English in Asian Bilingual Education: From Hatred to Harmony

Abstract

For all the obvious gains that the use of English in education brings to Asian bilingual systems, the language is often viewed with openly expressed suspicion by planners, politicians and academics in several Asian countries. This can in part be explained by events in the language's past association with these countries. But only in part. Some other reasons are relatable to what the English language does, on one hand, to those who succeed in joining the English users' 'fellowships' (Kachru, 1985) and, on the other, to the rest of English language's 'stakeholders' (Tickoo,1991) and to the other languages that serve these systems. With its main support in the teaching and use of English in India, this paper attempts two things: it explores parts of this phenomenon in looking at its what, how and why and then sketches an educational alternative capable of making the language a shared resource for all its stakeholders.