Recent linguistic landscape (LL) research has witnessed a change in focus to untypical, peripheral and fluid signs. Compared to typical (or permanent, fixed, etc.) signs which tend to be subject to strong policy intervention, language use on untypical signs is often more autonomous, thus could better reflect the "de facto" language…

The aspects of the de jure or overt language policy attract many researchers, which is reasonable given the importance of legislation in nation-building. Scholars also pay attention to the de facto and covert language policies, which include informal and non-written aspects of language policy that can shed light on practical problems on the…

This paper explores language ideologies and attitudes among both urban and rural speakers of Sakha (Yakut) in the Far Eastern region of the Russian Federation. Like other non-Russian languages in the Soviet era, Sakha was subject to many repressive and often contradictory policies; while today there is a sizeable, growing population of speakers…

Where do you start the course design for a minority language? One starting point is identifying and surveying a community of possible learners. This paper explores the needs of learners of Tuvan, a language spoken primarily in the Republic of Tuva, Southern Siberia, Russia. The study was conducted in two steps: an online questionnaire (March 2019)…

This article argues that multilingual locales with minority, national and global languages at hand can become a site where meaning of social experience is negotiated and contested, and the role of minority languages can be reconceptualized. More specifically, using the example of Tatar, a minority language in Russia, as well as the framework…

Recent developments in multilingualism and multilingual education in minority-dominated regions in China highlight the importance of policy studies to support the national goals of achieving multilingualism [Feng, A. W., and B. Adamson, eds. 2015. "Trilingualism in Education in China: Models and Challenges." Dordrecht: Springer],…

This study examines identity construction and conflict in the case of a woman whose parents replaced the local language with the official language at the home in the city of Tabriz in northwestern Iran, where the local language, Azerbaijani, is overshadowed by Persian as the official language of the state. In such contexts, Shifting away from the…

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…

Do assimilationist restrictions on a minority language lead to greater national unity or a more rebellious minority population? Under what conditions might short-term backlash to language assimilation evolve into greater national unity in the long term? While much of the literature on ethnic politics implicitly treats language simply as an…

This paper examines the translanguaging practice of two EFL teachers in a Xinjiang university, where English and Mandarin Chinese are predominant but Uyghur is minoritised as a medium of instruction. We focus on data in which the teachers translanguage across all three languages and make a case for the conception of pedagogical translanguaging…

The study explores language maintenance and shift patterns from a family language policy perspective in Azerbaijani-Farsi bilingual families in the City of Zanjan, Iran. The city is the capital of Zanjan province which is surrounded by Azerbaijani, Kurdish, and Farsi speaking provinces giving it a specific demographic make-up to explore language…

Language planning and policy has evolved from considering policy as one of states' affairs at its early stages to how policy actors exercise their agency to appropriate and enact policy in micro and local contexts. Ethnography of language policy is predominantly used today to explore why policies are enacted in a certain way and not otherwise,…

Based on econometric methods, we found that Tatar children from families with better material conditions and those who live in bigger cities are more likely to use the Russian language at home. Although Tatar seems to be well protected, thanks to local language policies after perestroika, we found some warning signs for the reformulation of public…

Although it is disregarded and banned, a person can be discriminated in the society according to various attributes--due to the person's language, religion, nationality, social background. The problem touches upon not only individuals but minorities as well. Almost all states have one or several groups--minorities--that differ from the main…

This study responds to scholarship that has examined "folk concepts" of (non)nativeness through the lens of imagined ideals of the native speaker, by proposing a framework that integrates both ideals and habits. We operationalize these concepts by drawing from the theoretical notions of chronotope, scale, and habitus. Using data from…