Malaysia’s English Language Education Policy: Comparative Lessons for Vietnam’s Transition Toward English as a Second Language

Abstract

In the context of rapid globalization, multilingual developing nations constantly struggle to strengthen English language education while simultaneously safeguarding national linguistic identity. Malaysia and Vietnam represent two structurally comparable cases in Southeast Asia, where English has been strategically promoted alongside Malay and Vietnamese, respectively. This study examines Malaysia’s English language education policies, trajectories, and pedagogical practices to draw context-sensitive lessons for Vietnam’s ongoing structural educational reforms. Using an exploratory, descriptive qualitative comparative policy analysis grounded in Spolsky’s Language Policy Model and Bourdieu’s Theory of Linguistic Capital, the study analyzes national blueprints, curriculum frameworks, and empirical scholarly literature. The findings indicate that Malaysia’s functional bilingual approach—orchestrated through the MBMMBI policy and the Dual Language Programme (DLP)—has noticeably enhanced national English proficiency while firmly preserving the primacy of the national language. However, persistent urban-rural socio-economic disparities remain a structural barrier. The study argues that Malaysia’s multi-phase experience offers crucial strategic insights for Vietnam as it navigates its national roadmap to position English as a systemic second language (ESL) by 2035. Key implications highlight the need for clear institutional policy, continuous professional development (CPD) for teachers, equitable localized resourcing, and balanced competency-based assessments. Ultimately, this study contributes to the broader literature on educational "Englishization" by offering a comparative structural design framework for language planning in non-postcolonial developing contexts.