This paper explores linguistic landscapes and the enactment of public visibility and presence of non-majority linguistic groups in EU member states. Non-majority linguistic groups gain power, visibility and presence through the introduction of bilingual or multilingual signposts on roads, streets, squares, and public buildings in towns and cities…

Along with increased international migration, many nation-states are facing the dilemma of embracing a multi-cultural and multi-lingual society while protecting their cultural and linguistic heritage. Non-Anglophone universities are often the sites of this struggle as they aim to become world-class international universities operating largely in…

As universities seek to become more international, their need to engage with a wider range of languages, particularly English, seems more prominent. At the same time, universities are also regarded by many stakeholders as key institutions to preserve a given national language and culture. This apparent tension makes universities a fruitful ground…

This article analyses language policies in higher education (HE) in Finland, Estonia, and Latvia, as well as the European Union (EU). We take a multilayered approach to language policies in order to illuminate the intertwined nature of local, national, and international language policies in HE. We are particularly interested in the construction of…

Focuses on the language situation in the Russian diaspora in Latvia and Estonia and analyzes these factors that are critical in determining language outcomes for a language community within one country that speaks a majority language of another. Examines the possibility of three outcomes: language maintenance, bilingualism, and language shift in a…

This paper examines the effect of the recent European Union (EU) enlargement on minority language policies in the Baltic states, and in particular in Latvia and Estonia. I first look at the so-called Copenhagen political criteria conditioning EU accession and at the European Commission's monitoring system for assessing applicant countries'…

Language questions are increasingly on the agenda in Europe. This paper addresses some problematic aspects of language teaching and learning that have come to the fore in the Baltic states after the European Union enlargement of 2004. First, the paper aims at providing relevant information about language policies in the former USSR and the…