This study primarily focuses on the situation of Hungarians in minority situations in relation to language varieties, i.e. it interprets the various language policy issues primarily in the context of the Hungarian-speaking community, rather than in the context of Hungary, where the place, role and relationship between standard and non-standard…

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…

In this paper, we provide an overview of the policies that have existed in relation to Australian First Nations students' languages, and English language and literacy learning before exploring how the politics of distraction manifests in this context. We then share our findings of an analysis of Australian language education policies for First…

Sámi University of Applied Sciences (SUAS) in Norway is one of few institutions of higher education worldwide that mainly operates in an Indigenous language. According to the institution's vision, Indigenous peoples' values stand at the centre, and the Sámi language is heard and read daily. However, as an academic institution operating nationally…

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…

Pacific students in New Zealand (NZ) quickly learn that they are not very smart. The statistics tell them this. They also come to believe that they do not try very hard. The talk of equal opportunities tells them this, especially when it is coupled with negative statistics. This is not surprising. Education in NZ has been embedded in notions of…

In the early 1990s, the government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) enacted educational reform. It officially abandoned its English-only policy at elementary school level, in favour of community languages. In response, the Kairak community of East New Britain Province developed a vernacular literacy programme. This paper, based on original fieldwork…

This paper analyzes the ideologies and practices of local languages as the medium-of-instruction (MOI) policy in a multilingual school in Nepal. Grounded on the notion of language policy as a locally situated social practice, this critical ethnographic study investigates challenges--both ideological and implementational--that local languages MOI…

The use of the notion of "decolonization", applied to indigenous people's schooling, is somehow misleading. It refers to a certain period, namely the colonial period, which officially ended in New Caledonia in 1946, then a French colony and now a French overseas territory. It also refers to contemporary efforts to address the colonial…

The role and significance of speech-language pathology (SLP) is not often considered in studies of language planning. SLP has tended to be considered more as an issue for health policy than for language policy. However, the health focus of SLP does interact with language planning especially in education where SLP assessments have implications for…

Kuot is a language in a critical situation. Most adults of lower middle age and older are full speakers but children are not learning it. In other words, it will become extinct in a few decades if nothing is done; but it is not too late if the community decides to turn it around, and do so fast. Thus far, the community has shown little interest.…

Promoting diversity has become a prominent goal in language-in-education policy discourse in two broad contexts. On the one hand, language policies take on the challenge of maintaining and developing "de facto" linguistic and cultural diversity through language acquisition planning; on the other hand, they portray themselves as active…

This monograph presents up-to-date information concerning language planning and policy in Ecuador, highlighting the country's cultural and linguistic diversity, historical context, current sociolinguistic situation and possible directions for the future. Taking into account Ecuador's particular sociopolitical conditions, it aims to provide a…