'The big ones swallow the small ones.' Or do they? The language policy

Abstract

The Lao People's Democratic Republic is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse nations in Southeast Asia. Since 1975, the Communist government has touted as its hallmark a discourse of interethnic equality and solidarity, particularly in the field of education. However, a critical reading of government policies and planning measures over the past 30 years reveals a persistent discourse of ethnic Lao cultural and linguistic centrality. This thesis seeks to identify the various Lao government discourses on language, ethnicity and education, then to explore how these divergent official discourses are reproduced, adapted or contested on the ground through language practice in ethnic minority classrooms. It begins with a discourse analysis of selected policy texts, then moves on to an analysis of the code-switching practices of teachers and students in three ethnic minority primary school classrooms in relation to the official discourses. The thesis aims both to increase our understanding of language, ethnicity and education in the Lao context and to contribute to academic discussions on the relationship between the State, minority languages, education and power. It is based on one year's fieldwork in the ethnic Kmhmu primary school classrooms of Nalae district, northwestern Laos, and four years' previous experience working in the Lao education sector. It will become clear in this thesis that teachers and students are aware of the official role of Lao as the language of education and signal this in various ways through their language choice. However, it will also be seen that they allocate significant roles to the mother tongue in the classroom, not only as a secondary and minor medium of instruction. The assertion by a Lao education official that, when it comes to language, 'the big ones swallow the small ones' does not appear to be supported by the evidence in this case