This paper critiques the language practices and language-in-education policy of Botswana from a translanguaging perspective. By so doing, it revisits our commonly held perceptions about multilingualism, bilingualism and language and its boundary. We commonly perceive languages as autonomous and as having boundaries and we perceive bilingualism or…

My aim in this paper is to analyse Spanish non-sexist language reform from a language-planning perspective. Supportive of the intent of the official policy, I will first criticize it for its failure to analyze the conditions in which it is to be implemented and for the lack of provision for its implementation. I will also show the tensions between…

Although a voluminous amount of literature addresses language-in-education policy in Africa, one area in which the literature remains sparse is the role of minority languages in education. This article presents an overview of complex issues regarding the hegemony claims of different minority language groups in Zimbabwe. Given the relatively small…

BBC ALBA is the first dedicated Gaelic-medium television channel in history. It launched in September 2008 and, in late 2010, announced that it would be carried on Freeview, in addition to Sky, Freesat, and BBC iPlayer, thereby widening access to Gaelic throughout Scotland. The channel is a BBC-licensed service that is presently operated as a…

This paper examines ways in which language planning has been used to address issues of security. It gives an overview of a range of areas of security in which government-level language planning has had a role as a way of developing a typology of language planning work in this area. It examines the nexus between language, communication and security…

While advocacy of minority language rights (MLR) has become well established in sociolinguistics, language policy and planning and the wider human rights literature, it has also come under increased criticism in recent times for a number of key limitations. In this paper, I address directly three current key criticisms of the MLR movement. The…

This paper comprises a brief examination of the approach taken by the Welsh Language Board, as the principal language policy and planning body in Wales, with regard to aspects of prestige planning and the Welsh language. It describes how devolution and the recent, and first ever, national review by the Welsh Assembly Government of Welsh language…

This paper explores the political, social, and cultural contexts of current early literacy federal policies in the United States. Building upon existing critiques of the policy and its epistemological stances, this paper first analyses the planning and discussion surrounding the introduction of the policy to state leaders and also how it is first…