Salem State professor from Lowell recognized for article on multilingual education in Cambodia

Salem State University professor Sovicheth Boun, of Lowell. (Courtesy Salem State)
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PUBLISHED: May 5, 2023 at 3:35 p.m.

SALEM — A Salem State University professor is co-recipient of The International Research Foundation for English Language Education’s 2023 James E. Alatis Prize for Research on Language Planning and Policy in Educational Contexts for an article on the Cambodian government’s mother tongue-based multilingual education program.

Sovicheth Boun, of Lowell, professor of English as a second language and literacy, and coordinator of the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages graduate programs, joins professors Wayne E. Wright and Virak Chan, both of Purdue University, in receiving the prize.

The team of authors wrote the article “Implementation of Multilingual Mother Tongue Education in Cambodian Public Schools for Indigenous Ethnic Minority Students,” published in the journal Educational Linguistics. The article examines the Cambodian government’s adoption and expansion of a multilingual education program and argues that, with limited opportunities for further mother tongue development after grade 3, the students will shift to the national language with limited bilingual proficiency. This shift, the authors say, puts students at risk of losing the ability to speak their indigenous language and weakened connections with their culture.

“I was shocked in a good sense,” Boun, who was born in Cambodia, said upon learning of the award. “These communities have been marginalized for many, many years and so it’s an honor and humbling to contribute to promoting their educational access, and to help promote their cultural heritage and cultural preservation.”

The article recommends actions such as professional development for improving both teacher training and retention. The authors further call for an adoption of a stronger, developmental model of multilingual education that would enable students to continue to use and further develop their indigenous language and literacy skills in grades 4-6 and beyond.
https://www.lowellsun.com/2023/05/05/sa ... -cambodia/