One major impact of globalisation on education is denoted by the growing trend to use English, the global language, as a medium of instruction (MOI) in emerging polities that are trying to enhance their English-speaking capacities. This article emphasises developing an understanding of MOI from a language policy and planning as well as an…

Language-in-education policy (decision taking) and planning (decision implementation) are complex processes requiring a number of decisions to be taken and implemented if they are to be successful. While there is research that suggests the factors that lead to successful outcomes, these are often either ignored or too difficult for polities to…

Primary school second/foreign language (SL/FL) programmes in Asia, as well as in other parts of the world, are becoming more common, with many targeting English as the SL or FL. The pressures for such English language programmes come from top-down notions that in a globalised world English is required for societies to be competitive, especially…

As Chinese characters ("hanzi") have three aspects--as a technical writing system, an aesthetic visual art (Chinese calligraphy), and a highly-charged cultural symbolic system--changing them is a complex process. In the 1950s when language planning campaigns were launched to modernise Chinese through "hanzi" standardisation,…

Discusses the history of the relatively new field of language policy and planning. Focuses on language ecology and illustrates schematically the various forces at work in a linguistic ecology from a language-planning-activity perspective. (Author/VWL)

Focuses on the historical and sociolinguistic studies that illuminate corpus planning processes. These processes are broken down and discussed under two categories: those related to the establishment of norms, referred to as codification, and those related to the extension of the linguistic functions of language, referred to as elaboration. (60…

It is argued that "unplanned" language policy and planning are an important but underexamined aspect of the field of language planning. Planners must consider the problems raised by "unplanned" aspects and scholars must document their effects on language planning. (Contains 15 references.) (LB)

Describes the situation of minority languages and Chinese dialects, discusses and analyzes language planning and language reform of spoken Chinese, summarizes language achievements made through China's educational system, and discusses the problems that remain for spoken language reform in China. (25 references) (Author/CB)

Describes the influences which have affected the changing sociolinguistic setting for tribal Aborigines in the Northern Territory, Australia. The effects of various governmental and educational policies on language development are highlighted, and the need for deliberately planned, implemented, and monitored language policy is suggested.…

Language planning is normally thought of in terms of large-scale, usually national planning, often undertaken by governments and meant to influence, if not change, ways of speaking or literacy practices within a society. It normally encompasses four aspects: status planning (about society), corpus planning (about language), language-in-education…

The following similarities exist between the language situations of the United States and Australia: (1) both countries have developed and prospered through overseas immigration; (2) until recently, neither country has had a "de jure" official language, only a "de facto" one built around English; (3) in both countries…

After providing a brief general framework for language policy and planning, this article examines the case of language policy and planning in Australia with a particular focus on how one of the elements in that framework, prestige planning, might contribute to successful planning implementation, thereby adding to our more general understanding of…

Queensland, Australia, is embarking on a massive limited bilingual second-language learning program for all students in the first eight years of school. Potential implementation problems and implications for the wider society are discussed, including the effect of the emphasis on studying Asian languages. (Contains 40 references.) (Author/LB)

Implementation of a language modernization process such as one occurring in the Pacific basin is as important as the policy development behind it. Three critical factors in implementation are teacher training, the development of good teaching materials, and a plan for evaluating program effectiveness. Attempts to meet the need for good…