This book sheds light on the role of mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB MLE) as a means to enhance educational outcomes, creating a space for non-dominant languages alongside more dominant regional, national and international languages. It brings together a number of underlying concerns including the maintenance of non-dominant languages, the context of language policy and planning in shaping this process, the poor educational outcomes of many speakers of non-dominant languages in mainstream education programs and the economic and social importance of becoming multilingual. It focuses on the experiences of those involved in MTB MLE programs in early childhood, primary, secondary, tertiary and adult education from numerous settings in the Asia-Pacific region. This book provides readers with a detailed overview of MTB MLE, with a clear and insightful portrayal of the complex nature of policy and practice in both more accommodating and less accommodating sociopolitical environments.

Suwilai Premsrirat was Emeritus Professor of Linguistics and the Founding Director of the Resource Center for Documentation, Revitalization and Maintenance of Endangered Languages and Cultures, Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia (RILCA) at Mahidol University, Thailand. Her work was dedicated to the study of minority languages, language revitalization and language education.

David Hirsh is Associate Professor at the University of Sydney, Australia. His areas of focus include language revitalization, bilingual education and academic acculturation. Related publications include Endangered Languages, Knowledge Systems and Belief Systems (Peter Lang, 2013) and Language Revitalization: Insights from Thailand (co-edited with Suwilai Premsrirat, Peter Lang, 2018).