Language policy and planning (LPP) has always drawn on research and scholarship in education as well as the social sciences in general (in particular sociology). Social theory has also figured as an important source of ideas and concepts, and critical LPP has arisen as a distinct strand of inquiry since the 1980s (Tollefson, in Planning language,…

This paper explores family language policy in Turkish-speaking families in Sweden. Questionnaires were administered to the parents of 105 Turkish/Swedish children (age 4-7), targeting family language practices (including parent-parent, parent-child, child-parent, child-and-sibling conversation and language-fostering activities such as joint book…

We assess the sociolinguistic vitality of Romeyka, the only Asia Minor Greek variety, which, albeit endangered, is still spoken in the Black Sea region, Turkey (historically known as Pontus), by means of nine extralinguistic (i.e. sociological) and sociolinguistic factors, specially tailored for the situation of Romeyka. Our current vitality…

This paper is aimed at understanding the language policy of Japanese ethnic churches and the legitimization of church member identities in the midst of dominant languages in Canada. While church members often construct Japanese ethnic Christian churches with 'grassroots' language policies that seem to legitimize their Japanese language and…

This article examines a group of Vietnamese ethnic minority students' language attitudes towards formal and informal language policies of the domains of school, church and ethnic community and towards their individual bilingualism. Multiple semi-structured interviews with eight college-age minority students are used as the main source of the data.…

The concept "language legitimacy", which entails issues of social class, ethnicity and culture as well as those of dominance and power, is a very important one with implications for both educational policy and practice. This article begins with a brief discussion of the two major ways in which the concept of "language…

This paper investigates the factors influencing the likelihood of choice of Gaelic-medium primary education in Scotland by means of the analysis of a national survey of public attitudes conducted in 2012. Binary logistic regression is used to investigate the association of five dimensions found in previous literature to be associated with the…

Educational issues in relation to ethnicity and language education policies have been underexplored in Asian contexts. In particular, issues related to ethnic and linguistic minority students have not received much attention in the post-colonial context of Hong Kong. This paper highlights challenges and tensions faced by Nepali ethnic minority…

Scholars have consistently theorised that language ideologies can influence the ways in which bilingual speakers in minority language settings identify and engage with the linguistic varieties available to them. Research conducted by the author examined the interplay of language use and ideologies among a purposive sample of adults who started in…

From the early twentieth century to the present day, Transcarpathia has belonged to several states: the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy, Czechoslovakia, the Hungarian Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and finally to Ukraine. The status of what counts as a minority and a majority language has changed each time the state affiliation has been changed. Based on…

The study focuses on local people's expressions of attitudes and ideologies in the light of proposed Sami-Norwegian bilingual policies in their Northern Norwegian hometown. The local politicians' plan to introduce the bilingual regulations of an "administrative area for the Sami language" in the town of Tromso encountered conflicting…

This study explored the common wisdom that sees Botswana as inherently ethnically homogenous. It used the existing Afrobarometer survey data drawn from Round 1 (1999), Round 2 (2003), Round 3 (2005) and Round 4 (2008). The findings of this study revealed that when using language spoken mostly at home, common wisdom is confirmed. However, it is…

While advocacy of minority language rights (MLR) has become well established in sociolinguistics, language policy and planning and the wider human rights literature, it has also come under increased criticism in recent times for a number of key limitations. In this paper, I address directly three current key criticisms of the MLR movement. The…

Latin American models of "intercultural-bilingual" education may be inappropriate for multilingual, interethnic regions such as Nicaragua's Caribbean Coast, where five indigenous and Afro-Caribbean minorities interact in overlapping territories. Examination of one such program and of Coast people's complex linguistic and cultural…

Multicultural policies and language policies claim to provide a favorable environment for the maintenance of immigrant languages. However, the relationship between multiculturalism and multilingualism is complex and contested. Rates of language loss and shift in Australia show that the multilingual heritage is very vulnerable even within the…