Despite a century-old narrative as a monolingual country with quaint regional dialects, Thailand is in fact a country of vast linguistic diversity, where a population of approximately 60 million speak more than 70 languages representing five distinct language families (Luangthongkum, 2007; Premsrirat, 2011; Smalley, 1994), the result of a history…

As part of the process of nation-state construction, the Republic of Turkey went through a language reform which was comprised of (a) the supplanting of Arabic script with Latin letters adjusted for Turkish phonology and (b) the replacement of Arabic and Persian loanwords with words either derived from known Turkish roots or found in pre-Islamic…

This article looks at multilingual, mother-tongue-based language policies influenced by colonial and postcolonial histories and globalization processes. We use multiscalar analysis to show these policies as creative responses to problems affected by national and international forces. Our study focuses on Timor-Leste, specifically a pilot…

I analyze two bills from the state legislatures of California (SB 1174) and Arizona (SB 1242) that propose to expand bilingual education where English-only education was previously the default. Using a critical discourse analysis lens to conduct a directed content analysis, I ask who bilingual education is for, why it is offered, and how the…

In mainland China, most ethnic minority students today face the challenge of learning three languages in schools, namely, their home language (L1), Mandarin Chinese (L2) and a foreign language, usually English (L3). Research into trilingual education for minority groups has been most active since the turn of the twenty-first century. This paper…

Migration has become an important phenomenon in the contemporary world. In receiving countries, language policies have been put into place to offer migrants education in the national language, in order to give them tools to communicate with and to create a feeling of belonging to the local community. These policies claim to be integration…

Prompted by UNESCO initiatives on promoting world literacy (UNESCO, 2005, 2014), many countries, including Thailand, have launched language education policies to push literacy development forward. Accordingly, this study seeks to investigate the policies promoting literacy in Thailand and their implementation at the local level. Language education…

This article analyses how language laws favouring French improved the vitality of the Francophone majority relative to the declining Anglophone minority of Quebec. Part one provides a review of Canadian Government efforts to provide federal bilingual services to Francophones and Anglophones across Canada. Using the ethnolinguistic vitality…

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…

This paper examines the way language-in-education policy-making in Vanuatu has dealt with multilingualism at three points in the nation's short history: in 1980, as the country gained its independence from Britain and France; in 1999, during a period of intense change across government departments following the Comprehensive Reform Programme…

Australia is a country of high linguistic diversity, with more than 300 languages spoken. Today, 19% of the population aged over 5 years speak a language other than English at home. Against this background, we examine government policies and prominent initiatives developed at national level in the past 30 years to address the challenge of offering…

This paper highlights the challenges of current language policies in education in Africa, with reference to Uganda. Also examined are the likely challenges to language policy in education, while indicating how these challenges can be curtailed or overcome. The authors suggest a different view is required when approaching this topic with a paradigm…

This article addresses language rights as a legitimate political tool for language policy scholarship and activism. The article begins by engaging several critiques of language rights. It analyzes Ruiz's language-as-right orientation to language policy, and then reviews recent scholarship challenging language rights from poststructural and…

The Asia-Pacific region hosts the largest number of refugees and displaced people in the world, and is the place of origin for nearly half of all international migrants. However, data related to the unique language-in-education needs of refugee and migrant children in and from this area is sparse. The report aims to create a stronger knowledge…

In this paper, educational language policy is explored through the lens of linguistic neo-colonialism in Ireland in the case of learners of English as an Additional Language. The perspective of Ireland as a decolonized nation may have an impact on current language policy. Arguments for an additive approach to language and identity, language…