The Future: Imagining Alternative Linguistic Possibilities

This chapter looks into the future of LPP in ASEAN. Instead of predicting how the linguistic future may unfold in ASEAN and the region, the chapter prioritises remaining this future. The LPP scholar participants and policy officials were invited to reflect what an ideal ASEAN LPP may look like, as an alternative to the current English-only regime. The chapter provides a balanced account of the future linguistic possibilities for ASEAN, ranging from the idealist standpoint or what we call ‘linguistic utopianism’, to the more realistically oriented LPP considerations for ASEAN. Theoretical contributions of the chapter include exploring possible ways forward in the case of ASEAN, using a hybrid approach and combining language-as-resources and ecology-of-language paradigms as underlying ideologies to inform future LPP possibilities. While including Bahasa Indonesia or Mandarin as potential co-working languages in ASEAN may not receive wide support, there is wider support for a multilingual imagination of education in the region modelled on mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE).