The Medium of Instruction Policy in Nepal: Towards Critical Engagement on the Ideological and Pedagogical Debate

IF 0.4 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS Language Documentation & Conservation Pub Date : 2019-09-30 DOI:10.17323/jle.2019.8995
Prem Prasad Poudel
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引用次数: 9

Abstract

Although there were attempts to develop multilingual and multicultural education in Nepal, changes have remained more discursive than pragmatic at the working level. Problems discussed have remained unsolved. The issues of protection and promotion of the historically residing linguistic diversity have been addressed through the current constitution (Constitution of Nepal-2015) which provides an appropriate legal framework for substantive legal protection for the national indigenous languages as MOIs. However, the successful implementation of this provision is further complicated due to the global political economy, interdependence, and the ‘sandwiched’ geopolitical status of Nepal. It has been noted that education policymaking is highly centralised and implementation is top-down (Edwards, 2011) in many countries such as Nepal, the current trend of English-medium instruction supported by parents, communities, and the private sector from the bottom up will further weaken the attempts for mother tongue MOI in Nepalese schools. Moreover, the social capitalisation of English from the bottom up will have grave consequences for language policymaking in education, which are obviously dismal but essential nonetheless. Despite the research findings revealing that multilingual education offers the best possibilities for preparing the coming generation to participate in constructing more equitable and democratic societies in the globalised world, the translation of such findings into real-life practice is telescopic. This article emphasises the need for the critical engagement of scholars, educators, investors, and policymakers in order to develop contextually realistic, sustainable, and efficient MOI policymaking that justifies the use of mother tongues, national language, and the global language in an integrated framework sufficient for future generations to compete both locally and globally.
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尼泊尔的教学媒介政策:对意识形态和教学辩论的批判性参与
虽然尼泊尔曾尝试发展多语言和多元文化教育,但在工作层面上的变化仍然是空谈而非务实。讨论过的问题仍未解决。保护和促进历史上存在的语言多样性的问题已经通过现行宪法(尼泊尔宪法-2015)得到解决,该宪法为作为MOIs的民族土著语言提供了实质性法律保护的适当法律框架。然而,由于全球政治经济、相互依存和尼泊尔的“三明治”地缘政治地位,这一规定的成功实施变得更加复杂。有人指出,在尼泊尔等许多国家,教育政策的制定高度集中,实施是自上而下的(Edwards, 2011),目前由家长、社区和私营部门自下而上支持的英语教学趋势将进一步削弱尼泊尔学校实现母语MOI的努力。此外,英语自下而上的社会资本化将对教育领域的语言政策制定产生严重影响,这显然是令人沮丧的,但却是必不可少的。尽管研究结果表明,多语言教育为下一代在全球化世界中参与建设更公平和民主的社会提供了最好的可能性,但将这些发现转化为现实生活中的实践是不可估量的。本文强调需要学者、教育工作者、投资者和政策制定者的关键参与,以制定切合实际、可持续和有效的MOI政策制定,证明在一个综合框架中使用母语、民族语言和全球语言是合理的,这足以让子孙后代在本地和全球竞争。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
1.60
自引率
5.60%
发文量
0
审稿时长
20 weeks
期刊介绍: Welcome to Language Documentation & Conservation (LD&C), a peer-reviewed, open-access journal sponsored by the National Foreign Language Resource Center and published exclusively in electronic form by the University of Hawaiʻi Press. We publish one volume per year with no fees either for contributors or for readers. We upload articles four times per year in a publish-on-acceptance model. LD&C publishes papers on all topics related to language documentation and conservation, including, but not limited to, the goals of language documentation, data management, fieldwork methods, ethical issues, orthography design, reference grammar design, lexicography, methods of assessing ethnolinguistic vitality, biocultural diversity, archiving matters, language planning, areal survey reports, short field reports on endangered or underdocumented languages, reports on language maintenance, preservation, and revitalization efforts, plus reviews of software, hardware, books, and data collections.
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The Structure Of Kina Rutul Noun Phrase The Medium of Instruction Policy in Nepal: Towards Critical Engagement on the Ideological and Pedagogical Debate
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