Exploring the Relationship between Intelligibility and Education

Abstract

This paper features the interrelationship between intelligibility and education. Facts about world Englishes, varieties within ASEAN, English as an international language, intelligibility, and education were reviewed. Previews of related papers on comprehensibility of Englishes within ASEAN were presented. Analysis of the results of the comprehension tests from each Expanding Circle countries such as Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam were conducted. In using One-Way ANOVA, a significant effect of pre-school education, primary education and graduate studies on the comprehension scores the subjects gained from the comprehension tests was found. Further, this paper showed the differences of means and standard deviations of the Expanding circles’ citizens’ comprehension scores in a normal, bilingual, and international programs in various educational levels. At the end of this paper, we explored possible research opportunities on the localization of English within ASEAN in 2015 through curriculum designs tailored with diverse educational settings in the region.