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GLOBALIZATION, EDUCATIONAL

LANGUAGE POLICY AND

NATION-BUILDING IN MALAYSIA

Tan Yao Sua and R. Santhiram

INTRODUCTION

Globalization is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. It is best

understood as a modern process as well as one with historical antecedents

and continuities with past eras (Tazreiter and Tham 2013). From the

contemporary perspective, it involves the intensified flows of capital,

goods, people, images and discourses around the globe, driven by

technological innovations mainly in the field of media and information

and communications technology (ICT) and resulting in new patterns of

global activity, community and culture (Blommaert 2010).

Globalization has had a profound impact on the development of

education worldwide. One of its impacts is in the area of educational

language policy, which has a lot to do with the global spread of English

brought about by globalization. Within the contemporary context of

globalization, the global spread of English has been accentuated by agents of

globalization, especially the neo-liberal ideology embraced by transnational

Reproduced from Education and Globalization in Southeast Asia: Issues and Challenges, edited by
Lee Hock Guan (Singapore: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, 2017). This version was obtained electronically direct
from the publisher on condition that copyright is not infringed. No part of this publication may be reproduced
without the prior permission of the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.
Individual articles are available at http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg.