Offering an encyclopedic survey of the state of primary-school English-language education across Asia, and exploring topics ranging from policy to curriculum, this volume presents the views not of outside experts but rather local experiences as understood and interpreted by local scholars of international standing, providing useful insights to policy makers, educators, and researchers.
This volume offers comprehensive 'state-of-the-art' overviews of educational policies concerning the teaching of English in a large number of Asian countries. Each contribution is written by a leading expert and gives a clear assessment of current policies and future trends. Starting with a description of the English education policies in the respective countries, the contributors then delve into the 'nuts and bolts' of the English education policies and how they play out in practice in the education system, in schools, in the curriculum, and in teaching. Topics covered include the balance between the acquisition of English and the national language, political, cultural, economic and technical factors that strengthen or weaken the learning of English.
In Asia, English is no longer a foreign language but a key resource for education, government, business and the general public. Whereas thirty years ago, British and American experts believed that the best way to improve the quality of English teaching was to cancel any programs below the secondary level, Asian nations as well as European are now introducing English in primary school. But there are major obstacles to overcome: the training of enough local teachers or the hiring of English speakers, the preparation of suitable teaching materials, the development of useful tests, and the design of workable curriculums. The chapters in this book, written by leading English-teaching professionals in seven Asian countries and originally delivered at the 2010 annual conference of Asia TEFL which took place in Hanoi, Vietnam, describe and analyze national policies and how they are implemented. The coverage is wide: China with its huge number of students learning English, Japan working to make the transition from elementary to secondary school seamless, Singapore continuing to use English as medium of instruction for its multilingual population, Korea developing English education policies to recognize the increased role of English alongside the national language, India building on its colonial past to make English an economic resource, Vietnam fitting English into a program of national rebuilding, and Taiwan spreading its English teaching outside the national capital. This is not a report of the views of outside experts, but of local experiences understood by local scholars of international standing. Policy makers, educators, researchers and scholars will be able to gain valuable insights from Asian experts.
Bringing together a comprehensive range of extended research-based chapters, English Language Teacher Preparation in Asia provides comprehensive insight into policy, research, and practical aspects of teacher preparation for English teachers at pre-service level across multiple contexts in Asia. Written by local and international scholars specialising in TESOL Teacher education, and acknowledging the increasingly complex demands made on teachers of English in view of globalisation, the book explores the multiple factors which are key to effective professional learning. Chapters consider how pre-service teachers are best prepared for the diverse contexts in which English is learnt and taught in settings throughout Asia and draw on in-depth research studies to provide rich, fully contextualised coverage of aspects of teacher preparation including curriculum design, programme development, policy, professional learning communities, assessment education, and teaching practicum. A timely contribution to the field of teacher preparation, this text will be an invaluable resource for teacher educators, pre-service teachers and academics involved in the preparation of English teachers in Asia.
Continuing on from the previously published Primary School English-Language Education in Asia: From Policy to Practice (Moon & Spolsky, 2012), this book compiles the proceedings which took place at the 2011 annual conference of AsiaTEFL which took place in Seoul, Korea. It surveys the current status, practices, challenges, and future directions of Secondary English education in 11 diverse countries - in Israel, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Vietnam and China. Given the importance of secondary English education as the central feature for continuing development of target language and culture in English language teaching in Asia, each contributed chapter includes key policies, theories, and practices related to the development and implementation of country-specific curricular and instructional programs in secondary English educational contexts in these countries. Secondary School English Education in Asia: From Policy to Practice critically analyses both sides of the English language debate – from advantages to complications – in its chapters including: Educating for the 21st Century: The Singapore Experience Miles to Go ...: Secondary Level English Language Education in India English Language Education Innovation for the Vietnamese Secondary School: The Project 2020 Exploring the Value of ELT as a Secondary School Subject in China: A Multi-goal Model for English Curriculum Secondary School English Education in Asia will appeal to English Language Teaching (ELT) researchers, teacher educators, trainee teachers and teachers, primarily those teaching in Asia.
Noting ASEAN's adoption of English as its sole workng language, this book analyzes the language education policies of Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Sri Lanka and China, and traces the influence of globalization on English language education in Asia.
Silence is a key pedagogical issue in language education. Seen by some as a space for thinking and reflection during the learning process, for others silence represents a threat, inhibiting target language interaction which is so vital during second language acquisition. This book eschews stereotypes and generalisations about why so many learners from East Asia seem either reluctant or unable to speak in English by providing a state-of-the art account of current research into the complex and ambiguous issue of silence in language education. The innovative research included in this volume focuses on silence both as a barrier to successful learning and as a resource that may in some cases facilitate language acquisition. The book offers a fresh perspective on ways to facilitate classroom interaction while also embracing silence and it touches on key pedagogical concepts such as teacher cognition, the role of task features, classroom interactional approaches, pedagogical intervention and socialisation, willingness to communicate, as well as psychological and sociocultural factors. Each of the book’s chapters include self-reflection and discussion tasks, as well as annotated bibliographies for further reading.
Why has English language proficiency in Japan remained so low in comparison to other Asian countries? Has Vietnam attempted to improve English language teaching because ASEAN has adopted English as its working language? Why do English language teachers struggle with curriculum changes imposed by governments in order to make them competitive in the international community? Do professional development (PD) programs actually meet the needs of teachers? This book addresses issues surrounding these questions by examining how the Japanese and Vietnamese governments have approached and defined the PD of English language teachers and how such PD programs have been delivered. It further analyses the impact of policy changes on individual teachers and explores how PD can help teachers to implement such changes effectively at the micro-level. PD of language teachers or language teacher education is relatively new as a field of inquiry in Applied Linguistics. By including case studies of Japan and Vietnam in the one volume, this book embarks on the challenging task of demonstrating that PD is an essential element of the successful implementation of language policies in Asia, where World Englishes have been shaped by distinct local contexts.
This volume is the first to offer a comprehensive and, at the same time, in-depth examination of the spread of English and English language education across Greater China. It consists of two parts. Part 1 presents rich sociolinguistic data for easy comparisons between mainland China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao, while Part 2 explores in depth the phenomena inside mainland China to provide contrastive analysis of English language use and education in economically booming areas such as Shanghai and Guangdong and underdeveloped regions like Xinjiang and Yunnan. With the descriptive, comparative and analytical accounts of different territories ranging from nation-states to small villages in remote areas, theories on the spread of English, second/third language acquisition and identity are challenged with new concepts proposed and established.
