English-medium education

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An English-medium education system is one that uses English as the primary medium of instruction--particularly where English is not the mother tongue of the students.

Initially associated with the expansion of English from its homeland in England and the lowlands of Scotland and its spread to the rest of Great Britain and Ireland, the rise of the British Empire increased the language's spread, as has the increased economic and cultural influence of the United States since World War II.

A working knowledge of English is perceived as being valuable; for example, English is very dominant in the world of computing. As a result, many states throughout the world where English is not the predominant language encourage or mandate the use of English as the normal medium of instruction.

Video English-medium education

By country

Canada

Education is a provincial matter under the Canadian constitution, section 92. French language rights have been guaranteed in the province of Quebec since the Treaty of Paris 1763, French outside of Quebec and all other minority languages have faced laws against them at one time or another. English-only education laws were gradually rolled out across Canada during the nineteenth and twentieth century, culminating in the Manitoba Schools Question 1896 and Regulation 17 in Ontario in 1912, which both attacked French and other European minority languages, and the Indian residential schools system which attacked Aboriginal languages.

These policies were gradually abolished in the wake of Canada's adoption of official bilingualism (French/English) in 1969 and multiculturalism in 1971, but English remains the predominant language of education outside of Quebec and New Brunswick.

Wales

The Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542, passed by the Parliament of England, annexing Wales to the Kingdom of England are sometimes known as the "Acts of Union."

An often quoted example of the effects on the Welsh language is the first section of the 1535 Act, which states: "the people of the same dominion have and do daily use a speche nothing like ne consonant to the naturall mother tonge used within this Realme" and then declares the intention "utterly to extirpe alle and singular sinister usages and customs" belonging to Wales.

Section 20 of the 1535 Act makes English the only language of the law courts and that those who used Welsh would not be appointed to any public office in Wales:

Also be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That all Justices, Commissioners, Sheriffs, Coroners, Escheators, Stewards, and their Lieutenants, and all other Officers and Ministers of the Law, shall proclaim and keep the Sessions Courts, Hundreds, Leets, Sheriffs Courts, and all other Courts in the English Tongue;

(2) and all Oaths of Officers, Juries and Inquests, and all other Affidavits, Verdicts and Wager of Law, to be given and done in the English Tongue; (3) and also that from henceforth no Person or Persons that use the Welsh Speech or Language, shall have or enjoy any manner Office or Fees within this Realm of England, Wales, or other the King's Dominion, upon Pain of forfeiting the same Offices or Fees, unless he or they use and exercise the English Speech or Language.

An effect of this language clause was to lay the foundation for creating a thoroughly Anglicised ruling class of landed gentry in Wales, which would have many consequences.

The parts of the 1535 Act relating to language were definitively repealed only in 1993, by the Welsh Language Act 1993, though annotations on the Statute Law Database copy of the act reads that sections 18-21 were repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1887.

In July 1846, the British Government appointed three commissioners to enquire into the state of education in Wales; the Commissioners were all monoglot English-speakers.

The Commissioners reported to the Government on 1 July 1847 in three large blue-bound volumes. This report quickly became known as Brad y Llyfrau Gleision (The Treachery of the Blue Books) as, apart from documenting the state of education in Wales, the Commissioners were also free with their comments disparaging the language, Non-conformity, and the morals of the Welsh people in general. An immediate effect of the report was for a belief to take root in the minds of ordinary people that the only way for Welsh people to get on in the world was through the medium of English, and an inferiority complex developed about the Welsh language whose effects have not yet been completely eradicated. The historian Professor Kenneth O. Morgan referred to the significance of the report and its consequences as "the Glencoe and the Amritsar of Welsh history".

Ireland

The poet Edmund Spenser wrote in (1596) a recommendation that "the Irish ... be educated in English, in grammar and in science ... for learning hath that wonderful power of itself that it can soften and temper the most stern and savage nature."

The setting up of 'Royal Schools' in Ireland, was proclaimed in 1608 by James I, with the intended purpose "that there shall be one Free School at least appointed in every County, for the education of youth in learning and religion."

These schools provided an English-medium education to the sons of landed settlers in Ireland, most of whom were of Scottish or English descent.

However, only five such schools were actually set up; The Royal School, Armagh in County Armagh, Portora Royal School in County Fermanagh, The Cavan Royal School in County Cavan, The Royal School Dungannon in Tyrone and The Royal and Prior School in County Donegal.

The National Education System (sic) was founded in 1831, by the British Government, under the direction of the Chief Secretary, E.G. Stanley. Some 2,500 national schools were established in Ulster in the period 1832-1870, built with the aid of the Commissioners of National Education and local trustees.

Prof. S. Ó Buachalla states:

During the first four decades of their existence, there is no mention of the Irish language in the programme of regulations of the Commissioners of National Education; furthermore no provision whatsoever was made in 1831 when the original scheme was drawn up for education of those children who spoke Irish only. According to the official opinion of later Commissioners, expressed in a formal reply to the Chief Secretary in 1884, " the anxiety of the promoters of the National Scheme was to encourage the cultivation of the English language.

The Irish patriot P.H. Pearse published a series of studies of the English-medium education system in Ireland. His article entitled The Murder Machine embodies an article which appeared in the Irish Review for February 1913.

Pearse wrote in his pamphlet the following:

And English education in Ireland has seemed: to some like the bed of Procustes, the bed on which all men that passed that way must lie, be it never so big for them, be it never so small for them: the traveller for whom it was too large had his limbs stretched until he filled it; the traveller for whom it was too small had his limbs chopped off until he fitted into it--comfortably. It was a grim jest to play upon travellers. The English have done it to Irish children not by way of jest, but with a purpose. Our English-Irish systems took, and take, absolutely no cognisance of the differences between individuals, of the differences between localities, of the: differences between urban and rural communities, of the differences springing from a different ancestry, Gaelic or Anglo-Saxon.

Scotland

Attempts were made by legislation, in the later medieval and early modern period, to establish English at first among the aristocracy and increasingly amongst all ranks by education acts and parish schools. The Parliament of Scotland passed some ten such acts between 1494 and 1698.

In 1609 nine Gaelic chieftains were abducted and forced to sign the Statutes of Iona, which would seem to have been designed specifically to Anglicize leaders and institutions of Gaelic society, in order to bring it under control of central government.

Among the items listed in this agreement was the "planting of the gospell among these rude, barbarous, and uncivill people" by Protestant churches; the outlawing of bards who were traditionally on circuit between the houses of noblemen; the requirement that all men of wealth send their heirs to be educated in Lowland schools where they would be taught to "speik, reid, and wryte Inglische."

The then King James VI, followed this by the School Establishment Act 1616, which sought to establish schools in every parish in the Scottish Highlands so that "the youth be exercised and trayned up in civilitie, godlines, knawledge, and learning, that the vulgar Inglische toung be universallie plantit, and the Irische language, whilk is one of the chief and principall causes of the continewance of barbaritie and incivilitie amongis the inhabitantis of the Ilis and Heylandis, may be abolisheit and removeit."

In 1709 the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SSPCK) was established in order to further funding sources for Highland church schools. All manner of incentives and punishments were used to stop children from speaking Scottish Gaelic. The SSPCK had five schools by 1711, 25 by 1715, 176 by 1758 and 189 by 1808, by then with 13,000 pupils attending. At first the SSPCK avoided using the Gaelic language with the result that pupils ended up learning by rote without understanding what they were reading. In 1741 the SSPCK introduced a Gaelic-English vocabulary, then in 1766 brought in a New Testament with facing pages of Gaelic and English texts for both languages to be read alongside one another, with more success. After a number of years of unsuccessful attempts at English-only teaching methods, it was realized that literacy in Gaelic was a much more effective means of teaching and a bridge towards fluency in English.

Since 1918 education acts have provided for teaching Gaelic in Gaelic-speaking areas, but development was very slow until Gaelic became an initial teaching medium in the Gaelic areas of Inverness-shire and Ross-shire from 1958. In 1975 the newly created Western Isles education authority introduced bilingual primary education shortly followed by Highland Region in Skye. Gaelic-medium primary education commenced with two schools in 1985, growing to 42 units by 1993/94.

In secondary education, Gaelic has long been taught as a subject--often through the medium of English, even to native speakers. A move towards bilingual secondary education in the Western Isles was frustrated by a change of government in the 1979 United Kingdom general election. Gaelic-medium secondary education has developed less satisfactorily. Gaelic-medium streams followed on from primary in Glasgow and Inverness, with some experimentation in the Western Isles, but the sector is hampered by acute teacher shortage, and an Ofsted inspectorate report of 1994 regarded Gaelic-medium secondary education as divisive and inappropriate.

Third level provision through Gaelic is provided by Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (literally: "the great barn at Ostaig") a Gaelic-medium college based in Sleat, on the Isle of Skye in north west Scotland. It is part of the University of the Highlands and Islands, and also has a campus on Islay known as Ionad Chaluim Chille Ìle.

In 2004, Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay, (who is patron of the College) stated that:

The beauty of Gaelic music and song is inescapable. But without the living language, it risks becoming an empty shell. That is why an education system, up to the level represented by the college here in Skye, is so important - to ensure fluency and literacy which will continue to renew the health and creativity of the language.

The Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 is the first piece of legislation to give formal recognition to the Gaelic language in Scotland. It recognises Gaelic as an official language of Scotland, commanding "equal respect" with English.

Education Minister Peter Peacock, who has ministerial responsibility for Gaelic, said: "This is a momentous day for Gaelic as we open a new chapter in the language's history. We have come a long way since the dark days of 1616 when an Act of Parliament ruled that Gaelic should be 'abolishit and removit' from Scotland."

Cornwall

In the Prayer Book rebellion of 1549, where the English state sought to suppress Cornish language speaking with the introduction of the Book of Common Prayer, which was made available only in English. In replacing Latin with English, and under the guise of suppressing Catholicism, English was effectively imposed as the language of the Church, with the intent of it becoming the language of the people. At the time people in many areas of Cornwall did not speak or understand English.

The forced introduction of English to church services in Cornwall provided a major reason for the rebellion. The articles of the rebels states: "and we the cornyshe men (whereof certen of vs vnderstande no Englysh) vtterly refuse thys new English."

The British Raj

British records show that indigenous education was widespread in the 18th century, with a school for every temple, mosque or village in most regions of the country. Subjects taught included Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Theology, Law, Astronomy, Metaphysics, Ethics, Medical Science and Religion. The schools were attended by students from all classes of society. Gandhi is said to have described the traditional educational system as a beautiful tree that was destroyed by British rule.

The Charter Act of 1813 decreed that English would be taught in the Indian education system although not as a replacement for indigenous languages. Instead, it was anticipated that English would co-exist with Oriental studies as a means by which moral law could be reinforced.

The 1817 publication of James Mill's History of British India proved to be a defining text in the theories of how education policies should be formed (ed. Horace Hayman Wilson: London, Piper, Stephenson and Spence, 1858). Mill advocated the introduction of European knowledge to counter balance Indian traits judged to be irrational. Instilling ideals of reason would accordingly 'reform' Indians by the example of Western systems of thought and outlook. His ideas discredited Indian culture, language and literature even as its assumptions of moral superiority authorised and justified the presence of the British in India.

The current system of education, was introduced and funded by the British in the 19th century, following recommendations by Thomas Babington Macaulay. Traditional structures were not recognized by the British government and have been on the decline since.

Thomas MacAulay's infamous 'Minute On Indian Education' (1835) encapsulates both the overt and covert agendas for such a policy.

The term 'Macaulay's Children' is used to refer to people born of Indian ancestry who adopt Western culture as a lifestyle. It is usually used in a derogatory fashion, and the connotation is one of disloyalty to one's country and one's heritage.

The passage to which the term refers is from his 'Minute on Indian Education' delivered in 1835. It reads:

It is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population.

In 1835 Lord William Bentninck revitalised the earlier Charter Act with his New Education Policy which determined that English should be the official language of the courts, diplomacy and administration. Prior to this Persian had been the accepted language of diplomacy. Bentninck's motive was ostensibly to "regenerate" society, but the ramifications were boundless. From this moment on only those with Western style education and a knowledge of English were eligible for government employment or for a career in public life.

In 1854 Sir Charles Wood published his Education Dispatch which was aimed at widening the availability of Western oriented knowledge. Universities were established under the London examining model in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras.

Lord Ripon's Hunter Commission of 1882 somewhat belatedly advocated that there should be increased provision of education at primary level and for women. The theory was that there would be a subsequent rise in the calibre of applicants for third level entry.

The inevitable result was that an Indian-based education was viewed as being second rate in comparison to an English-medium education.

India

Private English medium schools are gaining popularity throughout India as urban middle class Indians who feel that English is the global language send their children to these schools. Increasingly, many poor families too are sending their children to English medium schools due the poor quality of education in Government run vernacular medium schools.

Malaysia

Up until 1981 in West Malaysia (and some years later in East Malaysia), there were English-medium schools set up by the former British colonial government and Christian missionaries. However, following the implementation of the 1967 National Language Act which stipulated the conversion of all English-medium schools to Malay-medium schools; all English-medium schools were definitely phased out. The policy has now caused many newly graduates to become unemployed as they cannot find jobs especially in the private sector due to the lack of English proficiency; with the graduates can only depends on public sector jobs provided by the government. This led to a criticism over the policy by local governments from the East Malaysian sides who are now feel the impacts to their younger generations caused by the federal government policy who have been too long sidelined the importance to mastering the universal language of English. By 2016, Sarawak began to support the re-establishment of English-medium schools, and request for the approval of more English-medium schools in the state from the federal government using its autonomy in education. The move was followed by Sabah in 2017 when a minister from the state also urging the return of English-medium schools, which grows with more supports from other ministers.

Indonesia

English medium school in Indonesia consists of International school and National Plus school. A National Plus school in Indonesia refers to a school that offers education beyond the minimum requirements of the national Indonesian accreditation authorities. National Plus school offers some subjects taught in English and may provide some native English speakers on staff or may offer international curriculum such as from Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) or the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO). National Plus schools can typically be differentiated from international schools by their core market. International schools tend to primarily exist to serve the needs of expatriate students and national plus schools for Indonesian students; however there is significant overlap on both sides.

Pakistan

The Government of Pakistan has recently announced the introduction of English lessons on a phased basis to all schools across the country. This new policy states that "English language has been made compulsory from Class-1 onwards" and the "Introduction of English as medium of instruction for science, mathematics, computer science and other selected subjects like economics and geography in all schools in a graduated manner." Caretaker Minister for Education Mr. Shujaat Ali Beg declared 25 January 2008 that 18 colleges of the city of Karachi would be made "Model English Medium Colleges,"

Bangladesh

In Bangladesh the system of education is divided into three different branches. Students are free to choose anyone of them provided that they have the means. These branches are: The English Medium, The Bengali Medium, and The Religious Branch. In the English Medium system, courses are all taught in English using English books with the exception for Bengali and Arabic. English medium schools are mainly private and thus traditionally were reserved for the upper and upper middle class. However huge demand in urban areas has resulted in large number of English-medium schools mushrooming. This has caused a fall in quality. O and A level exams are arranged through the British Council in Dhaka.

The Union of Myanmar

In the Union of Myanmar, the education system is based on the British Colonial model, due to nearly a century of British and Christian presences. Nearly all schools are government-operated, and also there has been a recent increase in privately funded English language schools.

The Philippines

The United States of America won the Philippine-American War (1898-1901), and declared the Philippines a US colony. US imperial rule followed. Mac Síomóin quotes the Filipino scholar E. San Juan who made the following comment regarding the use made by the US administration of the English language to rule his country:

Its conquest of hegemony or consensual rule was literally accomplished through the deployment of English as the official medium of business, schooling and government. This pedagogical strategy was designed to cultivate an intelligencia, a middle stratum divorced from its roots in the plebeian masses, who would service the ideological apparatus of Anglo-Saxon supremacy. Americanization was mediated through English, sanctioned as the language of prestige and aspiration.

English is used for instruction at the University of the Philippines.

Slovenia

University of Ljubljana teaches at least 100 courses in English. In Where to Invade Next, Michael Moore interviews several American citizens studying at the university who were taking courses taught in English.

South Africa

Colonial education

The earliest European schools in South Africa were established in the Cape Colony in the late seventeenth century by Dutch Reformed Church elders committed to biblical instruction, which was necessary for church confirmation. In rural areas, itinerant teachers (meesters) taught basic literacy and math skills. British mission schools proliferated after 1799, when the first members of the London Missionary Society arrived in the Cape Colony.[8]

Language soon became a sensitive issue in education. At least two dozen English-language schools operated in rural areas of the Cape Colony by 1827, but their presence rankled among devout Afrikaners, who considered the English language and curriculum irrelevant to rural life and Afrikaner values. Throughout the nineteenth century, Afrikaners resisted government policies aimed at the spread of the English language and British values, and many educated their children at home or in the churches.

Milner Schools

In order to anglicize the Transvaal area during the Anglo Boer war, Lord Milner set out to influence British Education in the area for the English-speaking populations. He founded a series of schools known as the "Milner Schools" in South Africa. These schools consist of modern day Pretoria High School for Girls, Pretoria Boys High School, Potchefstroom High School for Boys, Hamilton Primary School, and St. Marys DSG.

China

A number of universities are involved English-medium education by International Scholarly Exchange Curriculum program (ISEC program). ISEC program establishes a platform for those universities to communicate with other international institutions who use English-medium education. Other famous universities that offer English-medium education (China-Foreign cooperative universities), such as University of Nottingham Ningbo, China, United International College, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Shanghai Newyork University and Wenzhou-Kean University.

Maps English-medium education

See also

• Bilingual education
• Welsh in education
• Medium of instruction
• List of Irish medium primary schools in Northern Ireland

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References

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Sources and further reading

• Séamas Ó Buachalla,Educational Policy and the Role of the Irish Language from 1831 to 1981, European Journal of Education, Vol. 19, No. 1, Multicultural Education (1984), pp. 75-92
• Bisong, Joseph (1995 [1994]) Language Choice and cultural Imperialism: a Nigerian Perspective. ELT Journal 49/2 pp. 122-132.
• Bobda, Augustin Simo (1997) Sociocultural Constraints in EFL Teaching in Cameroon. In: Pütz, Martin (ed.) The cultural Context in Foreign Language Teaching. Frankfurt a. M.: Lang. pp. 221-240.
• Brutt-Griffler, Janina (2002) World English. Multilingual Matters. ISBN 1-85359-577-2
• Canagarajah, A. Suresh (1999), Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in English Teaching, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-442154-6
• Canagarajah, A. Suresh, Thomas Ricento & Terrence G. Wiley [eds.] (2002) Journal of Language, Identity, and Education. Special issue. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-8058-9629-5
• Canagarajah, A. Suresh [ed.] (2004) Reclaiming the Local in Language Policy and Practice. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-8058-4593-3
• Crystal, David (2003), English as a Global Language, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-53032-6
• Davies, Alan (1996) Review Article: ironising the Myth of Linguicism. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. 17/6: 485-596.
• Davies, Alan (1997) Response to a Reply. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 18/3 p. 248.
• Edge, Julian [ed.] (2006) (Re-)Locating TESOL in an Age of Empire. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1-4039-8530-8
• Holborow, Marnie (1999) Politics of English. Sage Publications. ISBN 0-7619-6018-X
• Holborrow, Marnie (1993) Review Article: linguistic Imperialism. ELT Journal 47/4 pp. 358-360.
• Holliday, Adrian (2005), Struggle to Teach English as an International Language , Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-442184-8
• Kontra, Miklos, Robert Phillipson, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas & Tibor Varady [eds.] (1999), Language: A Right and a Resource, Central European University Press. ISBN 963-9116-64-5
• Kramsch, Klaire and Patricia Sullivan (1996) Appropriate Pedagogy. ELT Journal 50/3 pp. 199-212.
• Malik, S.A. Primary Stage English (1993). Lahore: Tario Brothers.
• Pennycook, Alastair (1995), The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language, Longman. ISBN 0-582-23473-5
• Pennycook, Alastair (1998), English and the Discourses of Colonialism, Routledge. ISBN 0-415-17848-7
• Pennycook, Alastair (2001), Critical Applied Linguistics, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-8058-3792-2
• Pennycook, Alastair (in press) Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-37497-9
• Phillipson, Robert (1992), Linguistic Imperialism, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-437146-8
• Phillipson, Robert [ed.] (2000), Rights to Language, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-8058-3835-X
• Phillipson, Robert (2003) English-Only Europe? Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28807-X
• Punjab Text Book Board (1997) My English Book Step IV. Lahore: Metro Printers.
• Rajagopalan, Kanavilli (1999) Of EFL Teachers, Conscience and Cowardice. ELT Journal 53/3 200-206.
• Ramanathan, Vaidehi (2005) The English-Vernacular Divide. Multilingual Matters. ISBN 1-85359-769-4
• Rahman, Tariq (1996) Language and Politics in Pakistan Karachi: Oxford University Press
• Ricento, Thomas [ed.] (2000) Ideology, Politics, and Language Policies. John Benjamins. ISBN 1-55619-670-9
• Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove & Robert Phillipson [eds.]; Mart Rannut (1995), Linguistic Human Rights, Mouton De Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-014878-1
• Sonntag, Selma K. (2003) The Local Politics of Global English. Lexington Books. ISBN 0-7391-0598-1
• Spichtinger, Daniel (2000) The Spread of English and its Appropriation. University of Vienna, Vienna.
• Tsui, Amy B.M. & James W. Tollefson (in press) Language Policy, Culture, and Identity in Asian Contexts. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-8058-5694-3
• Widdowson, H.G. (1998a) EIL: squaring the Circles. A Reply. World Englishes 17/3 pp. 397-401.
• Widdowson, H.G. (1998b) The Theory and Practice of Critical Discourse Analysis. Applied Linguistics 19/1 pp. 136-151.

src: ganpatvidyalaya.org

External links

• Minute by the Hon'ble T.B. Macaulay, dated the 2 February 1835.
• Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Colaiste Ghàidhlig na h-Alba
• The Common School, by Seamus Dunn
• English Next by David Graddol, British Council
• European Journal of Education, Vol. 19, No. 1, Multicultural Education (1984) 'Education Policy and the Role of the Irish Language from 1831 to 1981.' URL
• Gaelic in Scotland
• Empire? What Empire? Imperialism and British national identity c. 1815-1914 by Professor Bernard Porter
• TEFL Courses Online Review - ESL teaching strategies and techniques
• The Murder Machine by P.H. Pearse
• UNESCO Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Education

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