Language Policy, Medium of Instruction and Economic Development: The Case of Six Asian Countries in Kachru's Concentric Circles

Abstract

Language and culture are two important ingredients influencing the economic growth of the individual and society. They represent an important indicator of the individual’s satisfaction and quality of life. This paper is an attempt to answer Grin and Arcand’s (2013) observation that the part that language might play in economic development has long intrigued scholars from various disciplines, and up to the present decade no clear story has emerged from the investigations published and the empirical evidence remains inconclusive. Thus, in an attempt to come up with empirical evidence to establish the link between language policy and language in education to economic growth, this paper reviews the language policies and medium of instruction (MOI)in six Asian countries, two countries each from each circle in Kachru’s concentric circles of Asian Englishes. Each circle was represented by a country with high and low gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. To determine the effect of language policy and MOI to countries’ GDP per capita, analysis of the similarities on the language policy and MOI of countries with higher GDP and those with lower GDP was done.

Keywords: language economics, language policy, medium of instruction, economic growth, GDP per capita

JEL Classification: A12