This article makes the case for conducting ethnographic research of a multi-scalar nature that links language policy processes and ideologies of language with everyday practices, on the ground, in local schools and classrooms. As with other researchers engaged in the ethnography of language policy (e.g. McCarty, 2011; Johnson, 2013), my concern is…

This paper revisits the notion of 'legitimate language' [e.g. Bourdieu 1977. "The Economics of Linguistic Exchange." "Social Science Information" 16 (6): 645-668] as it relates to multilingualism in educational contexts. Since Heller [1996. "Legitimate Language in a Multilingual School." "Linguistics and…

This study reports on an investigation into the perspectives of different stakeholders (e.g. administrators, teachers, students, and parents) towards motivations for introducing English as a medium of instruction (EMI) policy in low-resourced public schools, serving minoritized students, and language ideologies that form its practices. Framed…

In 2009 the Philippines introduced a mother tongue-based multilingual education language policy requiring the "mother tongue" as the language of instruction (LOI) in kindergarten through grade 3. Using teacher classroom language data collected from four LOI groups in 2019, we compared the frequency of teachers' use of the target LOI in…

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…

Pointing out that language policy negotiations in classroom discourse are an understudied kind of "language-related episode", and proposing that Tim Ingold's notion of "meshwork" dissolves a boundary that typically encloses their analysis, this paper examines how a rich and indicative example of student group interaction on a…

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,…

This article contributes to the limited research on teacher agency in early bilingual development and education. Through classroom observations and interviews, we examined the differential degrees of agency of two preschool teachers in Malta as they mediated languages in their bilingual classrooms. The teachers' background and language beliefs,…

The language in education policy in Kenya recommends mother tongue education in primary school learning. The purpose of this study was to explore the development of mother tongues as academic languages at the lower primary section in which the languages are supposed to be used. The exploration was on the functions they play in classroom…

This article reports on research that questions the existence and use of translingual practices in higher education. On the one hand, the increase of mobility in Tertiary Education leads to the presence of various individual repertoires in the classroom and, on the other hand, the use of scientific texts, usually published in English, is more and…

Higher Education is caught between internationalization on the one hand and the quest for local support by fostering local practices on the other. The clash between uniformity-standardization and localization-specialization manifests itself in every university trying to adopt internationalization strategies. How can universities manage this…

Dual language (DL) programs experience many tensions stemming from English hegemony in its curriculum, instruction, and assessment. These tensions often work in concert to usurp the three goals of DL programs to develop bilingualism, biliteracy, and bicultural competence while achieving grade level standards for its students. Subsequently, there…

This article examines what we call "micro-level language policy-in-process"--that is, how a target--language-only policy emerges "in situ" in the foreign language classroom. More precisely, we investigate the role of "language policing", the mechanism deployed by the teacher and/or pupils to (re-)establish the…

Mauritius is a linguistically diverse island: most people on the island are native speakers of Mauritian Creole, a French-lexified Creole; English is the written medium of instruction in primary schools and French is taught as a compulsory subject. The discontinuity between the home language and the school languages is viewed as problematic by…

In September 1998, the Education Department of the fledgling Hong Kong Special Administrative Region implemented a controversial medium-of-instruction policy which compelled around three-quarters of the territory's hitherto English-medium secondary schools to switch to Chinese-medium teaching in Forms 1-3 (years 7-9). Only 112 schools were…