Multilingual Education and India

Dear Multilingual Education friends, The British Council, as well as some US agencies,  are active in south Asia and other places promoting the use of the English language in the classroom. A recent article by Robert Phillipson in The Guardian titled "Linguistic imperialism alive and kicking"   is criticising this as "undermining multilingualism and education opportunities". Some quotes: The myth is the belief that studying English is all you need for success in life. Policies influenced by this myth prevent most children from accessing relevant education. Is Anglo-American expertise really relevant in all such contexts? In fact educational "aid" worldwide does not have a strong record of success. There is scholarly evidence, for instance from Spain, that primary English is not an unmitigated success story: quite the opposite. Governments have tended to clutch at a

Dear Multilingual Education Friends, At a recent consultation someone quoted several times from papers that were presented at the 9th International Language and Development Conference held last year in Sri Lanka. That made me look up the website to see what all was posted there. I found over 20 papers on Language and Social Cohesion. A selection from what is there: Prem Bahadur Phyak Language-in-education policy in Nepal and its implications for social cohesion Prof Marie Perera “Building bridges” - National Integration through the teaching of the Second National Language Dr Gladys Focho Education and the language dilemma in multilingual societies: The case of Cameroon Tony Capstick Language in education policy and multilingual literacies research in Pakistan Leslie Gumba Mother tongue based literacy a tool for indigenous people’s empowerment Helen