Since independence in 1975, Papua New Guinea, the most linguistically diverse country in the world, has had both unofficial and official policies of mother-tongue education. However, limited resources and support for mother-tongue education has led communities to incorporate bottom-up language planning as well. In particular, this paper examines…

The current paper describes a study that sought to determine the beliefs, practices, and needs of parents living in Montreal, Quebec, who were raising their children bi/multilingually. The parents (N = 27) participated in a total of nine focus group and individual interviews in which they discussed their family language policies (language…

Compares the language laws of five Soviet Republics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, and Kazakhstan) with Quebec's Charter of the French Language along the following lines: proclamation of an official language; the common language in question; language of communication with customers and citizens; language of education; and linguistic…

Assesses the potential of selected aspects of geolinguistic analysis for the understanding of multilingual cities and outlines a research agenda highlighting the need for increased comparative research on urban multilingualism. The article illustrates the agenda with reference to a geographical information systems (GIS) analysis of language in…

Compares efforts to support minority languages in the developed, industrialized countries of the north and the developing countries of the southern hemisphere. The article examines whether comparable principles are being applied to minority language planning, and if not, what the underlying reasons for the differences are. (33 references)…