Language Policy, Ideology and Educational Practices in a Globalised World


Book Description

The challenges posed by globalization for languages, policies and education form the basis of this collection of selected doubly-blind peer-reviewed articles, which have been put together following the 2014 PLIDAM conference on “Policies and Ideologies in Language Teaching: Actors and discourses”. The chapters collected in this volume revolve around the topic of globalization, which we understand to be a blend of ideas covered by at least four meanings: (1) internationalization, in reference to the growing interdependence and transactions between countries; (2) liberalization, which has to do with the forming of an ‘open’ and ‘borderless’ world economy; (3) universalization of certain phenomena around the world; and (4) westernization, with an emphasis on the influence of Western values (gender equality, freedom of speech and other ideas inspired by the West) over the rest of the world. The four broad themes that the chapters are organised into are (I) Policies in Language Teaching and Learning; (II) Language Policy, Ideology and Minority Languages; (III) Language Teaching and Learning across Cultures; (IV) Language Teaching and Learning with Technology. Contributing to the knowledge, discussion and debate about the impact that globalization has had on languages, policies and education in a wide variety of contexts, we hope that this book will be useful and informative to language researchers, policy makers and anyone with an interest in the intersecting field between languages, policies and education.




Ideology, Politics and Language Policies


Book Description

This volume critically examines the effects of the spread of English from colonialism to the ‘New World Order’. The research explores the complex and often contradictory roles English has played in national development. Historical analyses and case studies by leading researchers in language policy studies reveal that deterministic relationships between imperial languages, such as English, and societal hierarchies are untenable, and that support of vernacular languages in education and public life can serve diverse ideologies and political agendas. Areas and countries investigated include Europe, North America, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, and Sri Lanka. The role of theory in language policy scholarship and practice is critically evaluated. A variety of research methodologies is used, ranging from macro-sociopolitical and structural analyses to postmodern approaches. The work collectively represents a new direction in language policy studies.




English as a Global Language in China


Book Description

This book offers insight into the spread and impact of English language education in China within China’s broader educational, social, economic and political changes. The author's critical perspective informs readers on the connections between language education and political ideologies in the context of globalizing China. The discussion of the implications concerning language education is of interest for current and future language policy makers, language educators and learners. Including both diachronic and synchronic accounts or China’s language education policy, this volume highlights how China as a modern nation-state has been seeking a more central position globally, and the role that English education and the promotion of such education played in that effort in recent decades.







Language Ideologies, Policies and Practices


Book Description

The contributors to Language Ideologies, Policies and Practices investigate the workings of language ideologies in relation to other social processes in a globalizing world. They explore in detail the specific ways in which language ideologies underpin language policy and the relationship between public policies and individual practices. Particular attention is given to Europe, where the impetus to social transformation within and across national boundaries is in renewed tension with conflicting national and supra-national interests, with these tensions reflected in the complex issues of language choice and language policy.




Decolonisation, Globalisation


Book Description

This volume brings together scholars from around the world to juxtapose the voices of classroom participants alongside the voices of ruling elites with the aim of critically linking language policy issues with classroom practice in a range of contexts. The volume is suitable for postgraduate students, researchers and educators in a range of areas.




Bilingualism and Bilingual Education: Politics, Policies and Practices in a Globalized Society


Book Description

This volume presents a multinational perspective on the juxtaposition of language and politics. Bringing together an international group of authors, it offers theoretical and historical constructs on bilingualism and bilingual education. It highlights the sociocultural complexities of bilingualism in societies where indigenous and other languages coexist with colonial dominant and other prestigious immigrant languages. It underlines the linguistic diaspora and expansion of English as the world’s lingua franca and their impact on indigenous and other minority languages. Finally, it features models of language teaching and teacher education. This book challenges the existent global conditions of non-dominant languages and furthers the discourse on language politics and policies. It does so by pointing out the need to change the bilingual/multilingual educational paradigm across nations and all levels of educational systems.




The Oxford Handbook of Language Policy and Planning


Book Description

This Handbook provides a state-of-the-art account of research in language policy and planning (LPP). Through a critical examination of LPP, the Handbook offers new direction for a field in theoretical and methodological turmoil as a result of the socio-economic, institutional, and discursive processes of change taking place under the conditions of Late Modernity. Late Modernity refers to the widespread processes of late capitalism leading to the selective privatization of services (including education), the information revolution associated with rapidly changing statuses and functions of languages, the weakening of the institutions of nation-states (along with the strengthening of non-state actors), and the fragmentation of overlapping and competing identities associated with new complexities of language-identity relations and new forms of multilingual language use. As an academic discipline in the social sciences, LPP is fraught with tensions between these processes of change and the still-powerful ideological framework of modern nationalism. It is an exciting and energizing time for LPP research. This Handbook propels the field forward, offering a dialogue between the two major historical trends in LPP associated with the processes of Modernity and Late Modernity: the focus on continuity behind the institutional policies of the modern nation-state, and the attention to local processes of uncertainty and instability across different settings resulting from processes of change. The Handbook takes great strides toward overcoming the long-standing division between "top-down" and "bottom-up" analysis in LPP research, setting the stage for theoretical and methodological innovation. Part I defines alternative theoretical and conceptual frameworks in LPP, emphasizing developments since the ethnographic turn, including: ethnography in LPP; historical-discursive approaches; ethics, normative theorizing, and transdisciplinary methods; and the renewed focus on socio-economic class. Part II examines LPP against the background of influential ideas about language shaped by the institutions of the nation-state, with close attention to the social position of minority languages and specific communities facing profound language policy challenges. Part III investigates the turmoil and tensions that currently characterize LPP research under conditions of Late Modernity. Finally, Part IV presents an integrative summary and directions for future LPP research.




Bilingual Education and Language Policy in the Global South


Book Description

This volume considers a range of ways in which bilingual programs can make a contribution to aspects of human and economic development in the global South. The authors examine the consequences of different policies, programs, and pedagogies for learners and local communities through recent ethnographic research on these topics. The revitalization of minority languages and local cultural practices, management of linguistic and cultural diversity, and promotion of equal opportunities (both social and economic) are all explored in this light.




Translingual Practices and Neoliberal Policies


Book Description

This book responds to recent criticisms that the research and theorization of multilingualism on the part of applied linguists are in collusion with neoliberal policies and economic interests. While acknowledging that neoliberal agencies can appropriate diverse languages and language practices, including resources and dispositions theorized by scholars of multilingualism, it argues that a distinction must be made between the different language ideologies informing communicative practices. Those of neoliberal agencies are motivated by distinct ideological orientations that diverge from the theorization of multilingual practices by critical applied linguists. In addressing this issue, the book draws on the author’s empirical research on skilled migration to demonstrate how sub-Saharan African professionals in English-dominant workplaces in the UK, USA, Australia, and South Africa resist the neoliberal communicative expectations and employ alternate practices informed by critical dispositions. These practices have the potential to transform neoliberal orientations on material development. The book labels the latter as informed by a postcolonial language ideology, to distinguish them from those of neoliberalism. While neoliberal agencies approach languages as being instrumental for profit-making purposes, the author’s informants focus on the synergy between languages to generate new meanings and norms, which are strategically negotiated in pursuit of ethical interests, inclusive interactions, and holistic ecological development. As such, the book clearly illustrates that the way critical scholars and multilinguals relate to language diversity is different from the way neoliberal policies and agencies use multilingualism for their own purposes.