Just as an expanded view of language policy now affords agency to many more actors across society than authorities and linguists alone, it also accepts that the dispositions these agents bring to language affairs influence language policy processes and outcomes. However, this paper makes the case that language policy may also be guided, to some…

Legislative changes are afoot in New Zealand that are formalising an ideological shift in policy that decreasingly positions the Maori language a matter of interethnic national identity but increasingly as one for Maori self-determination. The Waitangi Tribunal (WAI262, Waitangi Tribunal, 2011) established that, from here on, Maori language policy…

Localising knowledge and dispositions helps to predict the likely success of top-down language policies. In so far as language acquisition is a pillar of language revitalisation policy, then community perspectives on learning a minority language deserve attention. This article presents the knowledge, dispositions, and ideas of around 1,300…

Indigenous language revitalization is a popular focus of critical theorists. From the perspective of sociolinguists, critical theory interrogates language policies to name and shame inequalities and propose solutions to correct injustices and emancipate the disadvantaged. From a broader perspective, language revitalization policy also resides…

Since the second half of the twentieth century, post-colonial governments have commonly sought to revitalize the indigenous languages their imperialist predecessors hoped to eradicate. Although the impetus to revitalize is shared, the question of excluding or including the non-indigenous majority in the revitalization process, and encouraging them…

Language policies have a better chance of succeeding if they align with the persuasions of the polity, and this is only more pronounced in the case of endangered languages, such as Te Reo (the Maori language) in New Zealand. There, a comprehensive suite of laws, policies, and programmes are in place to acknowledge and reverse the linguistic…