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The processes of formulation of language policies have not been researched thoroughly. This paper aims to explore the relationship between ideas, power and agency in language policy-making and specifically with reference to the formulation of language-in-education policy for multilingualism in Ireland. Through an argumentative approach to language policy and using a discursive institutionalist framework, the paper examines data from policy documents and interviews with policy actors in the Department of Education and Skills. The paper reports on the ways in which agentive discourses are constrained and enabled by institutional structures. The analysis shows how power resulting from asymmetric internal forces and the hierarchical architecture of institutions prevailed over the capacity of some actors to promote their ideas through discourse. Moreover, it shows how static ideational elements are powerful structural constraints on agency. The paper argues for a conceptualisation of actors in policy-making as agentive individuals who engage in a dynamic struggle over ideas to realise complex and changing policy goals. It concludes by claiming that a focus on discursive forms of power in the policy analysis at the so-called macro level would be beneficial for language policy scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited access to reading material written in local languages is considered a contributing factor to poor reading achievement in Sub-Saharan Africa. Several non-government projects are attempting to compensate for this by providing extensive reading material. One such project is the non-commercial, donor-initiated African Storybook. This article examines the premise on which African Storybook and similar donor-initiated projects build, namely that providing stories in local languages can significantly improve early literacy achievement. Understanding literacy as social practice, we investigate what experiences with stories inform the literacy-related beliefs of pre-service teachers in Zambia, and how these beliefs may shed light on their response to storybooks as part of early literacy education. Our data comprises a questionnaire with 26 pre-service teachers and focus group interviews with six of them. The pre-service teachers' beliefs were found to reflect their childhood experiences with stories and the Zambian official National Literacy Framework. Our findings indicate that neither their childhood experiences nor their teacher education had prepared the pre-service teachers to use stories for extensive reading in early literacy education. These findings lead us to question whether literacy delivery is best served by initiatives that are not coordinated with both national literacy policy, curriculum and local teacher beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trilingual education policy is fomenting much debate among scholars and public intellectuals in Kazakhstan. However, parents' ideologies in relation to trilingual education are not heard although their participation in policy discussions is important since they play a key role in their children's education. Therefore, this article, through the lens of an adapted language ideology framework, Curdt-Christiansen [2009, Invisible and visible language planning: Ideological factors in the family language policy of Chinese immigrant families in Quebec. Language Policy, 8(4), 351–375. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-009-9146-7 ] examines the influence of political, economic, cultural and social, and educational factors on parents' language ideologies and ideological differences depending on the geographical location and type of school. The qualitative findings reported in this article stem from a larger mixed methods research study within which 24 interviews were conducted with parents from trilingual and mainstream schools in the North, Centre and South of Kazakhstan. The findings indicate that although the majority of parents support trilingual education policy from the political, economic and cultural perspectives, they believe that teaching in English, Kazakh and Russian should be introduced gradually to avoid negative outcomes. Studying content subjects in three languages is seen as problematic since not all children possess giftedness and abilities that are purportedly important for successful studying. Neglecting this might lead to illiterate school graduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significance: This Invited Commentary discusses how language-in-education policies and practices that embrace multilingualism and multilingual learning can promote epistemic justice, constructing more equitable, just, and ethical conditions for learning. The findings considered are significant in that they illuminate sustained multilingual knowledge-building among peers, showing how these processes enhanced disciplinary learning, legitimated all learners as producers of knowledge, and simultaneously constructed a decolonial ethics of knowing. In so doing, they challenge persistent, colonial linguistic and epistemic hierarchies of value as well as longstanding assumptions about the difficulties and costs of implementing mother-tongue-based multilingual education across the curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to examine how sign language policies are being implemented in special schools for the Deaf in Zimbabwe. It employed in-depth interviews to solicit data from 29 participants who were four district school inspectors, four educational psychologists, four school heads and 17 grade one to three specialist teachers. Data were analysed using deductive thematic analysis at the semantic level. The study revealed inconsistencies in sign language policy implementation as consequences of ambiguity of policy goals and conflict of the means of achieving the policy goals. The study further revealed that government officers were not proficient in sign language and so could not monitor policy implementation. Several other factors influenced the implementation of sign language policies in the special schools. Policy implementers were not aware of the meaning of sign language policies and how the policies were supposed to be implemented. There were, therefore, misunderstandings regarding how policies were to be implemented. Schools used various forms of sign language as a way of implementing the policies. On the basis of these findings, it was recommended that policymakers ensure that they formulate sign language policies whose goals and means are not ambiguous to avoid conflict in the way the policies are implemented. It was also recommended that the Ministry of Education provides capacity development opportunities to sign language policy implementers starting from those at national, provincial, district and down to school levels where classroom teachers need to be taught how the sign language policies can be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is increasingly recognized that agency plays an essential role in shaping language-in-education policy (LEP) and influencing the learning process. Research on agency has not yet adequately engaged with the field of heritage education and maintenance in diasporas. Drawing on Shohamy's and Bonacina-Pugh's conceptualization of declared, perceived, and practiced language policies, we examine the individual agency of three groups of actors – people with power (principals), people with expertise (teachers), and people with interest (students) – in a variety of policy or planning activities within two Chinese heritage language (CHL) schools in Brussels. On the basis of collected ethnographically informed data in conjunction with the conversation analysis of audio-recorded classroom interactions, our findings illustrate how three types of agentive roles are effective in forming language policies and constructing discursive spaces within the CHL schools, with a clear orientation shift from monolingualism to multilingualism. This study contributes to research on heritage language maintenance in a highly multilingual, diasporic, and educational context by providing a portrait of how educational practitioners and learners assert their agency to explore locally appropriate language policies that maximize actors' potential to teach and learn heritage languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The teaching of native languages is seen as being key to the development of cognitive skills, better academic performance in early grades and a resource for linguistic (re)vitalization and cultural revival. This study examines the institutional challenges in teaching and learning native languages in Pakistan. The study uses teachers' agency through the public sphere paradigm as a theoretical framework to investigate the concerns and opinions of teachers and their agency regarding the challenges to native languages policy. The majority of teachers overwhelmingly support native languages, and endorse their importance in education, particularly in the development of cognitive skills and better academic performance. However, several institutional challenges hold back the teaching of native languages in public schools in Pakistan. The participants argue that native languages need an effective language-in-education policy. In addition, students, teachers and parents are not likely to deem native languages as resources until they gain some economic value. The study suggests that the current policy regarding native languages should be reviewed and refashioned considering their importance to students' academic performance. Further, a dynamic policy-making mechanism is proposed where stakeholders at every level are able to coordinate in policy formulation and its effective implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English as a medium of instruction (MOI) has become an important tool for universities to produce knowledgeable and skilled graduates. In Bangladesh, public and private universities remain distant in terms of policies related to MOI. The current study was undertaken to reach a tangible conclusion that would reflect "what should be the MOI in Higher Education Institutes (HEIs), Bangladesh." This qualitative study involved seven senior university teachers with more than 15 years of teaching experience. Data were analyzed using discourse analysis. Findings show that the participants prefer the Bangla language as MOI to produce knowledgeable graduates, who would contribute to the growth of the nation. However, the authors strongly suggest the implementation of a bilingual curriculum in which instruction is delivered in both English and Bangla to impart knowledge to the students. It is also suggested that a national language-in-education policy be implemented, rather than the existing alien programs, to enrich students' knowledge acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state of language education in Australia has long been described as paradoxical. Oscillating between periods of increased attention and seeming invisibility, over the last thirty years, the language learning sector has been punctuated by a succession of aspirational declarations and funding injections with little long-term impact on its overall standing. Despite the increasingly multilingual makeup of Australian society, language education at all levels has largely remained stuck amidst monolingualising education policies and alarmist discourses. The latest instance of this paradoxical condition is a fee-reduction incentive for university students to study a language, which, in practice, stands to further weaken the language offerings in many Higher Education institutions. In this paper, we use the imagery of circularities and ripples to explore the challenges facing language education across sectors in Australia. Through data collected in Queensland secondary schools, we discuss how these challenges transcend the traditional delineation of macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of language policy and planning. We argue that challenges go both in circles within the same level (circularity) and flow outwards to other levels (ripples), which include Higher Education. For this reason, siloed approaches to funding and scholarly research contribute to a wicked state of inertia and, ultimately, diminish opportunities to break free from these cycles in the future. We conclude by acknowledging our complicit roles and ethical responsibilities as Higher Education scholars in the perpetuation of these cycles, as but a first step in engaging productively with the possibilities of leveraging these rippling circularities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper calls for a shift related to English language-in-education policy and inclusive education initiatives in Colombia to ensure that English language learners with disabilities receive equitable and inclusive classroom instruction that is context-appropriate. We call for English language initiatives and policies to draw from theories and practices from both the Global South and the Global North in order to teach towards inclusive education. Trends in both English language teaching and inclusive education have drawn upon the Global North for solutions, which cannot be systemised to fit one international standard. Instead, using the Colombian context as an example, the present paper suggests a localised approach to meeting the educational needs of English language learners that incorporates inclusive education at the institutional level. This model would favour the work of scholars within the region to ensure that all students receive equitable classroom instruction that builds in Global South epistemologies and localised ways of knowing.

Abstract Hong Kong’s ‘trilingual and biliterate’ language policy (TaB, 三語兩文) is almost as old as the special administrative region (SAR) itself. Through free education and language support measures in school, students are expected to be conversant in English and Putonghua in addition to Cantonese, and be able to read and understand written Chinese and English. After being implemented for over two decades, however, there are signs that most students’ language standards in Chinese and English fall short of the TaB target, as measured by the public examination results of successive generations of secondary school leavers. Designed with essentially Cantonese-dominant Hongkongers in mind, the TaB policy consists of many measures, with the ‘medium of instruction streaming policy’ introduced since September 1998 being the most controversial. Driven by the twin principles of monolingual English-medium instruction (EMI) and ‘no language mixing allowed’, secondary schools are divided into two streams. Stringent requirements must be met before a school could claim to be an EMI school. According to this ‘late immersion’ model for students aged 11–12 at secondary level, every year about 30 percent of the primary school leavers are allocated to an EMI school. Following Li (Multilingual Hong Kong: languages, literacies and identities. Springer, Cham, 2017), this paper will first discuss why the TaB target is such a tall order for Cantonese-dominant students by reviewing the relevant literature along five inter-related dimensions: contrastive linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, cognitive neuroscience, and instructional strategies and bilingual pedagogies. I will then examine the SAR government’s language support measures to assess their effectiveness and explore possible alternatives. The paper will end with a number of recommendations, which together constitute an LPP (language policy and planning) roadmap for improving the chance with which the TaB policy is likely to produce more positive outcomes. (i) To re-prioritize the investment and extent of language support by strengthening the quality of language input at the key stages of learning from age 3–9, which in curriculum terms correspond with K1–P3; (ii) To use Cantonese as the medium of instruction for teaching all subjects except English and Putonghua as separate subjects at preschool (K1–K3, age 3–6); (iii) To explore the possibility of implementing total immersion in Putonghua for three years at lower primary level (P1–P3, age 6–9); (iv) To abandon the ‘maximum exposure, no mixing’ dogma in secondary education and to encourage basic and action research in bilingual pedagogies and instructional strategies informed by Content-and-language integrated learning (CLIL); (v) To attract academically bright and linguistically gifted students to receive professional training and be prepared and committed for a career in language teaching; and (vi) To encourage civil servants of various government offices, schoolteachers, and university staff to initiate a ‘speak English/Putonghua where we can’ campaign. For these policy measures to be successfully implemented and bear fruit, apart from careful planning, there ought to be strong leadership from within the government and the education sector, plus mechanisms for coordinating concerted actions on the part of various groups of stakeholders, notably teachers, school principals, educationalists, and experts of language teaching and learning in academia.

This paper considers the current language-in-education policy in Ukraine within the broad context of language ideologies and sociolinguistic developments, which have taken place since Maidan. In particular, I draw attention to the most recent changes in language education that have occurred due to the full-scale Russian invasion. Since the declaration of its independence in 1991, Ukraine has tried to balance the protection and promotion of Ukrainian as the sole state language, with the preservation of education in national minority languages through immersion education and bilingual schools and classes. Russia’s war against Ukraine and its temporary occupation of Ukrainian territories have brought changes to the domain of language education, which will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a framework for multilingual language-in-education policy implementation, offered as a critically constructive response to India's recent National Education Policy 2020 (GOI, 2020). Rooted in India's existing educational language policy, our linguistically inclusive 'Languages for Learning' (LFL) framework is, we believe, structurally flexible, socioculturally feasible, economically viable and academically relevant. It aims to foster equity and also to ensure first language support and cognitive independence. Before presenting the framework, we critically review the multilingual policy guidance offered in NEP 2020, then lay out a theoretical foundation for the LFL framework based primarily on current translanguaging theory, and also discuss the history of India's much maligned three-language formula (TLF), which forms the core of language policy in India. The framework itself is presented with reference to specific contextual challenges in India that may also serve to indicate its relevance for other multilingual contexts around the world. As such, the LFL framework is offered as a more multilingually-appropriate alternative to the reductive construct of 'Medium of Instruction', which itself originates in the monolingual habitus of historically outdated language-in-education policy theory. We invite critical evaluations of the utility of our framework, both for India and other multilingual contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2019, Taiwan has implemented native language education for 'new immigrants' from Southeast Asian countries. This paper argues that the new educational provisions reflect the Taiwanese government's desire to appropriate new immigrants' cultures and languages to promote a multicultural vision of Taiwanese identity. It analyses the 12-year national curriculum guidelines and the primary-level teaching materials to elucidate the role of language education in the construction of discourse on new immigrants, exploring how this reflects and reinforces official portrayals of Taiwanese society as 'multicultural'. The analysis shows how the extension of curricular recognition to immigrants' languages and their associated cultures is driven by a desire to project a certain vision of mainstream national identity. By showing how, in the Taiwanese context, instruction in their languages in some respects reinforces the marginalisation of immigrant communities, it provides insights that may be applicable elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong's 'trilingual and biliterate' language policy (TaB, 三語兩文) is almost as old as the special administrative region (SAR) itself. Through free education and language support measures in school, students are expected to be conversant in English and Putonghua in addition to Cantonese, and be able to read and understand written Chinese and English. After being implemented for over two decades, however, there are signs that most students' language standards in Chinese and English fall short of the TaB target, as measured by the public examination results of successive generations of secondary school leavers. Designed with essentially Cantonese-dominant Hongkongers in mind, the TaB policy consists of many measures, with the 'medium of instruction streaming policy' introduced since September 1998 being the most controversial. Driven by the twin principles of monolingual English-medium instruction (EMI) and 'no language mixing allowed', secondary schools are divided into two streams. Stringent requirements must be met before a school could claim to be an EMI school. According to this 'late immersion' model for students aged 11–12 at secondary level, every year about 30 percent of the primary school leavers are allocated to an EMI school. Following Li (Multilingual Hong Kong: languages, literacies and identities. Springer, Cham, 2017), this paper will first discuss why the TaB target is such a tall order for Cantonese-dominant students by reviewing the relevant literature along five inter-related dimensions: contrastive linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, cognitive neuroscience, and instructional strategies and bilingual pedagogies. I will then examine the SAR government's language support measures to assess their effectiveness and explore possible alternatives. The paper will end with a number of recommendations, which together constitute an LPP (language policy and planning) roadmap for improving the chance with which the TaB policy is likely to produce more positive outcomes. (i) To re-prioritize the investment and extent of language support by strengthening the quality of language input at the key stages of learning from age 3–9, which in curriculum terms correspond with K1–P3; (ii) To use Cantonese as the medium of instruction for teaching all subjects except English and Putonghua as separate subjects at preschool (K1–K3, age 3–6); (iii) To explore the possibility of implementing total immersion in Putonghua for three years at lower primary level (P1–P3, age 6–9); (iv) To abandon the 'maximum exposure, no mixing' dogma in secondary education and to encourage basic and action research in bilingual pedagogies and instructional strategies informed by Content-and-language integrated learning (CLIL); (v) To attract academically bright and linguistically gifted students to receive professional training and be prepared and committed for a career in language teaching; and (vi) To encourage civil servants of various government offices, schoolteachers, and university staff to initiate a 'speak English/Putonghua where we can' campaign. For these policy measures to be successfully implemented and bear fruit, apart from careful planning, there ought to be strong leadership from within the government and the education sector, plus mechanisms for coordinating concerted actions on the part of various groups of stakeholders, notably teachers, school principals, educationalists, and experts of language teaching and learning in academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies in language policy and planning (LPP) for the teaching and learning of foreign languages have been under-represented in LPP scholarship. This under-representation is especially the case for studies of policy and planning for foreign languages other than English outside the English-speaking world. Foreign language education in much of the world has become synonymous with the teaching and learning of English, with other languages having at best a marginal position, especially in schools. This article presents an introduction to a thematic issue of Current Issues in Language Planning examining policies that seek to expand the diversity of foreign language education beyond its narrow focus on English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of CEPS Journal is the property of University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of European Journal of Language Policy is the property of Liverpool University Press / Journals and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of European Journal of Language Policy is the property of Liverpool University Press / Journals and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper examines the implementation of Ghana’s language-in-education policy in a multilingual classroom in the city of Accra, Ghana. The current policy stipulates the use of the dominant local language as the medium of instruction. Ten (10) public basic schools in the Krowor municipal district of Accra were used for the study. The study participants comprised one hundred pupils (ten pupils from each school) of Basic 1 and eleven teachers. Qualitative research tools were used in collecting and analyzing data. The analysis revealed that most of the classrooms in the district were made up of pupils with multilingual backgrounds. Pupils and teachers who were not proficient in Ga, the dominant language of the locality, had communication challenges. The researchers recommend, among other things, that for the policy to be workable, policy makers (Ministry of Education, Ghana) and implementers (Ghana Education Service) need to collaborate to ensure that, in posting teachers to Basic schools in Ghana, their indigenous language background is considered. In the case of the pupils, a bilingual approach, proffered by NALAP is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the recognition of 16 languages in the Zimbabwean Constitution in 2013, 2015 saw a curriculum reform process begin, and the Education Act was also amended in 2019. Even though there were previous language-in-education policies aimed at promoting the use of minority languages, it is contended here that most the languages included in the previous policies have not made any significant inroads as languages of education. The study therefore examines the implementation of the language-in-education policy as enshrined in the Constitution, Education Act and curriculum framework, using Kalanga as a case study. It argues that language-in-education policy is affected by the wider linguistic ecological system and identifies the ecological factors that affect policy implementation. The research takes a qualitative approach and focuses on the perspectives of a sample of ministry officials, heads of schools, teachers, parents and advocacy groups. The findings demonstrate that there are linguistic ecological factors that cannot be overlooked and exist in an interconnected relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the introduction of Indonesian in the 1950s, the nature and extent of programs for studying the language in Australian schools has varied significantly. A decade on from the national report on the state of Indonesian language education in Australian schools that indicated a substantial decline in provision (Kohler & Mahnken, 2010), it is timely to take stock and consider how Indonesian is faring and why. This paper reports on a mixed methods study exploring the state and nature of Indonesian language provision in government schools in Australia. The findings indicate that while some decline continues overall, patterns of provision vary, particularly at different levels of schooling. The findings highlight the need for a nuanced understanding of the confluence of factors impacting on Indonesian (including contending ideologies), none of which adequately capture the intrinsic value and distinctiveness of studying Indonesian in the Australian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This 5-month ethnographic comparative case study of two culturally and linguistically diverse U.S. elementary classrooms juxtaposes restrictive educational language policies with the theoretical principles of culturally sustaining pedagogy to explore a gap in our understanding of how teachers reflect educational language policies in the range of pedagogical approaches they take. Triangulating data sources from state and local policy documents, classroom observations, and teacher interviews, we identify three salient dimensions of state and local policies that manifested in these two upper-elementary classrooms: teachers' curricular and pedagogical choices; student-teacher participation structures; and teachers' views on language. Similarities and differences between the two classrooms highlight how policy exerts influence on these dimensions while also affording degrees of instructional freedom that varied by teacher, with implications for the learning opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse students. Overall, however, a limited range of culturally sustaining practices was observed, highlighting the need to understand the spaces in language policy where teachers can mitigate some of the effects of restrictive regulatory approaches to learning. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

Twenty five years after the advent of democracy in South Africa, indigenous language education for San communities in South Africa is a goal that still needs to be realised. There have been various attempts, though none of these have resulted in sustained programmes or projects. In particular, attempts to implement the recommendations of a report on Khoe and San language education in schools submitted to the Northern Cape Education Department (NCED) in 2001 are reviewed. Two types of language programmes are relevant, namely language revival programmes to reintroduce languages no longer spoken by communities, and mother tongue education (MTE) programmes to ensure home language maintenance. This paper will focus on the latter, namely the possibility of providing some form of MTE within the context of the two San speech communities of Platfontein township located outside Kimberley. Different scenarios are provided taking into account the South African policy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The globalization phenomenon marked by the flow of people movements, the advancement of informational technology, and the shrinking price of transportation has brought people around the world into one global community. Comprised by people from diverse linguistic backgrounds, this community sees the need to use a common language to bridge the communication gap. With a long-established economic and political power, English comes to the forefront as a global lingua franca. With its growing and pervasive influence, the need to learn English has never become more apparent. This need is often translated by government into language-in-education policy. This paper, to start with, will observe how language policy and globalization build a causal relationship. In the section that follows, language-in-education policy in Indonesian context will be presented. The following part will move on to discuss the use of EMI in Sekolah Berstandar Internasional (SBI)-International Standard School in Indonesia. In the end, a reflection and conclusion of EMI in Indonesia context will be discussed. In doing so, this paper employs literature study approach to explore the EMI practice in Indonesian schools. All relevant information was collected from several sources such as books and journal articles. The information was then utilised to build on discussions on existing theoretical framings, language policy and globalization, and on language-in-education policy and practice in Indonesia.

This 5-month ethnographic comparative case study of two culturally and linguistically diverse U.S. elementary classrooms juxtaposes restrictive educational language policies with the theoretical principles of culturally sustaining pedagogy to explore a gap in our understanding of how teachers reflect educational language policies in the range of pedagogical approaches they take. Triangulating data sources from state and local policy documents, classroom observations, and teacher interviews, we identify three salient dimensions of state and local policies that manifested in these two upper-elementary classrooms: teachers' curricular and pedagogical choices; student-teacher participation structures; and teachers' views on language. Similarities and differences between the two classrooms highlight how policy exerts influence on these dimensions while also affording degrees of instructional freedom that varied by teacher, with implications for the learning opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse students. Overall, however, a limited range of culturally sustaining practices was observed, highlighting the need to understand the spaces in language policy where teachers can mitigate some of the effects of restrictive regulatory approaches to learning. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

This special issue focuses on language policy processes at work, in different sectors of education, in one small multilingual nation situated on the global periphery: the nation of Timor-Leste, in South East Asia. The four articles in this special issue draw on research of a broadly critical and ethnographic nature. To set these articles within a wider research context, the first section of this Introduction charts the development of critical approaches to the study of language policy and planning (LPP). The second section then delineates two main strands of ethnographic research related to LPP processes and points to some of the ways in which the scope of critical, ethnographic research has been widened in recent years. In the third section, we introduce the four articles, highlighting the distinctive nature of the ethnographic research presented in each one. In the fourth section, we show how the articles illustrate the need to combine ethnography with a critical, historical perspective, and with close attention to contemporary global processes, such as the commodification of particular languages. In the final section, we offer reflections on the possibilities for contributing to change in language policy and practice, in Timor-Leste and elsewhere, through researcher-practitioner collaboration of a critical, ethnographic nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of Rwanda’s language policies since 1996 has played and continues to play a critical role in social reconstruction following war and genocide. Rwanda’s new English language policy aims to drop French and install English as the only language of instruction. The policy-makers frame the change as a major factor in the success of social and education reforms aimed at promoting reconciliation and peace and increasing Rwanda’s participation in global economic development. However, in Rwanda, the language one speaks is construed as an indicator of group affiliations and identity. Furthermore, Rwanda has the potential to develop a multilingual educational policy that employs its national language, Kinyarwanda (Ikinyarwanda, Rwanda), to promote mass literacy and a literate, multilingual populace. Rwanda’s situation can serve as a case study for the ongoing roles that language policy plays in the politics of power.

Language policy is an influencing factor of the educational outcome for pupils in Africa. Colonial languages have been largely used and African Languages are neglected. Despite this, the South African Constitution (1996) declares eleven official languages. However, curricular developments favour Afrikaans and English. To analyse the implementation of the official language policy, we focus on Limpopo Province. Over 1000 questionnaires were answered by teachers. This approach aimed to analyse the language practices and language attitudes of teachers. Schools in Limpopo showed significant differences between the official language policy and the daily language practices. Some teachers implement the official language policy; others use one or more African languages in their oral communications during the lessons in the form of Code Switching. This is seen in relation to the contemporary debates regarding translanguaging as an educational pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2009, Brunei's Ministry of Education unveiled the National Education System for the twenty-first century, popularly termed the SPN21, to replace the 1984 bilingual education system (the Dwibahasa). What immediately stood out about the SPN21 is the apparent heavier emphasis placed on English over the Official language, Bahasa Melayu, with English being introduced much earlier in the curriculum, i.e. as the medium of instruction for Mathematics and Science from Year 1 onwards. This paper aims to evaluate the efficacies of English language-in-education policies of SPN21, focusing on the interface between macro planning and micro practices. Rather than relying on evaluative measures in terms of national examination results as a benchmark of success, this paper assesses data gathered from two micro agents: the teachers and the pupils. Teachers, as implementers of language policies, collaborate with pupils in the classroom to achieve the goals articulated by the macro planners. The pupils in this study were assessed in terms of their motivation in English language learning whereas the teachers were assessed in terms of support received from the macro agents. The findings of the surveys are encouraging with indications that the English-enhancing initiatives thus far implemented will continue to produce the desired outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Code-switching, a common linguistic practice among multilingual speakers, occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more language varieties in a single conversation. This phenomenon manifests itself in diverse ways and to achieve different goals. It may occur within or between sentences; it may signify social aspects such as identity or solidarity among people who share values; and, as this paper demonstrates, it may serve instructional purposes. This paper examines the alternating use of English and Swahili in lectures at the University of Dar es Salaam in the context of Tanzania’s language-in-education policy, which makes English the sole language of teaching and learning in higher education. The data comprise eight recorded lectures and interviews with the lecturers teaching first-year students in the departments of Political Science and Public Administration (PSPA) and Sociology and Social Anthropology (SSA). The study was premised on the assumption that lecturers are likely to make marked language choices consciously or unconsciously with first-year students because they are new to the university’s English spoken register. The primary objective of this particular paper is to identify, describe, document and analyse the types of code-switching that lecturers used during lectures. A discourse analysis (DA) approach facilitated the identification and analysis of the lecturers’ code-switching. The findings indicate that lecturers used inter- and intra-sentential code-switching to engage with students, to translate concepts, to explain, to manage students’ behaviour, and to advise or encourage students. This paper broadens our understanding of individual and societal multilingualism and how lecturers manage it in the context of higher education in Tanzania. It highlights practical issues of English language usage in Tanzanian higher education as an instance of the use of English as an academic lingua franca in contexts where a local language dominates practically all other spheres of the speakers’ lives.

Warlpiri communities in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT) have long advocated for the inclusion of Warlpiri language, values and knowledge in their government-run schools. After the first bilingual programs were established in the NT in the 1970s, educators and community members from four Warlpiri communities formed a professional network known as the Warlpiri Triangle, a platform for meetings and professional development focusing on teaching and learning in and of Warlpiri language in schools. On these platforms, educators have consistently articulated the goal of the Warlpiri programs as maintenance of Warlpiri pirrjirdi, ‘strong Warlpiri language’. In this paper we seek to explore the development, refinement and consolidation of a consensual ideology around teaching and learning of and in Warlpiri pirrjirdi, ‘strong Warlpiri language’ that has informed Warlpiri language-in-education management. We analyse interviews with five Warlpiri educators at Yuendumu school in 2018/9 and a body of grey literature from four decades of Warlpiri educator professional development activities that has been less widely acknowledged and visible in local education policy discourse. We draw on the theoretical concept of communities of practice to understand the ways in which Warlpiri educators negotiate ideological and implementational spaces for inclusion of Warlpiri language teaching in the context of an ambivalent language-in-education policy environment. The results of this study exemplify the reiteration and reproduction of language-in-education goals through a community of practice in a sustained arena of action, the Warlpiri Triangle. The findings render more visible the vital efforts of Warlpiri educators and their professional networks in shaping language-in-education policy and practice to realise community aspirations of Warlpiri language maintenance in the school context.

This article is a literature review and analysis of the links between social cohesion/peacebuilding and the use of Non-Dominant Languages (NDLs) in education with an application for Myanmar, a country rich in linguistic diversity, rife with political conflict, and in the midst educational reforms. Findings indicate that investment in multilingual education (MLE) has the potential to enhance learning and foster peacebuilding. This paper provides a description of an adapted "4R" theoretical framework (Novelli & Sayed, 2016) and a summary of educational reforms in Myanmar to contextualize the discussion. The paper argues that the double threat to the NDLs that comes from Burmese and/or English as the medium of instruction can endanger minority languages, learning, and peacebuilding. Finally, findings suggest that engaging in dialogue, research, advocacy and teacher development in MLE can raise awareness of the peace dividend of valuing language diversity and the importance of language policies vis-à-vis learning and peacebuilding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the current state of ongoing research on policy development and implementation of first language-based multilingual education in five northeastern provinces of Cambodia that are home to significant ethnolinguistic minority populations. This research, supported by CARE Cambodia in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, qualitatively investigates policy development and structural support for MLE implementation and analyzes learner achievement data. Pulling together the findings, we highlight lessons learned throughout the process about creating the conditions for MLE success and about assessing MLE student outcomes that could inform MLE policy and practice in similar low-income contexts and have important implications for quality and equity in educational development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Language & Law / Revista de Llengua i Dret is the property of Revista de Llengua i Dret and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Language & Law / Revista de Llengua i Dret is the property of Revista de Llengua i Dret and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There is evidence in South Africa that multilingual language-in-education policies are not realised in practice. Researchers offer comprehensive lists of reasons for the observed policy failure. International and national researchers identify a lack of congruence between language-in-education policies and the natural language practices of learners as a contributing factor in the perceived policy disaster. The central argument of this article is that an understanding of the nature of the dominant language constellations in the multilingual repertoires of South African urban learners can advance thinking about improved language-in-education policies and practices. The main findings are that different constellations of languages are active in different domains for the participants of the study. For example, reading contributed to the learning of Southern Sotho and English for the participants in the study. These findings should be used more actively to develop Southern Sotho-English language-in-education policies and practices in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates English language proficiency development in a rural primary school in the Kavango region of Namibia. English is the language of instruction in most schools in Namibia from fourth grade onwards. In addition to other challenges, lack of adequate proficiency in English has been identified as one of the major barriers to learning. Current research on translanguaging demonstrates that purposeful use of translanguaging supports learning. The aim of this article is to argue that a contextual analysis and a test of learners’ proficiency in their dominant language and in English are essential when deciding on translanguaging strategies. This may lead to possible ways in which translanguaging can improve the English language proficiency of rural primary learners in an environment where the language is hardly heard or spoken outside the classroom. The paper argues that translation, and preview – view – review strategies are some of the translanguaging teaching strategies that could be used as resources for building English vocabulary.

This study explores the attitudes of significant stakeholders (parents, teachers, students) towards the implementation of a language-in-education policy in English-medium schools in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province in Pakistan. While the state's official policy supports the regional languages at school level, the de facto policy privileges English and to some extent Urdu and neglects the regional languages, Pashto in the case of this study. Interviews and focus group discussions with stakeholders reveal that there is some support for the introduction of Pashto in schools, but there is general scepticism about the feasibility and suitability of this initiative. Many of the stakeholders doubt the government's intentions and believe that the new policy is politically motivated. Implications for regions beyond Pakistan are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most agency-focused research in language-in-education policy compares codified intention to reality. Such an approach implies that the policy in question is ontologically stable and can therefore act as the benchmark against which to compare practice. Operating under the notion that ontologically grounded methodologies are susceptible to missing those instances in which educators develop policy outright (as opposed to interpret it), we propose an ontogenetic alternative that sees policy as never materially stable, as constantly in a state of production. Drawing on contemporary developments in the philosophy of cartography, we attempt to identify teachers’ policies-in-the making during an ethnographic study conducted in Spanish-English bilingual schools in the greater Seattle area of the United States by centering our attention, not on a policy to be implemented, but on a problem to be solved. Findings revealed that the lack of resources, contextual changes, and the need for new practices all compelled teachers to develop new policies-in-the-making from moment to moment. The results are discussed in terms of compliance and resistance which begin to lose their meaning when policy is no longer understood to be molded and enacted by agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a critical qualitative case study of an EMI-based, underresourced public school in Nepal through Bourdieu’s lens of linguistic capital. As the data analysis revealed, parents, students, and teachers regarded EMI as a privileged form of linguistic capital for developing advanced English skills, enhancing educational achievements and access to higher education, and increasing the chance of upward social and economic mobility. In contrary to these rosy perceptions of EMI with overtly superficial promises, switching to EMI, without enough teacher preparation and infrastructure support in the school, had contributed to several unplanned negative outcomes, including a contested process of developing the English proficiency. Despite the school’s claim of offering EMI education, Nepali was the actual language of instruction in the school due to teachers’ lack of proficiency in English and the school’s inadequate resources and preparedness for a shift to EMI. As a result, the students developed neither the content knowledge nor English language skills. Therefore, rather than being an educational equalizer, EMI has served to (re)produce linguistic marginalization and educational inequality and injustice for children from a lower socioeconomic status. We suggest critical reflection on EMI adoption and reenvision “sustainable additive multilingualism” in such contexts (Erling et al., 2016). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Brazilian English Language Teaching Journal is the property of Brazilian English Language Teaching Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)