The ideological role of English, beyond its instrumental value, is reported to be immense. British colonial rule deployed English as an ideological tool which facilitated colonial subjugation and religious conversion. Connections between English and evangelism have widened in the postcolonial and globalising world, leading to labelling English as…

Families that live temporarily abroad for work or education (amongst other reasons) often encounter some difficulties to maintain their children's L1; particularly when they live in English-speaking countries. This study explores the language maintenance experiences of ten Saudi Arabian families sojourning in Australia, from the perspective of…

Xinjiang has witnessed constant state attempts to reinforce the status of Mandarin Chinese as 'the Common Language' and to make local Turkic languages -- mainly Uyghur and Kazak -- more 'suitable' to the modern world. Official efforts to transform the linguistic landscape of Xinjiang have engaged in a complex interplay with Turkic speakers' own…

This paper explores the linguistic landscape (LL) of the Grand Mosque in Mecca and shows how this religious site contains within it different domains, each with their own LL and preferred mediums of display. We illustrate this by exploring the LL of five domains within the mosque: Holiness, Education, Workplace, Local Governance and the Public…

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,…

This article examines the potential of pedagogical translanguaging in a community/heritage language context. With focus on Arabic as a multidialectal and multiglossic language, the paper primarily examines the function of translanguaging practices in teacher-learner and learner-learner interaction to construct and negotiate linguistic knowledge in…

Fishman's scale for evaluating language vitality proposes a stage in language shift where exclusively the older generation takes part in "rituals", "concerts" and "songfests" in the minority language. Once this generation dies away, according to the scale, these cultural practices disappear with them. Within certain…

Negotiating their double identity as Mauritians and Muslims in multilingual and in multiethnic Mauritius, Mauritian Muslims have been socialised into reading and writing in Kreol in madrassahs, while they have never been exposed to Kreol literacy in mainstream education. At the point where Kreol is being introduced as an optional school subject,…

This study consisted of three main phases including the development of a hypothesised model of language identity in Iran, developing and validating a questionnaire based on this model and finally testing the model based on the questionnaire data. In the first phase of this research, a hypothesised model of language identity in Iran was developed…

Much attention has been paid in the literature to matters of script choice vis-a-vis languages. This attention, however, has focused on script choice in a national and political context. By contrast, there has not been any significant attention paid to more local and idiosyncratic instances of script choice operating on an individual and community…

This paper examines the basic components of the process of settlement, types of offences and language of Akan traditional arbitration. The paper also considers arbitration and Akan sociocultural norms and values. The paper finally discusses the status of Akan arbitration within the context of contemporary forms of adjudication, democracy,…

To study the nature of their cultural identities, 50 Asian adolescents from 3 multicultural schools in England were interviewed about their views on a variety of personal, social, and educational matters. It was found that they are developing bicultural identities. (18 references) (LB)