Summing up: What have we learned?

Handout for MESSEAS (SARS 523)
H. Schiffman, Instructor
U. of Pennsylvania


  1. Bi- and multilingual Education in South/Southeast Asia almost always involves English and its varieties, in some kind of relationship with another language.

  2. In the past, models of linguistic analysis that involves concepts of pidginization, creolization, and creoloid forms of language have been used, but may no longer be apt.

  3. The relationship between English and others languages is often a diglossic one.

  4. The nature of this diglossia may be different from other usages of the term, and we need more research into this.

  5. The kind(s) of English involved are much more complex than we had thought; Standard formal BANA kinds of English are not the whole picture, and can never be.

  6. Bilingualism may not work for everybody in a given society;

    • it may remain manageable only for elites;

    • or it may end up being replacive

    • special efforts may have to be made to make things more balanced, and make sure language shift doesn't occur.

  7. Our models of pedagogy may not always be appropriately imported from other societies; the linguistic cultures and value systems of the cultures of the area may be grounded in ideas about

    • language,
    • about authority,
    • and about education

    that may not work well with imported models. (Or maybe they sometimes work, and sometimes don't)

  8. The voices of indigenous peoples and their ideas about language need to be heard more, and the voices of expatriates and their models of analysis may need to be put on the back burner. Or, maybe we need to work out models that blend various approaches.

  9. Other issues we haven't even thought of yet.