Keywords

1 Introduction

It is forecast that the twenty-first century will be the Asian century. In 2020, Asia hosted more than half of the world population and occupied an estimation of 50% of the world’s middle class (Romie & Reed, 2019). It was estimated that, at market exchange value, Asia accounted for 38 per cent of global output in 2020, up from 26 per cent in the early 2000s (Romie & Reed, 2019). Several mega cities of the world have been built in Asia, with the latest technologies located in Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, and Dubai. The living standards of several countries, once considering under the poverty line, have caught up with that of many Western countries.

Several emerging Asian economies have evidently made the Asian century possible. The rise of Chinese and Indian economies explains a lot for such a new economic power shift. Impressing the world with its high economic growth rate for decades (Naughton, 2018), China is now seen as a huge economy, ranked second in 2022, with a GDP of 13.4 trillion.Footnote 1 In 2019, it accounted for 19 per cent of world output in 2019 (Romie & Reed, 2019). Additionally, India is currently placed seventh in terms of the world’s largest economy, with a GDP of 2.72 trillion in 2022.Footnote 2 Even before the economic successes of China and India, the emergence of Asian tiger economies—Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan (sometimes Japan is also included in this list)—impressed the world with their rapid socio-economic growth rates (Paldam, 2003) due to intensive investments in human capital, outward orientation, and political reforms (Arora & Ratnasiri, 2015; Paldam, 2003). Within about 50 years, they could almost join rich Western countries (Paldam, 2003). Despite the slowdown of the Asian tigers’ economies in recent years due to financial crisis (Glick & Spiegel, 2009), the rise of the so-called Asian tiger cub economies has, in fact, further built momentum for the arrival of the Asian century. For example, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam are ranked 16th, 25th, 35th, 37th, and 45th biggest economies in 2022 respectively.Footnote 3 Take the case of Vietnam as an example, its economic boom was instilled by the introduction of Doi Moi Policy in 1986. Since 1990 to 2020, just before the pandemic, the GDP growth rate has been kept stable, at above 5%, with an exception of the year 1999 at 4.7% due to the then financial crisis (World Bank, 2022). The GDP per capital in 2020 was 2,785 dollars, a huge rise from 94 dollars in 1990 (World Bank, 2022). Foreign investment to this nation has also jumped from 19.9 billion dollars in 2010 to 21.3 billion dollars in 2017 (Tran, 2019).

With such rapid socio-economic growth rates, increased foreign investments to Asian countries and exports from these countries to the world, the need for English language skills in the workforce is in high demands. For example, a survey from World Bank (2014, p. 24) showed that 81% of employers said that a lack of English communication skills was one of the main reasons blocking Malaysian graduates from securing an entry-level employment position. In Vietnam, most job adverts require candidates to possess the good level of English: 65% in 2015 and 67% in 2018 respectively (Doan & Hamid, 2019). In India, most employers are looking for qualified graduates with open mindset, positive attitudes, self-motivation, and fluent English communication abilities, of which they found the last criterion hard to meet (Dash et al., 2020; Sinha et al., 2019). In the case of China, although they prefer to use Chinese as their business language, they cannot resist the demand for English language skills in the country. A survey showed that among 415.95 million Chinese foreign-language learners, 390.16 million had learnt English (Wei & Su, 2012) for better career prospects. As such, in most Asian countries now, English has been taught as a compulsory subject at lower school and tertiary education levels, aiming to equip the graduates with this “weapon” of communication for their future careers, thus ultimately adding to sustainable development of the nations.

In this chapter, we will review the language policies and the initiatives to make English language part of the education in several (traditionally) non-English speaking Asian countries. We will also provide brief comments on the convergence and divergence in such policies and initiatives, pinpointing the weaknesses of the current approach to English language education. Based on that, we will call for re-consideration of the current practices of teaching and learning of English with regard to how it successfully prepares students for the future careers.

2 English Language Policies in East and Northeast Asian Countries

2.1 China

China—as the fourth largest country in the world—is home to nearly 130 local languages and 56 ethnic groups, among which the Han group accounts for the largest population (91%) and speaks Mandarin Chinese. Mandarin or Putonghua became the official standardized forms of Chinese language in 1956 as a lingua franca of the country, which is consistent with China’s Constitution (1982) (Feng & Adamson, 2019). Following the country’s free-market reforms in 1979, there were high needs for competitive advantages in international relationships, global engagement, and international competitiveness to maintain its fast-growing country in the globe (Charlton, 2019; Cortzazzi & Jin, 1996; Hu, 2005a). This motivated foreign language policies, including English, to prove China’s position in the global market.

In the early 1960s, China promoted English in response to the socio-economic and technological goals along the modernization process (Hu, 2005). This was aimed to give its citizens better access to scientific knowledge in support of national development. In light of a foreign language policy in 2001, English was increasingly used in China to develop a wide range of cultural values and political strengths (Adamson, 2004) and more generally the nation’s sustained shift in modernization (Niu & Wolff, 2003). English started to become a required subject in the early level of Chinese education (Feng, 2005), which would then facilitate the development of English Language Teaching (ELT) in China.

The development of ELT in China was also an outcome of continuous efforts, monitored by the Ministry of Education, regarding the large governmental investment in learning resources (Hu, 2002a) and teacher education (Hu, 2002b). Significantly, the latest policy was published in 2021, entitled “Guidelines for Further Easing the Burden of Excessive Homework and Off-campus Tutoring for Students at the Stage of Compulsory Education”. Within the education sector, this policy aimed to ensure Chinese students’ healthy development, their access to qualified educational programs, reduced financial burden on their family, and institutionalized law-based governance (China Briefing, 2021).

However, there were inevitable concerns regarding the acceleration of the English language throughout Chinese contexts. Socially, despite the prerequisite English proficiency to facilitate Chinese’ upward social mobility, the expansive role of English language would be more likely to deteriorate a range of existing equality between mainstream and minority groups (Hu, 2005). Educationally, existing evidence suggests that Chinese learners were low in English language proficiency partly due to the heavy emphasis on language forms and grammar (Liu et al., 2021), which subsequently limited them in achieving employability (Feng, 2005; Pan, 2014). Alternatively, the fact that Chinese learners of English were purposefully trained to become native-like speakers of English was not reasonable, thus making them demotivated and feel unable to develop sufficient language competence as expected (Fang & Liu, 2020). Also, teachers do not have adequate opportunities for professional development and they primarily prepare students for the exams (Liu et al., 2021).

2.2 Japan

The Japanese linguistic system has been heavily influenced by the national efforts of industrialization and modernization, which likely contributed to its diverse characters embedded in language codes (influenced by Korean and old-comers’ languages in addition to traditional characters and less-popular codes) (Loveday, 1996). The Japanese locals are more apt to recognize themselves living in a mono-cultural country and using Japanese as an only language (Gottlieb, 2005), as a result of their exercise of idealism to recognize the One-State in One-Nation from the late nineteenth century. However, being one of the most developed countries in the world, Japan felt the need to accept the proliferation of multilingualism and multiculturalism for its long-term sustainable development.

Indeed, globalization has motivated the Japanese to keep pace with social, cultural, and technological shifts. While the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) has consistently promoted Japanese as a de facto national language of the country in order to maintain national identity, a lack of an international language proficiency served as a challenge to discourage economic progress and social development (Coulmas & Watanabe, 2002). Particularly, low English proficiency problematically prevented many Japanese from well-positioning in their local, national, and global settings. The consequence is that English has undoubtedly started to gain its firm status to serve Japanese’s academic, professional, and occupational purposes (Gottlieb, 2005). As such, English has been put into use for Japanese’ local educational directions and businesses via international partnerships, which has been taken into close condition for the nation’s socio-political, socio-cultural, and socio-economic strengths (Gottlieb, 2005; Rose & McKinley, 2017). Specifically, to better meet the shortest plan to promote English to support internationalization of Japan (Gottlieb, 2005; McKenzie, 2008), MEXT has passed and implemented the Called Action Plan. Under this plan, English was selected to assist the Japanese with a working command of English, being taught from the primary level to the tertiary education (Hato, 1995; Schneider, 2014). In 2008 when the Called Action Plan ended, despite its failures to develop English language proficiency for the Japanese (Hato, 2005; Schneider, 2014); it was considered as the first step to bring English more openly to the Japanese society.

To pursue better attainments, MEXT’s 5-proposal ELT guideline was introduced in 2011 in order to ensure English education for the Japanese as global citizens (MEXT, 2011). Being aware of cultural differences and global competencies is critical, MEXT delivered the new plans in terms of ELT implementations for junior high schools. The plans responded to the in-depth investigation of, and exploration of the plans to develop, students’ level, students’ motivations, teachers’ plans, colleges’ entry levels (Honna & Saruhashi, 2019). Unfortunately, the implementation of such a policy cannot be called a success. Its limited achievements were hindered by a number of factors, including the requirements for Japanese learners of English to become native-like proficient English users and the decreased importance on different varieties of English (Honna & Saruhashi, 2019). While over-emphasis on requiring the English native speakers to teach and develop the Japanese learners’ English language competence was placed in the classroom contexts, the Japanese learners did not have many opportunities to practice the language communicatively and explore cultural landscapes of English speaking countries (Houghton et al., 2018). Because examination was still important across educational levels, there was no room for cross-cultural communication, in addition to linguistic competence. As a result, it is a long way to achieve the target of internationalization Japan (Honna & Saruhashi, 2019).

2.3 Korea

Similar to Japan, South Korea is often represented as a unified identity—ethnically homogeneous nation—with 5,000 years of age (Kang, 2010). However, the difference is that the socio-economic development of South Korea was in line with the influx of foreign people and immigrants, thereby moving to become a multi-racial country. Also, the country has recently achieved its exponential economic growth, with the yearly GDP rates sustaining 5.45% from 1988 to 2019 and the yearly gross national income increasing from 67 USD in 1950s to 33,790 USD in 2019. These rocketed developments, as a result, allowed the country to play an important role in the global economy (The World Bank, 2021). With its complex population structure, South Korean needs an official language to make its people inclusive; likewise, to sustain socio-economic growth, South Korean needs an official language beneficial for its status in the international arena.

The Korean government highlights that education was inspired by the philosophy of “People-centered Education of the Future”, aiming at “promoting comprehensive growth of students”. While focusing on the “personalized education … to meet the demands of their different life students” (Ministry of Education, n.d.), there was a measure of any person’s success based on the premise of social status and economic ladder unique to themselves (Isozaki, 2018). It serves as part of the national efforts of bringing up the importance of education, politics, and national identity. The national language of Korean—Korean language—is put at the forefront under the guidance of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism. It is the main language for all matters in the country, but to move internationally, it needs more than that.

Therefore, English language education has been given more attention. First introduced in the national curriculum in 1963 (Ra, 2018), English became the official foreign language in 1998 (Yoo, 2005). The government pointed out that the English language may position South Korea competitively and help prepare its citizens to become a competitive workforce in the world (Piller & Cho, 2013). Therefore, English has been promoted more aggressively because a proficient English communicative competence is claimed to reap success in professional careers for the South Korean people (Ra, 2018).

Driven by reforms to orient the sustainable development of from-low-to-high level of education over the years (1948 to present), ELT in South Korea has also gone through a series of pertaining changes in focus. Foremost, it is observed that there has been an increase in the English language proficiency among South Korean learners (Lee, 2018). Their awareness of the importance of English language competence toward their economic status and employability was also enhanced (Shin & Lee, 2019). However, there were still challenges in teaching and learning. For example, an over-emphasis on learners’ improvement of linguistic knowledge prevents learners from successfully developing communicative competence in the earlier period of education (Lee, 2018). This also entails lowering students’ motivation to communicate competently in English language later on (Gearing & Roger, 2019). As a result, despite recent aggressive reforms, many South Korean learners are largely unable to use English in their communication effectively and to act as effective mediators in multicultural and multilingual environments (Lee, 2014).

3 English Language Policies in Southeast Asian Countries

3.1 Singapore

Bordering Malaysia to the north and neighboring Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, Singapore is a rich land with diverse cultures accepted as national identities. Among its 6 million people (estimated in 2021), roughly 74% are Chinese inhabitants, 14% have Malay origins, 9% belong to the Indian group (Department of Statistics, 2011). Of the total population, nearly one in three is a foreigner. At the present, the two national priorities are: maintaining language diversity to accommodate its diverse population and sustaining its socio-economic growth by recruiting talent foreigners (De Costa et al., 2016).

Singapore is a heterogeneous and highly multilingual population in the Asian region (Bolton & Ng, 2014). To facilitate cooperation, the Singaporean language policy has been revised gradually in order to help the citizens become bilingual speakers (Curdt-Christiansen & Sun, 2016; MOE, 2008). Like other nations in the region, in order to enable the members of local workforce to engage successfully in multicultural contexts and particularly in international job markets, English has been deliberately promoted for use (Galvez, 2019), together with their own mother tongues. Having a rich experience with British cultures in the history positively helps people embrace with the English speaking culture among Singaporeans (Chew, 2005).

It was noted that the adoption of English as the common language in Singapore did not happen without concerns. In early 2000s, “Speak good English movement” was initiated, promoting people to use Singaporean English and achieve good results in terms of improving English language competence among the people. The Singaporean government then has taken a strict measure to stop the public use of Singaporean English (Rubdy, 2001), replacing it by Standard English. The latter promoted the use of English with linguistic properties and structures normally accepted by English native speakers. It was criticized that the excessive emphasis on linguistic knowledge, with less focus on practical use would not help the citizens achieve their communication goals. Likewise, it was also argued that citizens should have chances to use the varieties of English, with certain influences of their mother tongues, to keep their culturally and socially local cultures (Tan & Ng, 2011).

To further promote English varieties in line with the English language policy, some ELT-related research stressed that there are countless benefits and little drawbacks to maintain local varieties of English, in light of English as a medium of instruction (Bolton et al., 2017). For example, some suggested that the various forms of English produced by its speakers in many locations would greatly enhance the sharing and understanding of local cultures in their country. It also agreed that widespread use of local varieties of English could practically help them succeed in their distinctive academic, social, and professional purposes as well as enhance their employment prospects (Rubdy, 2001; Tan & Ng, 2011). Regardless of stakeholders’ viewpoints, English holds an important status in the language policies of Singapore and has helped it a great deal in terms of sustaining its diversity and socio-economic development.

3.2 Thailand

Thailand is located in the center of mainland Southeast Asia as the 20th most populous country. Economically, Thailand has significantly progressed to become an upper-middle-income country. This economic development has also resulted in the growth of several social services in the country, including education and healthcare (The World Bank, n.d). English language has been identified as an important driver that enabled the country to integrate internationally and globally and sustain its development (Baker & Jarunthawatchai, 2017).

Thailand has a massive system of education (Common Modern Education Curriculum in 1909), which has consistently promoted the importance of enhancing Thai locals’ foreign language competence (Spolsky, 2004). In 1932, the national government enacted the policy regarding Thai as the standard language (Spolsky, 2004) to unite people coming from diverse cultural backgrounds under a constitutional monarchy. This policy created positive impacts on cultural values and economic sustainability. Then in the 1960s, English became increasingly popular, which also commenced a period of rapid economic growth in Thailand, boosting its services and construction fields (Bennui & Hashim, 2014). Following Basic Education Core Curriculum 2008, which focused on providing learners’ knowledge and skills essential in the constantly changing society, it was encouraging to see that English language teaching and learning have consistently organized across education levels (primary, secondary, higher secondary, and higher education) to enhance “communication, seeking further knowledge and livelihood” (MoE, 2008, p. 10). Thai people’s proficiency of English language benefited them in terms of intercultural communication, self-fulfillment, and career prospects (MOE, 2008; Snodin & Young, 2015).

It was also discouraging, however, that Thai learners’ English language proficiency was not enough work purposes (ETS, 2013). One of the main problems resulted from the excessive emphasis on native-like pedagogical and instructional approaches, with a focus on taught grammars as learning inputs and tests of learning outcomes, instead of improving Thai learners’ intercultural communication and other work-related skills (Ambele & Boonsuk, 2021). Thai locals tend to prefer to learn English with native to non-native English teachers, although the latter are more hard-working and better at designing a culturally responsive curriculum (Benker & Medgyes, 2005; Tarrayo et al., 2021). The low level of English language proficiency is also associated with improper interpretation of global benchmarks to measure Thai English learners’ proficiency (Savski, 2020) and a lack of communicative skills component in the official curriculum (Ploywattanawong & Trakulkasemsuk, 2014).

3.3 The Philippines

The Philippines is the 13th most populous country and comprises more than 7,000 islands, bounded by the South China seas and shares maritime borders with some other nations such as Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Palau. The Philippines is multilingual and multicultural (Lewis et al., 2016), but communities with no local languages make up more than 50% of the total population. Originally as a large agricultural producer, the country has become the world’s 34th largest economy and the 13th largest in Asia (Business Setup, 2021), with an average GDP growth rate of 7.2% over the last 10 years (Business Setup, 2021). These national contexts would urge the country to have a united language for communicating locally and integrating internationally.

Being colonized by the American, Japanese, British, and Spanish cultures, the Philippine people relates with English language as a mean of communication between communities in the country, with Philippine English as one of the English varieties. However, the emergence of English language in the country was not completely a natural process, but it had the intervention of the government. After the 1987 Bilingual Education policy (DECS, 1987), bilingual communities have increased remarkable, especially after the country became a member of ASEAN Economic Community (in 2015) and the United Nation. Then, Philippine Education for All 2015 was established under the supervision of The Department of Education, acting as “channels of learning which can become effective conduits of values orientation, consciousness, and information useful and relevant to a wide range of social goals” (DECS, 1987, p. 19). It is considered crucial that every citizen in the nation should be able to use and communicate in English effectively because this facilitates the country to be more economically developed in the Asian and global markets. English also received much promotion from the government for use in many social sectors such as business, law, education, and international education (McFarland, 2008). Via English language policy, the government also attempted to bring educational opportunities for all the citizens regardless of their socio-economic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds (Dekker & Young, 2005).

However, despite the fact that English is reinforced to help citizens become bilingual language speakers, a range of weaknesses of the reforms were identified. The biggest challenge lies in the wide gaps between teachers’ capabilities and the objectives of the ELT reforms. Although improving teachers’ qualification and experiences were openly discussed according to the policy’s intentions (Cabingon, 2015), teachers were not trained sufficiently and there is a lack of access to professional development opportunities (Lear, 2019). Teachers still focused on preparing students for standardized tests instead of paying close attention to improving instructional designs to help their students’ develop communicative competence (Cabingon, 2015). English language teachers, therefore, need to upskill, provide better learning experiences, and build better rapport in order to enhance the development of English language proficiency for their students (Rogayan & Reusia, 2021).

4 English Language Policies in South Asian Countries

4.1 India

Being a colony of the UK from 1858 to 1947, India is home to 1652 languages (Devy, 2014; Pattanayak, 1998), with Hindi as common language of the Union of India and 22 state-wide dominant languages. Within linguistically and culturally diverse settings in the nation, English was chosen as an official language to foster communication across people in communities of the country. Aiming to achieve power as the fastest-growing economy in the world, India has stimulated generations of Indians to possess high levels of English language proficiency that facilitates internationalization (IBEF, 2022). With an aspiration for multicultural and multilingual engagement in the globalized world, each Indian citizen is expected to be proficient at three languages, including Hindi, English, and their mother tongue (Mohanty, 2019).

Under the colonization of the UK for almost a decade, English became popular in India although it formed an Indian English, a variety of postcolonial Englishes (Bhattacharya, 2017). A range of educational policies (e.g. National Policy on Education in 1968, Education for All, National Education Policy 2020) have been in use to promote the use of English in most aspects of the Indian societies because English is considered as the most useful and practical language for communication (Government of India, 2014, 2020). According to the 2009 National Knowledge Commission and the revised 2015 National Curriculum Framework, English language education was officially delivered to all learners from the early levels as a second language (Mohanty, 2019) and, more importantly, as a medium of instruction for other important subjects (such as Science and Math). In higher education, English is required in all institutions.

Following the announcement of “The Teaching of English” (NCERT, 2006), the promotion of English language in education became clearer, after the Three Language Formula (TLF) policy in language education in 1956 (Hindi, English, and a mother tongue language), and presented a number of positive effects. It can keep pace with the national efforts to consistently retain a handful of Indian identities and embrace diversity in education. Thus, in other words, Indians are fully able to preserve their cultural identities, offering them opportunities for both local mobility and international engagement. However, while English language being increasingly fostered as a tool of connect the Indians culturally and linguistically, cultural identity remains a challenge due to the inconsistency of TLF implementation between communities across the country (Bhattacharya, 2017; Langer & Brown, 2008). Indian learners struggled to maintain their English language competence as it is influenced by their previous linguistic knowledge and experience with the use of a diversity of local languages. Fortunately, recent national policies and widespread implementation of language education strategies have helped Indian learners capable of protecting personal and home cultures while pursuing other languages at schools, at work or, in their life (Groff, 2017).

4.2 Bangladesh

Bangladesh, with a low socio-economic status, is the eighth-most populous country in the world, hosting approximately 160 million people of different ethnic groups and religions. Urdu has been a state language since 1948, replacing Bengali as the predominant language before that. This South Asian nation was committed to a one-nation, one-language ideology as led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Hamid & Rahman, 2019). The commitment to this ideology has negatively led to the ignorance of other local languages of minority groups (Hamid & Rahman, 2019). In addition to local languages, the English language has also enjoyed its prestigious status, both historically under the British colony and socio-economically under the neoliberalism policy (Hamid & Erling, 2016a, 2016b).

In light of the neoliberalism policy, which led to the formation of subsequent policies by the Government (National Education Policy 2000, Draft Education Act 2006, Education Policy 2012), English was proposed as a co-official language besides Urdu in order to allow convenient movement of the locals across the social sectors (Song, 2012). As education has been a focus of national investment, the neoliberalism policy in 1977 acted as an appropriate strategy to privatize education that shifted the important operational activities to the hands of other associations to maintain sustainability (Wright, 2012), including English language education. Particularly, the neo-liberalist strategy allowed non-governmental agencies to have more chances to engage and make decisions in educational activities, thereby beneficially heightening the importance of education in the nation (Hamid & Nguyen, 2016). For example, “English in Action” in 2009–2018 was the latest funded program in support of the Bangladeshis’ English language proficiency. It was effective for many educational institutions and external agencies to empower all of the local citizens to have access to English language learning opportunities democratically (Hamid & Erling, 2016a, 2016b; Hamid & Jahan, 2020). Having said that, English language education contributes to achieving equality and justice in education in the country (Hami & Erling, 2016).

Amidst the efforts to improve English language education in both quantity and quality, it was expected that communicative language teaching (CLT) played an imperative method to replace grammar and structure-based methods in the late 1990s (Rahman et al., 2021). In the short term, this is a positive outcome of the neoliberalism policy, which increased the use of more innovative and state-of-the-art techniques with more authentic interactions (National Curriculum and Textbook Board) and built on learners’ academic needs and job-related goals. However, some issues still remained (Anwar, 2005), one of which referred to a risk of losing national identity when the foreign culture was dominant and there was little to no room for the local learners’ cultural background to be integrated into teaching and learning (Sultana, 2021). Besides, due to teachers’ unwillingness and inability to take CLT practices and cultural knowledge into serious consideration (Rahman et al., 2019), instructional teaching and learning can be hindered. Another issue is associated with the strong capacity of non-governmental agencies to be committed to sustainably developing all aspects of English language teaching and learning, including human capital, teacher professional development, facility & technology, and finance.

4.3 Nepal

Nepal is home to Mount Everest and known for agricultural production. Nepal is a strongly hierarchical country under the influence of Nepalese histories and ideologies. There are 123 mother tongue languages of 125 ethnic groups (Davis & Phyak, 2017). Following the 1990 Constitution that informed a multilingual, multicultural, and multiethnic country (Sah, 2020), English has played an important role in many aspects of the national development, including education. More recently, the government’s attention has been paid into English language education, including the School Sector Development Plan (2016–2023) and the National Educational Policy (2019). These policies were hoped to “prepare students to use an international language for their future economic development” (MoE, 2016, p. 27).

In response to neoliberalism that emphasized the importance of English as “symbolic value” (Sah & Li, 2018, p. 112), the English language became crucial to support the nation economically, politically, and culturally, in alignment with the ratification of educational privatization (Sah, 2020). The policy was founded in the wake of the Nepalese socio-political transformation into a democratic country (Phyak, 2011). Parallel with the 2015 Constitution that clarified multilingual, multiethnic, and multicultural Nepal (Phyak & Ojha, 2019), the nation has progressed its “commitment to create the bases of socialism by adopting democratic norms and values” (Government of Nepal, 2015), part of which was a wide promotion of English language education. Evidently, English was used as a second and foreign language in Nepal, especially in businesses, and English language education was embedded in an early level of formal education (CDC, 2008). Following the integration of English in education and other life aspects, there was potential for social mobility when Nepalese were widely immersed in the language and advance their language competence for study and work overseas (Khati, 2016). English language education was openly used with numerous innovative teaching and learning activities (Ojha, 2018) under the premise that the Ministry of Education recognized the needs of multilingual education for young Nepalese learners (Fillmore, 2020). It means that varieties of English have been fostered in Nepal, rather than British or American English.

Observably, English language education in the country has received great attention and collaborative contributions from many stakeholders, including policy makers, researchers, curriculum designers, and language learners. With employability successes as a pivotal goal, English language education played a significant role in Nepal, one of which was assisted by the nation’s policy of privatization (Sharma & Phyak, 2017). The privatization of education has created many life-related opportunities for the learners to be able to develop essential skills pertaining to job (Nikku, 2019). Despite the goals of developing CLT to introduce Nepal and its citizens to the world, the outcomes seemed to be insufficient due to a low number of qualified English teachers to effectively respond to instructional demands and learning preferences (Bhandari, 2020). To explain, English teachers in Nepal are still unfamiliar with learner-centered approaches in support of CLT (Bhandari, 2020). Moreover, learners in Nepal still practiced memorizing the knowledge given by teachers with limited experience about the authentic language use in a variety of real-life settings (Dawadi, 2021), even causing social inequality for minority groups of learners (Sah & Li, 2018).

5 English Language Policies in West Asian Countries

5.1 The United Arab Emirates (UAE)

As a young country established in 1971, UAE is a seven-emirate country and a house of diverse cultures and religions, with each emirate being ruled separately. In the last decade, under globalization, UAE has experienced a fast transformation of social structures, innovation of facilities, improvements of living standards, and changes of lifestyle to become a critical member in the Middle East (IMF World Economic Outlook Report, 2013). With an approximate total of 100 languages, Arabic is the official language and Urdu is the second most-spoken language, while other languages are still recognized (like Tagalog, Tamil, and Mandarin). As a multicultural country that promotes “the learning of languages” UAE Ministry of Education & Youth, 2000, p. 24), English also came to join this dynamic country in the 1800s. English can be seen as a language of choice as a means to unify the whole UAE, which is made of a diversity of ethnic groups.

English language education in the UAE could be traced back to the 1820 (Hopkyns et al., 2018). The country has experienced dramatic changes of English language use at the national level since then. Noticeably, the boom in international trade of oil/gas and the explosive incoming expatriate workers between UAE and other countries have been a great contributor to encouraging the use of English for the purpose of facilitating economic, political, and cultural development (Badry & Willoughby, 2016). However, in education, English is still taught as a foreign language, and it was not as prioritized as Arabic language education. English is taught with a strict adherence to the cultures of English native speakers, believing that doing so will keep the citizens in the right educational direction along with the proliferation of globalization.

Parallel with the UAE’s educational goals to build many generations to be able to “adapt to changes and deal confidently and efficiently in the future”, English language education plays an important role to develop the national professionals’ basic skills (work and communication) and other essential skills (creativity and self-regulated learning) (UAE Ministry of Education & Youth, 2000, p. 9). To facilitate English language teaching and learning, Abu Dhabi Education Council has provided many reforms and initiatives (e.g. New School Model; Building Teacher Capacity; The Partial Immersion Model) to not only develop the teachers’ qualifications and local learners’ English proficiency, but also grow the Emirati cultural understanding and the twenty-first-century skills (Baker, 2017). As a result, there were positive improvements in a wide range of teaching and learning aspects, such as students’ language competence and motivation, as well as teachers’ pedagogical strategies and assessment practices (Desai, 2022). However, there remains a mismatch between the local, regional, and national policies to maintain the privilege of local and international identities (Baker, 2017), which simultaneously caused personal motivation and social equality (Cullinan, 2016).

5.2 The Sultanate of Oman

Located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia, Oman is geographically spreading between the North (Muscat) to the South (Salalah region) regions as the two large centers of population. In addition to the spectrum of geographic advantages, this nation with linguistically, culturally, and ethnically diverse backgrounds makes itself as a business center of the world, with it being one of the largest oil producers and an emerging tourist destination. The country has placed an enormous emphasis on education as a key driver of building an Omani modern society (Ministry of Education, 2010). Hence, English language education has received much attention as it is a necessary tool for global outreaches.

Under the history origin as a de facto British colony (Al-Busaidi, 1995), the nation has a close attachment to the use of English language. Upon gaining its independence back, the nation initiated to strengthen the role of English to enhance effective communication with international bodies, facilitating the national transition and improving the national impacts on the international arena—the so-called Omanization (Barnawi, 2018). One of the foci of the Omanization is to replace foreign workers by locally-trained Omani nationals (Al-Issa, 2002). The Oman’s Ministry of Education is mainly responsible for strategic planning and implementation, fully supports the prominence of English language education nationally, beginning with a policy document called “Philosophy and Guidelines for the Omni English Language School Curriculum” (Al-Issa, 2020). English and Arabic are accepted languages in official documents although Arabic is the official language of the nation. Since then, English has been used widely in business-oriented private and state organizations (Al-Issa, 2020). English has also been taught officially in the curriculum and seen as a vehicle to speed up the national integration into internationalization and globalization (Al-Issa, 2020). While the country experienced a series of educational policies, it is suggested that opportunities to pursue English language education were available for each citizen. Local learners have benefited from the CLT approach as well as technologically-mediated teaching and learning methods, so as to maximize their learning experiences (Al-Farsi, 2002).

However, despite opportunities available, English education in the country has been weakened by some factors. Like other Asian counterparts, a lack of qualified teachers hindered innovative course design and teaching approaches conducive to learners’ development of communicative competence (Al-Issa, 2020). The outdated curriculum design (Ministry of Education, 2010) also restricted Oman learners from applying English into authentic contexts outside the classrooms (Al-Issa, 2019). Likewise, English language tests seemed to focus on memorization of grammatical knowledge instead of understanding how to apply it into the communicative events (Al-Mahrooqi et al., 2016), driving learners to focus on linguistic knowledge instead of the practical use of English. As a result, Oman learners are unable to adequacy develop their communication skills to enter the multinational workforces and lower their employability (Al-Mahrooqi & Tuzlukova, 2014; Barnawi, 2018). The process of Omanization, for that reason, progressed slowly because most Omani employees cannot communicate with foreigners for collaboration, economic development, and cultural exchange.

6 English Language Policies in North Asia: Russia

North Asia is also referred to as Siberia and coextensive with the Asian part of Russia. It accounts for 8.8% of the Earth’s total land area (13,1 million square kilometers) and is bordered by the three oceans (e.g. Arctic, Eastern European, Central and East Asian, and Pacific Ocean, and North America). Because Russia accounts for the largest part of the Northern Asian region, this section will focus on English language policy and education in Russia only.

Russia regained its independence, following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 (Keennan et al., 2022). Russia is ranked the ninth most-populated country in the world (nearly 146 million in 2022), covering the total land area of nearly 16 million square kilometers (Keennan et al., 2022). There are more than 120 ethnic groups and more than 100 languages used in Russia; thus, this is a multilingual and multicultural nation. Economically, Russia has enjoyed quite a steady GDP growth rate between 2010 and 2022. Russian economy is strong thanks to a wide range of advantages in heavy industry, foreign trade, technology, and services (Keennan et al., 2022). Despite its economic strength and political power, the immersion of foreign language, including English, is necessary to assist the nation in maintaining internship relationships and collaboration.

Russian is unique in terms of geographic locations in both Europe and Northern Asia, so the country is a promising land for international trades and cooperation. Thus, English language became popular in Russia after World War II but unfortunately, it had no official status besides the official language (Kachru, 1990). Still, it is used internationally in support of the nation’s contribution to some social aspects, including foreign trade, tourism, education, and science (Ustinova, 2005).

Historically, English language education in Russia in particular and foreign language in general used to be disregarded in the country in caution of potential enemies (also known as spies, potential, and cosmopolitans), and associated with a low level of loyalty and patriotism (Ter-Minasova, 2005). Therefore, English language teaching and learning in Russia was in the midst of countless disadvantages (Ter-Minasova, 2005). However, the Russian government has recently recognized the importance of foreign languages, including English, in the globalized contexts and the national developments (Mammadova, 2021). Policy documents have explicitly stated that English language education should develop the Russian English learners’ intercultural competence and fuller understanding of the multilingual/multicultural world (MoE Calafato, 2020; Russia, 2018). The government has found an urgent need to train local learners to use English language effectively in different contexts, to elevate Russian people’s employment prospects via English language proficiency, and to enable them to integrate internationally (PIRAO, 2017).

Despite recent investments in English language education, the outcomes have not been reported. Yet, some barriers to successful implementation of the English language education in Russia have been identified. For example, unclear guidelines have been found to prevent the responsible parties (including curriculum developers, school leaders, teachers, and learners) from interpreting the informed needs into English language practices (Calafato, 2021; Davydova, 2019; MoE Russia, 2018). Thus, teachers tended to avoid the multilingual teaching practices as suggested by MoE Russia (2018) and, consequently, employ the monolingual strategies (e.g. grammar translation method) to teach English to students as the future English native-like proficient speakers (Davydova, 2019). Also, Russian teachers of English appear to lack teaching skills and experiences to stimulate the multilingual and multicultural classrooms, making a balance between Russian and English characteristics, so they would need to be trained more extensively (Davydova, 2019).

7 Conclusion

In this chapter, we have briefly summarized the national policies and processes to make English language as a foreign/second language through the curriculum in multiple Asian countries. In general, the literature review shows that these Asian countries have made a concerted effort in making English a priority in their national language policies and invested in improving the quality of teaching and learning English. Despite variance in the level of influence, it appears that the emergence of English language education was due to political, social, educational, and economic reasons which intersect to some extents.

The majority of the countries reported in this chapter was colonized by the UK, the US, or at least one European country. Some of them were assumed as “not colonized” but were actually under the domination of Western countries for years such as China and Thailand. Such an unwanted political history accidentally created a political-cultural ties with Western heritages. The longitudinal colonial process gradually made the language and cultural norms of the colonizing country part of the culture of the colonized countries. Even after the latter regained the independence, the influence of the language and culture of the ruling country/countries still remain. In addition, many Asian countries above were made of a diversity of ethnic groups who speak different languages. To ensure social cohesion and create a unified country with a single national identity, there should be an official language used and understood by most people, if not all, cross such ethnic groups. Whereas China, Thailand, Japan, and Korea, for instance, prioritize a local language for such a purpose; others—such as India, Bangladesh, Singapore (all were colonized by the UK), and the Philippines (periodically colonized by the US)—adopted English due to some political influence of an English speaking colonizer. Moreover, Asian countries are attempting to invest in their education, following the concept of human capital, despite its limitations (see Tan, 2014). Several of them have experienced rocketing socio-economic growth, partly due to the increased human capital, as showed in the case of the Asian tigers or tiger cubs (e.g. Paldam, 2003; World bank, 2022). Under neo-liberalism ideologies, educations in several Asian countries have undergone radical reforms to ensure that their citizens can have access to better quality education. At the micro level, such reforms seem to tackle employability issues for individuals to function well in an increasingly globalized and internationalized world and an unpredictable future (Hager & Holland, 2007). At the macro level, such reforms seem to target building a skilled workforce to meet employers’ demands, achieve political, socio-cultural, and economic objectives, and to sustain the competitiveness of the economies in the international arena.

As showed above, socio-economic growth seems to be the most powerful driver behind putting English language in the central of the national language policy and implementing English language education reforms. Non-English speaking countries in general and Asian countries in particular have seemingly recognized the important contribution of English language education in building a quality workforce and making their graduates more employable, either locally or internationally. Although the relationship between English language education and employability has been explored in some studies, as to be reported in Chapter 3 of this book, they are not holistic enough. It is because in those studies, employability is usually defined as skills, which is narrow and falsely reflects the complex nature of employability. Likewise, English language has received much attention by policy makers and educators, demonstrating by recent policies and reforms related to English language education. Even students in many Asian countries are concerned about how to obtain English certificate to help them land a well-paid job (Tran, 2018; Wei & Su, 2012). The question is how such reforms have improved the quality of teaching and learning of English in terms of preparing students for their future employment and career prospects. Therefore, it is important to explore the ways in which English language education contributes to students’ development of employability, and examine how current English language education practices actually influence graduates’ employment and career prospects. Studies in these respects will generate useful insights to inform policy makers, educators, students, and stakeholders involved in English language education in non-English speaking countries of how to better conduct reform activities so that English language policy can be realized its objectives.