This paper reviews the ongoing engagement of neoliberal ideology in Indonesian higher education institutions and in commodifying the global spread of English. With the growing number of faith-based higher education institutions in Indonesia, the neoliberal and English ideologies are contested and promulgated, creating ambivalent spaces. This…

Vocational education and training (VET) programs in Sweden blend classroom instruction and internships, while coding bootcamps offer accelerated adult education in computer science. These institutions increasingly teach in English, mirroring the shift towards English-medium Instruction (EMI) in higher education. Consequently, most EMI scholarship…

Employing neoliberal governmentality as a conceptual frame, this paper presents evidence from the mushrooming English language academies from Pakistan to demonstrate that how neoliberal rationality as a normative order of reason governs the minds of learners and teachers without governing. Drawing on the analysis of an open-ended interview…

Neoliberalism has become the hegemonic rationality of our time, framing nearly every aspect of our social world in terms of competition. This dissertation sheds light on neoliberal infiltration and naturalization within the field of language education through three distinct but interrelated papers. "In Discourses of Dual Language Bilingual…

In the past decades, neoliberalism has permeated (foreign) language education, as has been discussed by critical research in the fields of: curriculum theory, applied linguistics, discourse analysis, language policy, language assessment, to name a few. Despite the fact that research on foreign language education and neoliberalism is certainly…

This study examines the phenomenon of English-medium instruction (EMI) in higher education through the lens of neoliberalism and linguistic entrepreneurship. Although commonly reported benefits of EMI include improved English proficiency and better job opportunities, there is a lack of research critically examining the relationship between EMI and…

Conceived as the act of aligning with the moral imperative to enhance one's worth in the world through a strategic management of language-related resources (De Costa et al. in Asia Pac Educ Res 25(5-6):695-702, 2016), linguistic entrepreneurship is used as a framework to guide this paper that examines the growing influence of neoliberalism within…

While quality English language education is not equally accessible in many EFL countries, neoliberalism and its ideology of language as a neutral skill that everyone can acquire has obscured inequalities caused by the heavy emphasis on English as a dominant world language. Using South Korea as an example, I examine how individuals, especially…

The neoliberal era is often surmised as the extension of the free market, increasing privatisation, and the commodification of everything. A large body of work has shed much light on the way in which during the neoliberal period, a discursive shift has taken place whereby language is increasingly seen in instrumental terms of "profit"…

Translanguaging and plurilingual approaches in English Language Education (ELE) have been important for envisaging more equitable language education. However, the languages implemented in translanguaging or plurilingual classrooms predominantly reflect the knowledge and belief systems of dominant, nation-state, "official", and/or…

This paper deals with the relationship between neoliberalism and communicative language teaching in language-in-education policy. Neoliberalism, or the deregulation of state based on meritocracy, or equal competition, gives rise to paradoxical discourses. On the one hand, sociolinguistic superdiversity shows us the unprecedented mixing and…

In the 21st century, the transformation of Chinese education going to market has reinforced alongside the deepening marketization process in China since the 1970s. To date, the Chinese have widely accepted English education's marketization. Many Chinese parents register for English classes in private training institutes for their children having a…

State-issued seals and certificates of biliteracy are increasingly common nationwide. Nevertheless, limited research to date has examined how this state legislation functions as language in education policy and the ideological foundations of these policies. Addressing this gap, the present paper examines state seals as an instance of neoliberal…

It is 30 years since Vietnam implemented the 'Doi Moi' economic reforms. The subsequent influx of capital was accompanied by a general infiltration of foreign influences, arguably none more important than the English language. This article focuses on an area where market and language converge: the private English as a second language industry.…

The impact of neoliberalism on language education has recently attracted scholars' attention. Linguistic entrepreneurship is a conceptual lens through which neoliberal implications for language learning and use can be investigated. This commentary offers comments on common threads of themes running through the four articles in this special issue.…