This paper reviews Shanghai’s recent efforts in committing itself to the building of a harmonious multilingual international civic society for the 21^st century. As a coastal city rich in its unique local culture and meanwhile an increasingly internationalized city opulent in its diversified multilingual contacts, Shanghai cannot but remain a city with a multicultural life for both native residents and a quite sizable migrating population. To cater to the varied linguistic needs of people in life and employment, Shanghai is obliged to make well-poised language policies in the service of its local and international citizens as well as to the betterment of its internationalization process in building a civic society of peace and harmony. The papers highlights the city’s language policy issues and spotlights the city’s practices in implementing multilingual education, with a focus on the underlying coherent mechanism of the city which integrates diversified efforts of individuals and groups in the fields of education and research, civil, cultural and medical services, publishing, press and media, a mechanism that promises to bring to the city of Shanghai a harmonious multilingual and multicultural life of vigor and vitality with sustainable and well-balanced development.

Presenter: Dr. Deming MEI has a Ph.D. in linguistics and rhetoric; Professor of English and linguistics, Shanghai International Studies University (SISU); PhD advisor for the Graduate English Language & Literature Program and the Graduate Educational Linguistics Program, SISU; Researcher on second language acquisition and bilingual education, SISU; Professor of the Research Center for Foreign Language Strategy of China and Chairman of the Academic Committee, SISU; Dean of the College of International Programs, SISU; Member of the National Curriculum and Textbook Development & Examination Expert Committee, Ministry of Education (MOE); English curriculum developer and textbook examiner, MOE; Member of the Foreign Language Education Committee of China Education Association; Member of the Expert Committee of China Accreditation Test for Translators and Interpreters; Member of the Expert Committee of Shanghai Interpretation Accreditation Test; Developer of more 30 English textbooks for university students; Examiner of over 100 national English textbooks from primary to secondary education. Published over 40 books, handbooks, textbooks and dictionaries.

This review essay, written within an interdisciplinary perspective, argues for multilingual proficiency as a goal of and a forthcoming trend in peace education. Multilingual proficiency should be one of the strategic goals of peace education.  This overview of the field explores one possible imaginary for the future. The stakes of peace and globalization are addressed from a school policy perspective, exploring: (a) the role of language diversity in reaching peaceful, world citizenship; (b) bilingualism and how it is linked to the ability to bring peace; (c) the role of English and other lingua francas; (d) the connection between language education and peace. The framework for this study is Critical Systems Theory. It stimulates reflection to enable participation in and contribution to the development of civil society, raises questions related to motivation, power, knowledge and legitimization, and targets the revival of civil society. The literature reviewed points at how the issues discussed can be resolved to increase crosscultural understanding.

Multilingualism in South Asia is characterized by a double divide – one between English, the elitist language of power and the major regional languages (vernaculars) and, the other, between the vernaculars and the dominated languages. The languages-in-education policies and practices in the South Asian countries are analyzed  from a peace and social justice perspective showing how the negative impact of submersion education in dominant languages leads to educational failure and poverty of the indigenous and tribal minorities. Recent policy and programs of multilingual educations (MLE) in India and Nepal show positive educational and social benefits of mother tongue based MLE.

Presenter: Former Professor and ICSSR National Fellow in Jawaharlal Nehru University, Dr. Ajit Mohanty is Chief Adviser, NMRC (www.nmrc-jnu.org). He was a Fulbright Professor (Columbia University), Fulbright Senior Scholar (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Killam Scholar (University of Alberta). With over 140 publications including 7 books, he has written chapters on Language Acquisition and Bilingualism in the Handbook of Cross-Cultural Psychology (2nd edition) and on Multilingual Education in India in Encyclopedia of Language and Education and in Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, 2013 (which carries a biographical entry on him). Mohanty is a Fellow and past President of NAOP, India and a Fellow of APS, USA. He developed the Multilingual Education Policy for Nepal (with Tove Skutnabb-Kangas) and also for the state of Odisha, India.

Foreign Languages Education (FLE) has long been an integral part in the national education system in most countries in the world and plays a key role in the development of a nation and its society. East Asia formerly achieved brilliant glories of Oriental civilization and now is in the pursuit for regional peace and prosperity. FLE in East Asian countries has been playing an even greater part in the context of globalization. This paper, based on a detailed, organic and comparative perspective on the development of FLE policies, tries to reveal the interconnected and historical relationship between FLE policies and the harmonious, economic and educational development in China, Japan and South Korea. First, the paper starts with the analysis of the evolvement and trend of international FLE policies and the development of East Asia in the context of globalization and focuses on the connection among globalization, East Asia development and innovations of FLE policies. Next, a three-fold framework for analysis would be proposed to conduct an organic analysis of FLE policies in case studies of Japan, South Korea and China respectively, by looking at the historical development, current situation and innovations in the context of globalization of FLE policies. The above endeavor tries to explore the whole process and present a tentative links and limitations between FLE and regional peace and prosperity. 

Presenter: Professor SHEN Qi, Ph. D in Comparative Education, Med in TESOL, BA in English language and literature, Deputy Director of China Research Center for Foreign Language Strategies (RCFLS), and research fellow in Institute of Linguistic Studies, Shanghai International Studies University. Dr. Shen’s major research interests include language policy and language planning, Language Education Policy and Educational Linguistics. He has published one monograph in Chinese and more than 40 journal papers at home and abroad. Currently, he is the principal investigator of 5 projects, concerning studies in national language competence, language education policy and linguistic security.    

This paper draws on a larger study which investigated Japanese youths’ discourses on English in the context of language learning. The paper highlights the construction of possible conflicting relationships among those who are purported to be affected by language-in-education policy. These unfortunate relationships unearth social frictions that are underpinned by binary conceptualisations—young-old, we-them, and haves-have nots—where one side of the dualism is perceived to be positive and the other negative. These binary opposites arguably both evince and reproduce structural or indirect violence where such violence is built into social system and manifests in power relations and, as a corollary, unequal life chances. The paper demonstrates that unequal power relations as possible causes of conflict can be found in an ostensibly peaceful society such as Japan, and that these inequalities are interlinked with the way language-in-education is implicated in both empowering and marginalising processes simultaneously. In the event, the discursive frictions point to a locus with which language educators/researchers engage to conceive ways to empower people with knowledge to achieve communities of peace, confronting possible covert forms of violence lurking in society. 

Presenter: Dr. Akihiro Saito is an assistant professor in the Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Sciences at the Hachinohe Institute of Technology, Japan. His interests cover a range of issues in the broad area of applied linguistics, including language attitudes, ideology, and identity and their implications for language-in- education policy and language pedagogy. His current research topics include language attitudes and language ideology in the context of Japan’s ELT and the use of oral reading methods in the EFL classroom where there is scarce target language input. He received a PhD from the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.