Taking a multi-level perspective on language-in-public-space policy, this study investigates the way Tunisia's dominant languages are dealt with in three independent but interrelated activities of language policy: official texts, public talk, and the actual practices of business actors in five commercial districts in metropolitan Tunis. Detailed…

Aragonese is a threatened Romance language immersed in a historical process of substitution by Spanish, the official language. The number of speakers who maintained its transmission to younger generations, mainly in rural areas, has extremely declined over the last century. In the meantime, revitalisation efforts have incorporated new speakers,…

The notion of language proficiency in English Language Teaching (ELT), as an internationalized educational enterprise, has tended to be operationalized in terms of stable lexicogrammar and enduring normative patterns of social use. It will be argued that this 'established' stability has been challenged by the scholarship in several fields of…

In this paper, we will examine the problematic concept of the native speaker, which is central to much linguistic theory, to studies of language acquisition, and to language teaching and assessment. It is a notion which can have ramifications when it comes to the recruitment of language teachers in schools and in university language centres.…

The article proposes a framework for integrating English as a lingua franca (ELF) research in English language teaching (ELT), predominantly pedagogy, but also teacher education, materials development and evaluation, policy design and planning, assessment and testing. The main concept here is ELF awareness, which orientates a set of principles…

The protection of language rights and linguistic groups is the cornerstone of the constitutional dispensation that Ethiopian has embarked upon almost two decades ago. The constitution declares that all Ethiopian language shall enjoy equal state recognition and allows for regional preference in language use. This article examines the laws and…

Today's world has been embracing social, political, and economical changes that result in the replacement of people for immigration and citizenship purposes. Those waves of change cause some countries to receive the movement of new people, which requires the countries to take precautions. In doing so, in the citizenship context various mechanisms…

The dominant analytical approaches to Lingua Franca English interactions are largely influenced by a structuralist orientation that prioritizes verbal resources in localized face-to-face contexts. This article argues that recent developments in globalization, mobility, and digital communication call for a more complex orientation to the focus and…

New Caledonia is a French overseas territory in the South Pacific with a long history of differing attitudes towards independence (Fisher, 2019). The local government aims to challenge French cultural hegemony by building a "New Caledonian School" (Gouvernement de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, 2016). That is, a school in which students are…

In Uganda, publishing in French dates back to more than a century while its teaching dates from the early 1950s. Despite the position of English as the official language, French has for a long time been enjoying a privileged institutionalised position as a language of culture and a vehicle of international cooperation. French is offered as a…

Uzbekistan is a multinational country where the Uzbek language remains the only official language within the country. While historically the Russian language has served the function of a "lingua franca" for ethnic minorities, and was often viewed as a second "mother tongue" within Uzbekistan, its status appears to be declining…

The recent developments concerning the use of foreign languages in the academic world have strongly favoured English, which has become the preferred medium for international communication in many contexts. This spread of English as a lingua franca has had relevant implications for teaching and research purposes, due to the need for a common…

This paper will deal, firstly, with the South African context, that cries out for attention to responsible language assessment. The renewed interest in language testing in South Africa is well illustrated in assessments of language ability for educational purposes generally, and more specifically in the assessment of academic literacy. Secondly,…

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) is a major international benchmarking resource used for curriculum development and assessment. The elaboration of the concept of multilingual mediation in the 2018 Companion Volume of the CEFR is a timely addition to the original publication in 2001. Amongst other things, it…

Swami Vivekananda was an influential Indian saint, poet, philosopher and political revolutionary. His work can be seen as a conduit for South African Hindus who are part of the Indian diaspora, allowing them to connect with their historical, cultural and spiritual roots in the religious and conceptual world of India. The first step to decolonising…