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Series editor’s preface From the mid-1990s onwards, the topic of English as a lingua franca has attracted a great deal of attention among various groups of linguists. Initially, this largely arose in the context of a Europe dealing with increasing multilingualism due not only to immigration and the growth of immigrant communities, but also as a result of the wide diversity of students attending European universities. Over the last ten years, linguistic research on English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) has emerged as an energetic and productive strand of research in the European context. Hitherto, however, there have been very few studies adopting an ELF approach within the Asian region. What is both noteworthy and outstanding about this present volume from Professor Andy Kirkpatrick is that, while there have been a large number of books and theses dealing with the issue of ELF in the European context, this present volume, to my knowledge, is a first of its kind: a detailed book-length study of English as a lingua franca in the Asian context. In addition, the strength of the present volume rests not merely on theorization, but also on original empirical investigation and data collection, as well as the detailed personal knowledge of a leading educator whose experience of language education in Asia is measured in decades. In this volume, Professor Kirkpatrick’s discussion of English in ASEAN ranges from the historical to the sociolinguistic and to the pedagogic. The early sections of the book provide an overview of the foundation and development of ASEAN from the 1960s to the present, a description of the status and functions of English in the member ASEAN societies, and the spread of English as a dominant foreign language in the largely postcolonial context of national development. The middle sections focus on the linguistic features of English as a lingua franca in ASEAN, at the levels of phonology, vocabulary, discourse and pragmatics, and the communicative strategies of ASEAN ELF users. The final sections of the volume are devoted to a discussion of language policies and pedagogical implications relating to the teaching of English. In these sections, Professor Kirkpatrick makes x Series editor’s preface a strong case for the adoption of a multilingual approach to English language in education. This requires a re-thinking of language policies in many ASEAN societies, in order, not least, to avoid the worst consequences of imposing English as a medium of instruction in primary schools in the region. Professor Kirkpatrick’s challenge to the orthodoxies of current language policies is supported by careful argumentation and detailed exemplification from particular case studies. This volume presents a fresh and welcome challenge to any complacency that one might have concerning the wholesale spread of English in Asian education systems, reminding us throughout that the place of English in these contexts must be viewed against the linguistic ecologies of such societies. This is an issue that is at the heart of the volume, and, one appreciates, at the heart of the author, who communicates a deep and genuine concern for the multilingual cultures and diversity of the Asian region. Kingsley Bolton August 2010 ...

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