The field of language policy and planning has seen increasing scholarly attention that explores social actors' micro language planning towards a given language policy situation at the grassroots level. In educational contexts, teachers and educators are often considered pivotal locals whose agency, when enacted in micro language planning, can…

Singapore is a multiracial nation with a majority ethnic Chinese population. Since its independence in 1965, it has adopted an 'English-knowing' bilingual policy to achieve economic, social, and political objectives. For the past two decades, there has been a rapid increase in the percentage of ethnic Chinese Primary One students coming from…

Three-quarters of Singapore's population consists of ethnic Chinese, and yet, learning Chinese (Mandarin) has been a headache for many Singapore students. Recently, many scholars have argued that the rhetoric of language planning for Mandarin Chinese should be shifted from emphasizing its cultural value to stressing its economic value since…

Under headings such as finances, child care, cultural challenges, location, racism, teachers, and accents, 30 immigrant women speaking either Mandarin, Cantonese, Punjabi, or Urdu told their stories of arriving in Canada without English, and the obstacles they faced in trying to acquire English. While differing in their goals for learning English,…

Debates surrounding linguistic heritage in Northern Ireland have primarily centred on Irish (Gaelic) and Ulster-Scots. However, closer analysis suggests that there have long been other languages spoken in the region. Cantonese, Mandarin, Polish, Lithuanian and Portuguese are all spoken throughout Northern Ireland as the region experiences…