The article aims to provide a historical overview of language planning and policy in Russia and to establish and analyse the overarching approaches in status, acquisition, and corpus planning. The provided examples and analysis of various stages reinforce the argument that the development of language policy and planning was consistent with the…

The aim of this chapter is to take a critical and decolonial stance towards the experiences of Indigenous people in the urban diasporas of Brazil. We do this by discussing ethnographic data that provide insights into the impact of this migration on the construction of the identities of Indigenous Brazilians who move to urban spaces and consider…

This paper contributes to recent discussions of levels of agency in Language Policy and Planning (LPP) research. It specifically aims to understand the role and importance of meso-level actors as arbiters of policy implementation. It argues that, whilst understanding of both macro- and micro-agency has grown over the past decade, little is…

This paper contributes to the building of a sociolinguistics of the south by considering the nature and significance of contemporary language-in-education policy processes in Timor-Leste, and by tracing the ways in which these processes have been shaped by its specific colonial and post-colonial history. In presenting this account, I draw on…

This article presents the findings of a critical ethnography focused on the English-medium instruction (EMI) policy in Nepal's public schools. Through the analysis of policy documents and interviews with policymakers, the study reveals that policymakers view the EMI policy as a solution to the crisis in public schools by enhancing their…

In April 2011, the Ministry of Education in Japan formally introduced Primary School English (PSE) language teaching in Japanese elementary schools. The PSE policy made it mandatory for fourth- and fifth-graders to attend English lessons once a week. Using the theoretical framework on why educational language plans fail [Kaplan, R. B., Baldauf, R.…

Any country's choice of the medium of instruction (MOI) reveals a lot about its social, cultural, economic, and political agenda. The question of MOI in North Africa, and more precisely in Morocco, has been a thorny issue since the country's independence in 1956. This article aims at contributing to the debate around which of Morocco's two main…

The historical Hindi-Urdu language strife intensified after the Indian 'Mutiny' in 1857 played a pivotal role in shaping the two-nation theory, culminating in the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. Under English colonial rule, English language education became synonymous with power and job opportunities, creating divisions within the…

This article focuses on the interface between language policy and development in Mozambique. Special attention is devoted to the interplay between language and education and to the role of development agencies in language policy and planning activities in Mozambique. I show that there has now been a discourse shift from homogenizing language…

Language policy is an influencing factor of the educational outcome for pupils in Africa. Colonial languages have been largely used and African Languages are neglected. Despite this, the South African Constitution (1996) declares eleven official languages. However, curricular developments favour Afrikaans and English. To analyse the implementation…

From the time of Belgian colonial rule, French was predominantly the medium of instruction (MOI) in Rwanda. Then, in October 2008, a Rwandan Cabinet resolution called for the immediate implementation of English as the language of instruction in all public schools at all levels--from primary to tertiary. This study reports on ethnographic interview…

Portuguese is the mother tongue for many Angolans yet a majority continue to use African languages in everyday interactions and schools struggle to provide equal educational opportunities for students whose first language is not Portuguese. Recognizing this challenge, the Angolan government has created a language policy that will introduce six…

This paper investigates language ideologies relevant to medium of instruction policy within two postcolonial countries: Cameroon and Vanuatu. Each country experienced British and French rule, and has retained both English and French as official languages and media of instruction. However, since Independence, there has been a difference in the way…

Ghana's language-in-education policy, which mandates the use of L1 as medium of instruction at the lower primary classroom, is not strictly adhered to in majority of Ghanaian classrooms. One factor that has militated against the smooth implementation of the policy is the multilingual nature of Ghana and its classrooms. This sociolinguistic survey,…

The two different models of bilingual/multilingual education that have been developed in Slovenia since the 1950s in the regions of Prekmurje (minority language Hungarian) and Slovene Istria (Italian) are the result of international agreements, education and language policies, social and demographic factors. The basic aim in both cases is to help…