This paper seeks to explain the migration decisions of minority language speakers by investigating motivating factors. Viewed through a language planning lens, the study pushes the parameters of some of the discipline's more recent agency concepts within the context of migration. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 60 Welsh speakers…

In contrast to the waning interest in learning languages other than English (LOTEs) worldwide, mainland China is pursuing to diversify LOTE education because of the 'Belt and Road Initiative.' In response to language policy shifts, individual stakeholders in local contexts such as universities have to take actions to initiate LOTE programs or…

The role of agency in language planning and policy (LPP) is a recent focus of scholarship. Interest in agency has seen new issues and contexts being given prominence in LPP research. In this introduction, we present an overview of theoretical definitions of agency and the ways it has emerged as a concept in LPP scholarship. We consider how…

This paper investigates language policy formation through participatory and deliberative methods and, more concretely, the regulation of gender-neutral language in Barcelona City Council (Spain). Through an argumentative approach to policy, the paper examines a specific language policy idea, process and solution, and the accompanying discursive…

This study examines how China's LOTE (languages other than English) students perceive English and their target languages as different types of linguistic capital with different values, and how they exercise their agency as micro level LPP (language planning and policy) actors in language learning. Data were gathered from in-depth interviews with…

The study compares the uses of the native-speaker concept as a legitimizing resource in language-standard ideologies and normative discourse in five languages of European origin. Much research and international discussion has focused on the native speaker of English, a symbolically international language. We aim to show how the native-speaker…

This initial work on evaluating standardisation tries to explore to what extent standardisation can be evaluated in the same way as terminology planning and language policy and planning. The main reason for exploring this issue is that this kind of evaluation is necessary and has not been undertaken systematically. The work aims to verify the…

Analyzing three cases of school-level language policy decision-making in Nepal shows that each school had a pair of language policy arbiters, actors with disproportionate power over language policy decisions. The permissive but passive stance of Nepal's government toward providing multilingual schooling including minoritized languages created a…

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…

The purpose of this study is to understand how institutional language managers make and legitimize decisions about language choice on state websites. The focus lies on state institutions in two technologically advanced European nation-states: Estonia and Norway. The analysis is empirically based on interviews with employees at the institutions who…

In 1999, devolved governance was established in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland which altered the contours of language recognition in the United Kingdom. Whilst much focus has been placed on how devolution improved the status of Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, and Irish, less attention has been placed on those minority vernaculars with 'contested'…

This article examines Language Policy documents within higher education institutions in Sweden. Its main focus is on how national language policies and policies for internationalization of the higher education are reinterpreted as local language policy. The analysis of ideologies surrounding the prescribed language(s) in meetings of decision…

Language policy and planning in Nepal has been contested due to the co-existence of multiple contradictory discourses concerning teaching and learning of local, national, foreign, and international languages. Recently a multilingual policy was issued to create space for the once-banned ethnic/indigenous languages in public schooling, further…

The medium of instruction (MOI) has been a contested issue in multilingual polities globally, as English medium of instruction (EMI) has seen unprecedented growth, threatening the use and sometimes very survival of local/indigenous and even national languages. While the struggles to address related issues have been well researched, how and why…

This paper explores the recent policy decision about the teaching of Ottoman Turkish at high schools in Turkey and unpacks its historical, political, and social undercurrents. It theoretically rests upon Spolsky's [2004. "Language policy". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. "Language management." Cambridge: Cambridge…