언어정책과 국가경쟁력 비교: 동남아시아 영어권 국가들을 중심으로

Abstract

Comparison of Language Planning and National CompetitivenessKwon, Yeon-JinThis paper investigates English language policy and the emergence of mixed languages caused by using English in Southeast Asia such as Singapore, Malaysia, India, and Philippines. We claim that there is no direct correlation between the officialization of English and national competitiveness. Multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-lingual countries in Southeast Asia are constantly confronted with a lot of existing issues and potential problems underlying the bilingual policy. One of the main issues some countries in Southeast Asia had to overcome since their independence was to unite the interests of group identity, national pride and unity. One way to get national unity in the multi-ethnic societies is to decide one language which different ethnic groups commonly use. Among an official language and national languages, English as an international language has evolved to become a de facto language, functioning as a unifying working language at the national level. The use of English promotes economic and technological progress and administrative efficiency. Moreover it aids the attraction of overseas capital, trade and industrial investment.However, a problem of mixed languages caused by using both English and national languages aries. Mispronunciation and misuse of English words sometimes occur. Furthermore, some words have a different meaning from their counterparts in standard English. For example, Singlish, which is the very informal variety used in some situations by native speakers of Singaporean English, is different from standard English. One more thing we claim is that a lot of countries have no national competitiveness even if they employ English as an official language. It is thus believed that the learning of the ethnic language can lead to an appreciation and hence retention of ethnic cultural values and traditions.