This paper forwards the notion that languages are an important resource for sustainable development for modern societies. Informed by theories from both sociolinguistics and language economics on the value of language skills, it is suggested that language(s) have different kinds of value in multilingual societies. Sociolinguists often emphasize…

This article explores Yugoslav education policy in Vojvodina (Serbia), one of the most multilingual regions of the country, which was implemented in the period between the 1960s and 1980s through the school subject the 'Language of social environment' (LSE). Based on archival and field research, this case study is devoted to the school subject…

Increased attention to urban diversity as a site of study has fostered the recent development of linguistic landscape studies. To date, however, much of the research in this area has concerned the use and spread of English to the exclusion of other global languages. In a case study situated in Box Hill, a large suburb of Melbourne, we adopted a…

Family Language Policy never takes place only in private but is embedded in larger discourses in society or rather in several societies to which the multilingual family is linked. One main point of contact of families and discourses on language is the education system. Previous research has shown that bilingual families orient towards teachers for…

This paper outlines a new model of language revitalisation that understands language to be a characteristic of a nexus of social activities rather than an independent object. Language use is one of an overall set of factors contributing to the wellbeing of a particular community. Our model treats language as one node (or a cluster of nodes) in a…

As a consequence of accelerating globalisation there has been an emphasis on developing international students' proficiency to communicate in a foreign language. However, willingness to communicate in a foreign language other than English is an issue less discussed. This case study is an attempt to clarify expats' experience of living in Denmark…

The role of students' first language(s) in foreign language classrooms has been hotly debated in the last decades. Although this line of research has advanced our understanding of language choice in the L2 classroom, it has mostly dealt with adolescent and adult learners. From a contextual perspective, then, more micro-analytic research that…

This is a qualitative case study that explores conversational interactions during book-reading practices in a Mandarin-speaking Chinese American family between the mother and her two young children. The study employs a sociocultural lens and the concept of translanguaging to describe the characteristics of interactional practices during book…

English is often assumed to be the national language in the US and the global language in the world; yet such views fail to address the complex linguistic repertoires of people living in linguistically heterogeneous places even within the US. Spotlighting a southwestern US border town, we provide a critique of both nation-state-language ideology,…

This study investigates lexical transfer in four German learners' oral production of L3 Swedish. They have already learned English as an L2. The point of departure is Williams and Hammarberg's [1998. Language switches in L3 production: implications for a polyglot speaking model. "Applied Linguistics," 19, 295-333] case study in which…

Increasing societal and linguistic diversity poses significant challenges to formative categories of language policies. We make this point via an examination of Singapore's management of its most linguistically diverse ethnic group, the Indians. While heterogeneity has always been Singapore's defining feature, the nature and scale of recent…

Research in mathematics education increasingly recognizes the role of language in the education of English language learners. However, research examining the professional growth of mathematics teachers as they learn to teach English language learners is sparse. This case study addresses this issue by examining one third grade teacher as she…

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…

While skilled migrants make influential contributions to development through remitting cash and exchanging knowledge, we argue for greater scrutiny of the role of language in the so-called "migration-development nexus". Noting the transnational context within which the everyday life of many migrants proceeds, we develop a broader reading…

This article reports on a study of how L1 was used by Persian speaking Pre-university learners of English in their private speech while interacting as they were engaged in L2 reading. The study was conducted in a real classroom setting in an Iranian school with the objective of better understand the mediating and regulatory role of L1 private…