The paper presents some general facts about Bulgarian, which is spoken by over 8 million people all over the world and is the official language of the Republic of Bulgaria. It is shown that language diversity within the country has been relatively constant and modest over the last 90 years (with a clear dominance of Bulgarian). The focus of the…

Increasingly, it is recognised that the opportunity to engage with one's own culture and language is beneficial for an individual's well-being. Research among indigenous communities in North America, Australia, Scandinavia, and New Zealand, have illustrated the importance of culturo-linguistic congruity. In Wales, the Well-being of Future…

In which domains and for which language types does language legislation occur and how easy is it to identify it? The United Kingdom (UK) affords a good test bed to answer these questions since it is often considered to be lacking in strong public language policy due to, amongst other things, a lack of a coherent language policy across the UK and…

This paper presents a detailed analysis of how Welsh language training in the public sector workplace in north Wales is planned and delivered. Specific attention is given to the effectiveness of strategic management on both the macro level (Welsh Government, Welsh Language Board/Welsh Language Commissioner) and the micro level (individual public…

This article gives a presentation of the Swedish Language act and its application and reception by the public. Ten years have passed since its introduction, and for this reason a study was conducted by the Swedish Language council about what kind of issues were brought to governmental and local authorities by the public. By the collection of…

This paper examines language policies in Northern Ireland vis-à-vis the Irish language. Whilst the devolution of powers has benefitted Welsh and Scottish Gaelic through the creation of separate language acts dedicated to them, there is no such act for Irish. Taking this policy discrepancy as its point of departure, this paper investigates how the…

Drawing on the ethico-political framework of hospitality, this paper investigates the communicative practices of three administrative support staff as they attempt to manage the twin challenges of working in adherence to state and institutional language policies while communicating ethically in an internationalising workplace. Academic…

Legislation linking language course attendance and passage of a language test for residence visas and citizenship, respectively, was enacted in Iceland in the early 2000s. Curricular guidelines and the language test were developed as a result. Research in other countries suggests such structures cause teachers to create "de facto"…

This paper explores the agentive role of school leaders in interpreting and implementing macro language education policies at preschool level in the Maldives. The Preschool Management Act of 2012 initiated a change in the medium of instruction from English to Dhivehi, recognising the importance of developing children's literacy skills in the…

Through the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act, British Sign Language (BSL) was given legal status in Scotland. The main motives for the Act were a desire to put BSL on a similar footing with Gaelic and the fact that in Scotland, BSL signers are the only group whose first language is not English who must rely on disability discrimination…

This paper concerns itself with how policy is made in democratic nations in order to secure equal language rights. The case study assessed is Aotearoa New Zealand's 2016 Maori Language Act and the process by which it passed into legislation. The paper draws on theories of public policy change, specifically the evidence-based policy approach, and…

This article looks at France's Loi Toubon, which mandates the use of French in private companies, to illustrate how macro-level language planning reaches a dead end if it fails to consider local contexts and involve micro-level agents. The motivations, limitations and contradictions of France's language policy in relation to companies are…

In some settings, medium of instruction (MOI) policies in multilingual education break out into public debates in mass media involving politicians, business leaders, government officials, parents, and school children. These public discussions of MOI often index struggles over the distribution of political power and economic resources, and issues…