At the turn of the twentieth century, the Philippine archipelago transitioned from nearly 400 years of colonial occupation under the Spanish to imperial occupation under the Americans. This analysis interrogates the dynamics through which the heterogeneous languages of the Philippine archipelago were maintained alongside state-sanctioned languages…

This paper analyses some key historical developments (from early twentieth century to present) in Bangladesh from a socio-historical and language ideological perspective to explore the social injustice faced by the non-dominant and linguistically diverse population. These developments sparked language debates involving questions of identity,…

Purpose: Despite the formal political decolonization of much of the world, the colonial legacy continues to prevail around the globe, in particular in the Global South. This article explores the interface of language, education and citizenship in Mozambique, with special reference to the role of education and language ideologies in forging the…

This paper will focus on the aims to show for us why English known as a global language and why other languages do not have this ability. It is argued that English as a global language has some advantages to people around the world. One of the advantages is that English language is utilized as a tool of communication, empowerment and unification…

Australia is an old continent with an immensely long history of human settlement. The argument made in this paper is that Australia is, and has always been, a "natureculture". Just as English was introduced as the dominant language of education with European colonisation, so arrived an ontological premise that linguistically divides a…

Taking the case of postcolonial India, this paper explores ways in which present temporal junctures permit a probing of historical boundaries to speak of voices largely silenced from Indian historiography, namely those of British (Indian) public citizens who were committed to the assembling of "an India." In particular, the paper…

Pre-colonial traditional societies in Sub-Saharan Africa were mostly oral societies whose languages were not written. In the African context, especially, it was clear that the mostly oral traditions of these societies' languages were neither being appreciated nor promoted as media of communication, or means of education by the invading Europeans.…

This monograph examines the language situation in Cameroon, a Central African country where fewer than 20 million people speak close to 250 languages. Specifically, the monograph addresses the issues of language use and spread, language policy and planning, and language maintenance and prospects. The study is divided into five parts. The…