrick and Liddicoat 2019). This chapter first reviews the place of English in basic education and consider the reasons why English is becoming so dominant in so many educational systems. The chapter then raises a number of concerns connected with the dominant position of English in the school curriculum and argues that the early introduction of English can cause a range of problems: for example, there is often a shortage of qualified teachers with adequate proficiency in English to teach it at primary level; the focus on English leads to a neglect of local languages, which may, in fact, be the mother-tongues of many of the children in a region that is highly multilingual, and this denies these children the opportunity to learn in their first language; the focus on English can undermine the role of the respective national language as a language of education; and the early introduction of English privileges elite and wealthy families where English is already spoken and who can also afford to provide extra-English lessons for their children. The chapter concludes by suggesting how language education policy might be revised in ways that will enable children to become proficient in English, while also developing literacy and fluency in their mother tongue and the national language.