This article considers the role that the examination of text plays in empirical language policy research. It begins by examining the state-of-the-art in language policy, observing that a core focus on action represents a shared characteristic of the various strands of discursive and ethnographic research over the last two decades. That is, the…

This paper explores the interaction between linguistic landscapes and language policies of the Old Quarter in Hanoi, Vietnam to investigate how legislated and de facto language policies come together to create lived monolingualism, multilingualism and hybridity in language displays in public spaces. Our research focuses on language policies as…

Pakistan, one of the eight countries comprising South Asia, has more than 212.2 million people, making it the world's fifth most populous country after China, India, USA, and Indonesia. It has also the world's second-largest Muslim population. Eberhard et al. (Ethnologue: languages of the world, SIL International, 2020) report 77 languages used by…

Although the relationship between language and economic activity has long been a topic of scholarly research, much of it building on the work of Raymond Williams and Pierre Bourdieu, recent attention to the commodification of language and its relationship to global economies and late capitalism moves this conversation in new directions. The…

This article explores the linguistic tension resulting from the English-medium instruction policy at a state university in the UAE. The article is informed by a critical theoretical approach that views language policy from the vantage point of both Arabic and English. It argues that, contrary to the stated national and institutional goals, the…

This paper aims to illuminate the role of sub-state languages in the integration process of migrants in two sub-state regions: Wales in the UK and the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain. We investigate how language and the idea of 'belongingess' based on language learning and knowledge are constructed in the integration policies in these two…

It is the aim of this paper to examine the management of multilingualism in the Swiss healthcare industry and the negotiation of the oftentimes fluctuating and unstable value of linguistic resources in the care for medical tourists; on the other hand highlighting how international healthcare and medical tourism emerge as sites emblematic of the…

Choosing which additional language to include in national curricula and when to begin teaching it are important educational policy decisions. The current study aims to provide a contextually embedded picture of such policymaking process in the Iranian context. More specifically, the study is intended to explain the agency mechanism of different…

One of the most far-reaching reforms undertaken by the Catholic Church as part of the Second Vatican Council was the adoption of vernacular languages in the liturgy. The transition from Latin to vernaculars was not unproblematic, however, as it raised several practical and theoretical questions regarding the relationship between local churches and…

In this paper, it is argued that the existing conceptual framework of "language policy" should be expanded to include perspectives from the emerging field of "language governance", as the latter pays attention to the multi-faceted internal and external contexts in which institutions and organisations seek to develop language…

The study focuses on local people's expressions of attitudes and ideologies in the light of proposed Sami-Norwegian bilingual policies in their Northern Norwegian hometown. The local politicians' plan to introduce the bilingual regulations of an "administrative area for the Sami language" in the town of Tromso encountered conflicting…

Ideology can be understood as a guide to action, and therefore, language ideology can be viewed as a link between language ability on the one hand, and language use on the other. In this respect, language ideology plays a central role in the success of language revitalization movements. In an effort to understand how new language ideologies are…

This article explores the multilingual and multicultural aspects of community-building, networking and communication in the European Union's (EU) political and administrative system. We investigated the networking and communicative preferences of EU civil servants and lobbyists using survey data and thematic interviews. Our aim was to gain a…

This article describes and analyzes how rural Nicaraguan teachers and NGO leaders are working with a US university-based team to develop a locally responsive, critical, and inquiry-based approach to the Ministry of Education requirement for English in secondary school. This requirement has placed a new and challenging expectation upon rural…

The main purpose of the present paper is to draw attention to contexts where two conceptions of linguistic rights--the rights of languages and the rights of speakers--come into conflict. To illustrate such conflict, I will examine justifications of language laws adopted in two post-Soviet countries, Latvia and Ukraine. I will begin with an…