Study on Bilingual Instruction - Final Presentation on June 6, 2023

Uncovering the Hidden Meanings:

Exploring Bilingual Education
Policy and Minority Languages in
Malaysia and Thailand
GROUP 4
Lanpavee Chuchartcharoenporn [CHU] 611088120
Lim Wee Nee 611188112
 Table of contents
01 Minority Language and Bilingual Education Policy in Thailand

02 Finding The Shades of Bilingual Policy: Uncovering the Hidden Meanings

03 Minority Language and Bilingual Education Policy in Malaysia

04 Conclusions & Suggestions

 01
Minority language and
Bilingual Education Policy
in Thailand
Minority Languages Situation
● Minority languages users more than 60 groups (Su-angkawatin & Arpanurak, 2017)
● Globalization / ASEAN Economic Market / “Thainess” (Kaur et al., 2016; Kosonen, 2015; Vichaiya, 2022)
● Minority languages in Danger (Kosonen, 2015; Su-angkawatin & Arpanurak, 2017)
● (1) Support needed, (2) Disappear for Social Status, and (3) Against Identities
● “Local Wisdom” - The reason for receiving the entrance on the global stage. (Boonyasaranai, 2013).

What it means by “Bilingual Education Policy” in Thailand

● The purpose of Bilingual Education Policy in Thailand (Vichaiya, 2022)
● BEP means “Thai official language & English”
● Language policy in Thailand has mentioned about minority groups (Boonyasaranai, 2013; Premsrirat
& Person, 2018)
● Thai language x Minority languages are supported by non-profit organizations and academic
institutions
● Mother Tongue-Based in Multilingual Education (Premsrirat & Person, 2018; Su-angkawatin & Arpanurak, 2017)
 02
Finding The Shades
of Bilingual Policy:
Uncovering the Hidden Meanings
 Linguistic Capital as Social Mobility
THAI
● English as linguistic capitals for economic market (Kaur et al., 2016; Kosonen, 2015; Vichaiya, 2022)
● Thai official language as linguistic capital for minority group (Labor/HE) (Kosonen, 2015; Premsrirat
& Person, 2018; Su-angkawatin & Arpanurak, 2017)
● Linguistic capital related to “Context & Location”
“What are the reasons that minority languages are unable
to function as their own linguistic capital?”

Minority Languages and the Hierarchy in Languages

THAI
● “Context & Location”
● Language acquisition X Capitals = produce/reproduce Hierarchy structure
(Vichaiya, 2022) “Which social class of people is able to meet
the requirements of a bilingual education policy?”
● The Thai bilingual education policy shows an ignorance for the potential of minority languages to
serve as capitals in the process of cultural transformation. >>> Produce/reproduce the hierarchy in
languages
 Imaginative Language for Nation-building

THAI
● Language is the important element for nation-building (Boonyasaranai, 2013)
● “Thainess” produce/reproduce the centralization standard (Boonyasaranai, 2013; Kaur et
al., 2016)
● “NATIONALISM”
“Is linguistic diversity a truth to be embraced, or an obstacle to be overcome
in the quest for national unity?”

“Is ‘submersion’ in Thai-only classrooms the best way to equip ethnic students to participate in
national development, or could it actually be holding them back?”
 03
Minority language and bilingual
education policy in Malaysia
 Malaysia
The Demographic and language-related policy

01 140 different languages spoken by 65 ethnic groups

(Department of Information Malaysia, 2016)

02 One-third of the total population is considered non-native to the soil

(Coluzzi, 2017a).

03 Malaysia Constitution 1957 and Education Act 1996 recognize the minority rights
(Coluzzi, 2017b; Guan,2010 ).

04 See linguistic homogenization as a means to achieve national unity

Omar, 2015

05 Civil societies group, local communities, and academics preservation and preserve
minority language
Coluzzi, 2017b
 Malaysia
The Realities….

01 Sense of commonality leads to deficit lens in linguistically diverse learners

• to be equal one must be the same, to be different is to be unequal or even deviant.

(Artiles, 1998, as cited in Gihiérrez et al., 2009)
• National language as a tool for national unity. (Guan, 2010)
• With the belief that a single education system can facilitate national unity (Guan,
2010)
• “blaming the victim” for underachievement (Gihiérrez et al., 2009).

Macrosystem-----> microsystem
Fix the deficiency
 Malaysia
The Realities….

02 Ethnocentrism sentiment from Malay denigrates the value of minority languages

• Malay education bureaucrats and teachers are imbued with deeply rooted ethnocentric
sentiments- assimilating minorities into dominant groups (Guan, 2010).
• Encourage linguistic discriminatory practice- contribute to biased and undervaluing
certain cultures in the community

Macrosystem-----> microsystem
Ignore the main principle of bilingual education
(social practice and social justice )
Equity, the language of the child
 Malaysia
The Realities….

03 Language policy as a political ploy instead of focusing bilingual learners need

• Education policy is always a tool for leaders to win their votes during election in
Malaysia’s political context.
• Leaders somehow aware that bilingual literacy in Malaysia did not take off as
successfully as planned (Chan & Abdullah, 2015, p. 59; Malaysia Ministry of Education, 2013)
• Reflections of these studies are related to linguistic functional proficiency in the Malay
language and English.
• The discussion about linguistically responsive teaching is merely superficial

Macrosystem-----> microsystem
Superficial understanding of bilingual education
 Malaysia
The Realities….

04 Agenda of assimilation behind preserving minority language

• The department of orang Asli (Jabatan Hal Ehwal Orang Asli- JHEOA), Dewan Bahasa
dan Pustaka
• control over some of the association- tried to linguistically assimilate orang
Asli/ indigenous group-the Malay language
• Tactic: force assimilation of Orang Asli into Malay culture- state appropriation
of ancestral land strategy (Coluzzi, 2017)

Macrosystem-----> microsystem
Different vitality and struggles of language
• diminish their self-worth
• Ignore or miss what children can actually accomplish beyond boundaries
 Malaysia
The Realities….
The dilemma in educational institution
05
• teacher as policy implementor, follow policy
• promote assimilation inevitably
• promote native-like speakers inevitably
• Focus on functional proficiency
 04
CONCLUSIONS &
SUGGESTIONS
 Conclusion

Complex Critical cultural

awareness
Multilayered Classroom climate influence
perspectives gazing by critical reflection and
questioning about social
to the operation in justice and practice
education
 Suggestions
Top down (ideally)
● Depoliticization of language and
education
● Language policy that endorses
linguistic human rights.
● Balance the nation development
and diversity
● Capitals or political location for
minority language
Bottom up (practically)
Teacher as policy implementer has to
develop intercultural communicative
competence
(Randolph Jr & Johnson, 2017)
Teacher as a cultural broker: cultural
organizers, cultural mediators, orchestrators of
the social context of learning
(Gay, 2010)
Urge more unbiased research from Malaysian
linguists of other ethnic groups
(Guan, 2010)
 Similarities

Sense of national unity Hierarchy in Languages

Overt discrepancies
Privileging the language
between policy and
of dominant group
practice
 Thanks
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