Employment Skill Development in South Asian Countries: A renaissance of English Language

Abstract

I. English as an Asian LanguageThe concept of English as an Asian language is based on the fact that English is here to stay as an irreplaceable language for communication and/or internation. In Southeast Asia, for example, English is used as an irrefutable lingua franca for regional cooperation in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) organization comprising ten states.The extraordinary importance of English is recognized by all the countries as a language of wider communication in Asia and of course the world around. This gives a redoubled emphasis on English language teaching (ELT). China, a country of 1.2 billion people, has 300 million students enrolled in the English classrooms. Japan is one of the countries who has initiated an action program to opened the way for improved ELT in five years, with a focus on teaching English in English in primary and secondary schools.If we talk about India in specific the introduction of English in India was done by The British East India Company, founded in 1599, in the exclusive domains of power-government, administration, judiciary, military, education, commerce, and the media-between the 18th and the 19th centuries. As such, it was an elite social class marker facilitating upward social mobility in urban, professional circles in South Asia.English continues to enjoy this dominant status in South Asia despite resistance to it in the precolonial India (Gandhi, 1942, p. 62, 1980, p. 46), postcolonial Pakistan (Abdullah,1976), Sri Lanka (Raheem & Ratwatte, 2004, and Bangladesh (Hossain & Tollefson,2007, p. 248). These resistance movements were counteracted by the expansion of English through improved means of communication, especially in the electronic media and cyberspace (Crystal, 2004, pp. 64-91), and the aspiration of the expanding middle class for upward mobility both nationally and internationally. II. Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)There have been efforts across South Asia to expand and improve the quality of post-school vocational education, also known as TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training). TVET has been defined as: the study of technologies and related sciences and the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding and knowledge relating to occupation in various sectors of economic life (UNESCO, 2013). The approach is committed to develop a strategy of increasing skills development opportunities and making the TVET system accessible and industry-oriented. In India, too, efforts are being made to encourage school leavers to enter TVET by attempting to build correspondence between education and work. III. The role of English in South Asia and TVETEnglish has continually had a presence in the Indian subcontinent due to British colonial history in the region and the language's subsequent emergence as a global force with a high instrumental value in various domains, particularly commerce and education (McArthur, 2002). As the region is linguistically diverse, English