This article explores the impacts of economic and cultural globalization on language and language education. It acknowledges the spread of English and the negative impacts of this upon other languages and language communities. The case is made that new conditions of economic dominance by multinational corporations raise the stakes for schooling…

The purpose of this paper is to examine a language policy in a two-way immersion programme and to explicate the dimensions as well as dynamics involved in the teacher's interpretation and implementation of the policy. The Korean-English two-way immersion kindergarten classroom where this research was conducted, adopted a 70: 30 language…

The goal of this brief, prepared jointly by the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators (NHCSL) and the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute (TRPI), is to bring to policy saliency--at the national, state, and local levels--to the educational crisis caused by the under-achievement of Hispanic youth. Specifically, this report addresses two issues of…

Employing critical discourse analysis (CDA), this paper examines the attempt to bridge a Canadian adult second language policy with an employment skills policy. The result is a third policy intended to improve language education and employment skills training for immigrants. The analysis reveals that the knowledge economy and human capital theory…

Since the post-Soviet context is not particularly well known to the majority of readers, the author uses this introduction to provide a general background against which developments in particular post-Soviet countries can be better understood. The author begins by placing these developments in the sociohistoric context of language policies of the…

This report assesses the changes in language use, based on political and cultural uses, around the world and specifically in Thailand. Early global theories divided the nations of the world into central, semiperipheral, and peripheral. Later, this classification was changed to developed nations, developing nations, and the Third World. Then came…

The process of identifying and meeting U.S. national security needs, as well as the needs of international business and trade in the area of foreign languages and international studies, is complex. Three studies of the problem are discussed here: (1) a study by the General Accounting Office of foreign affairs agencies' capacity to obtain needed…

Chinese and Japanese, although they are unrelated languages, nevertheless have similar writing systems, since Japanese writing employs a mixed system of Chinese characters and phonetic script. Because Chinese characters are difficult to learn, however, reform movements to simplify the writing system to make the task of learning easier for a…

Discusses problems for information management in dealing with multilingual documentation. The planned language, Esperanto, is suggested as a universal working language because of its neutrality, rational structure, clarity, and expressive power. (Author/CWM)

Analyzes the kinds of simplified Chinese characters currently in unofficial use, collected from personal correspondence and published discussions. (KM)

Discusses the history, nature and current context of diglossia in Greece. (RM)

The Spanish language incorporates English and other foreign words just as English adopts vocabulary from Spanish to respond to new ideas and objects in the culture. If a Spanish word sanctioned by the Royal Academy is not available, the people will adopt the foreign word that expresses their meaning. (Text is in Spanish.) (CHK)

Portions of the law designed to ensure the pre-eminence of French in Quebec are presented. (Text is in French.) (CDSH/CLK)

Argues that economic development as well as the lack of technical terms in Gaelic and decline in use of Gaelic in the home may adversely affect the language of a given area. Reports on a survey into the linguistic impact of three industrial enterprises in Western Ireland. (SED)

Discusses the policies of Sri Lanka concerning the status of Sinhala as official language and the status of Tamil and English. The first independent government relegated English to unofficial status as a language of special domains, but it has recently been suggested that it be recognized as a neutral link-language. (SED)