Equitable EMI in Asia: Perspectives on Possibilities

Asia is one of the richest regions in the world in linguistic and cultural resources. As the most multilingual region, it houses a myriad of languages and dialects. Their speakers observe a multitude of socio-cultural practices. Despite positive attitudes favouring minority languages and cultures, their languages and cultures are subjected to inequality and discrimination. Multilingualism in the Asian countries, is hierarchical, in nature, characterized by a double divide—one between the elitist language of power and the major regional languages and, the other, between the regional languages and the dominated ones (Mohanty in Int J Sociol Lang 205:131–154, 2010). The existing socio-linguistic hierarchy has not only caused an increasing loss of the region’s most appreciated linguistic fabric, but it has also led to marginalization of the surviving indigenous and minority languages and their speakers. The widening gaps between the concerned governments’ language policies and their practice have given rise to EMI across the region. The principal reason for the attraction to EMI is the belief that EMI enhances English language abilities, develops human capital, and facilitates access to the global economy. As such, many educational institutions in Asian countries increasingly adopt EMI to internationalise and improve the quality of their education (Sah in Int J Bilingual Educ Bilingualism 25(2):742–755, 2020). However, the inconsistent policies, poor implementation strategies and uneven distribution of educational resources have led to failure in achieving this goal, causing capability deprivation in some sections of the population, and injustice to the minority and ethnic linguistic groups (Rahman in Functional variations in English: theoretical considerations and practical challenges. Springer, Switzerland, 2020). This introduction chapter examines the pluralistic view on EMI, and the controversy that surrounds its unjust practices which inform the contributions of the volume. In this chapter, we outline the commonalities in the contributions as well as the contesting views on the place of EMI in the languages-in-education in the region. Following this, we summarise perspectives on equity and social justice issues in three parts, Part I (the region: an overview), Part II (countries with a colonial past) and Part III (countries without a colonial past). In a nutshell, this chapter provides a synthesis of the complexities, commonalities and the contesting views seen in the various chapters of the volume.