This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the motivations that key policy documents have put forward as justifications for Sweden's mother-tongue instruction in immigrant and historical minority languages as a multicultural policy that has endured for nearly half a century. The diachronic development of these motivations is analysed in four…

Singapore is a multiracial nation with a majority ethnic Chinese population. Since its independence in 1965, it has adopted an 'English-knowing' bilingual policy to achieve economic, social, and political objectives. For the past two decades, there has been a rapid increase in the percentage of ethnic Chinese Primary One students coming from…

Spanish in Israel has been the heritage language (HL) of some 130,000 Spanish speakers. The uniqueness of this immigrant community lays in the evolution, existence and maintenance of Spanish as the (HL). This study showcases Spanish speakers as an example of a well-integrated minority. The results of this study showed that the two first…

In order to distinguish between language-related ideologies, Ruiz (1984) proposed three language orientations, namely 'language-as-problem', 'language-as-right' and 'language-as-resource'. Although this typology has been applied to various countries and regions around the globe, relevant research in China, a multi-ethnolinguistic country, remains…

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…

In honor of the 50th Anniversary of "Foreign Language Annals," and recognizing the seminal role this journal has in informing the language education profession about policies and programs, we sketch a future for advocacy for language education in the United States. Drawing on the Languages for All initiative and the work of the…

Quechua language education and research has long been relegated to rural areas and elementary schools of the Andes. Nonetheless, current language policy in the southern Peruvian region of Cusco has opened new opportunities for Quechua, a minoritized Indigenous language, to be taught in cities and towns and in high schools. In this sociolinguistic…

In a challenging economic and political context, complementary schools in East London are mentoring each other and forming networks across communities to gain recognition and status for community languages in education and the wider community. As issues of power and status impact in different ways on differently situated communities, complementary…

This article explores the mobilization dynamics of a school-based minority language revitalization initiative in the French Basque Country, known as the Ikastola Movement. Bringing the study of language revitalization into dialogue with social movement theory, I discuss how the solidarity of Basque language activists was influenced by state-level…

Traditional bilingual education programmes in regional linguistic minority contexts face major challenges within the recent paradigm of linguistic diversity against a background of increasing migration, mobility and trans-locality. Based on three case studies, the authors of this paper focus on how particular dual-medium models are applied in…

The project "The educational value of various aspects of multilingualism in the classroom of the Basque Country and of Friesland" concerns a comparative study of the languages in the schools in the Basque Autonomous Community and in the Province of Friesland. It is part of the agreement between the general administration of the Basque…

This article focuses on the features of Sami language instruction at the first school grades in Norway. The most important part is to describe what kind of challenges Sami language instruction at the first grades as an indigenous people's language and with the status of a minority language has. This situation introduces some differences and…

CThe article is a study of Latino immigrant parents' agency toward primary language (L1) instruction in the face of restrictionist language policy. Certain attitudes and characteristics were associated with advocacy for Spanish L1 instruction. Interviews conducted in an urban California school district among parents with different background…

Explores historical, social, political, linguistic, and pedagogic perspectives on the teaching of Finnish and Swedish as mother tongues in Finland, showing how three successive waves of nationalism have shaped the language curriculum development and policy and proposing a general framework for looking at the development of mother tongue programs…

The indigenisation and internationalisation of Taiwan emerged as issues of national concern as a result of the democratisation of politics in the late 1980s which profoundly changed the sociopolitical and economic climate. One manifestation of these changes was "new" language-in-education policies. These were the…