Abstract: Language education policies in Southeast Asian countries have been evolving and developing along with social changes
in Southeast Asia. Based on the dimension of time series analysis, and the dimensions of continuity and stability, this paper applies the
path dependence theory to the discussion of the social backgrounds of language education policy evolution of southeast Asian countries
and their main influencing factors in the period of feudal society, the period of colonial society, the early period of national construction
and the era of globalization. It also analyzes the main characteristics of the language education policies of southeast Asian countries,
and predicts their future development trends.

Key words: path?dependence, ?Southeast?Asia, ?language?education?policy, ?evolution?process, ?development?trend