A Case Study of English Teachers’ Perception
toward the Significance of English in ASEAN
Nattiya Bunwirat
The Far Eastern University, Chiang Mai
Ken Chuaphalakit
Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai
Introduction
• English has taken a main role as a working language of ASEAN
since 1967 (Okudaira, 1999).
 The role of English in ASEAN has changed from EFL to ELF
 The principle of ELF: People study and use English as a medium
of communication in different contexts with people who do not speak
English as their first language (Ur, 2010).
With the shift of the role of English comes several challenges
that should be explored.
Purpose and Research Question
Purpose of the study
• To study the English language teachers’ opinions
towards the roles of English as a Lingua Franca in
ASEAN.
Research Question
• How do three English teachers understand the
significance of English language in ASEAN?
Methodology
Selection of the participants
• Criteria oriented
 Having at least 10 years of English teaching experience
 Holding a degree in English language field
 Three participants
Data collection
• Semi-structured interview
Results
Two themes emerge from the participants’ responses
• Key to successful business communication
• ASEAN’s English standard and policy
Results
Key to Successful Business Communication
• English language is able to support successful
communication in business world.
• Declaring English as a working language of ASEAN
or as a lingua franca sounds reasonable.
Results
ASEAN’s English Standard and Policy
• ‘ASEAN English’
 A new variation : Particular vocabularies and terminology
 Be diverse from the English used in other English speaking
countries
 Unique and accepted in the community
• ASEAN’s English Language Policy
 need to be considered
 should have co-operation of 10 ministries of
education
Results
ASEAN’s English Standard and Policy
• English Language Education
 concerned about ways of teaching and learning the language in
classrooms
 The pedagogy should enhance students’ English proficiency
and create high-English-competency laborers to meet the
language requirement of AEC in the future.
Discussion
ELF in ASEAN may be acceptable regarding
the benefits of workers.
 English language has been used in many domains in ASEAN,
for example business and education (Crocco & Bunwirat, 2014).
Discussion
English as the sole official language
1. Concerning over unsystematic policy of English in ASEAN is
raised.
 ASEAN: such a highly diverse society
 Probability of loss in linguistic and cultural diversity
(Kirkpatrick, 2010).
2. ELF pedagogy is needed.
 General language pedagogy maybe insufficient to prepare
students for AEC (Kirkpatrick, 2010; Kongerd, 2013; Crocco &
Bunwirat, 2014).
 Learning goals : effective communication and support
students’ intercultural competence (Kongkerd, 2013).
Discussion
3. Which ‘varieties of English’ will be ‘standard English’ for
ASEAN and AEC?
 Two prominent varieties of English : TOEFL (US) vs. IELTS (UK)
 Standardized test scores
 Accents and spelling variations can cause a problem for
some test takers (i-studentglobal, 2015).
What is standard English?
Recommendations
• Ongoing interdisciplinary research is needed.
• The cooperation of the stakeholders in ASEAN are necessary for
the reformation of English language policy to be successful in real
practice in the near future.
Conclusion
English is crucial to ASEAN and AEC.
 Medium language in business
 English proficiency is one of the requirements for work.
Areas that Need Considerations
 Education: Prepare students to function effectively in multilingual
contexts, Require collaboration in planning and designing ASEAN
curricula.
 English language planning and policy (ELF)
 Set English standard of using the language in such particular
community
A Case Study of English Teachers’ Perception
toward the Significance of English in ASEAN
All comments and feedback are welcome.
Correspondence: Nattiya.feu@gmail.com