Focusing on language education policies in Bangladesh, this article shows how the policies have distracted people's attention from the harms inflicted on the country's Indigenous communities and their languages. I discuss two factors that have contributed to policy distractions in this context: a strong form of Bangla linguistic nationalism and a…

This paper discusses how the political interplay between English-in-society and English-in-education policy in the Global South(s) facilitates what I term 'English as a subtle technology of policy distraction' in postcolonial spheres that were colonised by languages other than English. 'English as a subtle technology of policy distraction' is…

This paper addresses 'distractions' in the way English language education is discussed and practiced in one of the most debated systems of education in the world today: Finnish primary education. Distractions are considered as 'makers of disturbance' in educational ideologies by the authors. Examining the 2014 National Core Curriculum and…

For many years Denmark has had a reputation for being laissez-faire in language matters. There is no explicit language legislation, and the Danish Language Council has mainly descriptive functions. However, there is a powerful standard language ideology, and in other societal domains such as education or immigration, language is heavily regulated.…

Despite being an official language of several countries in Central and Western Europe, German is not formally recognised as the official language of the Federal Republic of Germany. However, in certain situations the use of the German language, including the spelling rules, is subject to state regulation (by acts of Federal Parliament or by…

This paper discusses the 'fuzziness' of Hungarian legal language as an issue of language planning addressed in the Hungarian language strategy to be published by the Hungarian Research Centre for Language Planning. First, we give a concise historical overview on the status of Hungarian language in Hungary, only to make it evident how its status…

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…

As Indigenous scholars committed to Indigenous education in Oklahoma, we use a decolonizing approach to consider how the 39 Indigenous Nations in Oklahoma assert educational sovereignty to sustain Indigenous high school students' linguistic and cultural identities. Seeking to promote education models that sustain and revitalize Indigenous…

The paper analyses the current situation of the Lithuanian language policy in the 2-3rd decade of the twenty-first century, which, as in some other European countries, has been determined by the confrontation between nationalistic and neoliberal attitudes of the society and the Seimas (Parliament). The reasons for updating language policy are…

Private educational activities designed to enhance student outcomes outside the formal schooling system are increasingly referred to as shadow education. In Japan, shadow education traditionally consists of for-profit cram schools or "juku." "Juku" take many forms in Japan, yet their primary function is to offer students extra…

Singapore is a multiracial nation with a majority ethnic Chinese population. Since its independence in 1965, it has adopted an 'English-knowing' bilingual policy to achieve economic, social, and political objectives. For the past two decades, there has been a rapid increase in the percentage of ethnic Chinese Primary One students coming from…

This study suggests a conceptual framework for policy-driven test development and validation, using the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) as an example context. By linking the literature on policy analysis and argument structure in the validation of testing, the strong relationships between policy and testing are illustrated. This rationalizes…

The diversity of language in Australia in pre-invasion times is well attested, with at least 300 distinct languages being spoken along with many dialects. At that time, many Indigenous people were multilingual, often speaking at least four languages. Today many of these languages have been lost, with fewer than 15 being learned by children as a…

Following the invasion, or colonisation as some prefer to call it, Indigenous Australia has been characterised by plummeting populations, largely as a result of introduced diseases and the movement of peoples, following the theft of their lands and in response to colonial and subsequent Australian state and federal government policies. At times,…

In 1999, devolved governance was established in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland which altered the contours of language recognition in the United Kingdom. Whilst much focus has been placed on how devolution improved the status of Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, and Irish, less attention has been placed on those minority vernaculars with 'contested'…