Educational Policies related to English Language Teaching in Asia : Case Studies of 5 Countries

Abstract

           In the 21st century, English is used worldwide; therefore, it plays a key role in improving each country's development, competitiveness, and increasing cooperation with one another. Fluent English users have better job opportunities, more chances to explore the world further, and the more people they can communicate with, the more business opportunities they gain, resulting in a better economic status and prosperity. The governments of five selected countries namely, China (Hong Kong), Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand have seen this significant factor and are trying to raise their citizens' English proficiency. Each has launched interesting policies. After the implementation, some policies faced too many obstacles and some have shown bright future. In this paper, each country's background, policies related to English teaching, problems, and some possible solutions will be discussed. All of the countries' common problems are: a lack of competent native English teachers, limited budget for policy implementation, and the conflict between the outdated grammar-translation approach of teaching and learning and the modern communicative language in daily life. These problems are not rooted in classrooms but the whole system; therefore, to achieve each country's national plan or follow its roadmap, each government needs to understand its country's context and establish a government organization which deeply understands the situations, both from local and international perspectives, to manage this particular aspect effectively.