Language planning for literacy has typically focused on models of provision of print-based literacy programmes in order to develop widespread literate capabilities in reading and writing. This paper argues that contemporary literacy planning needs to consider more than models of delivery and engage with issues related to defining the nature of…

This paper proposes a comprehensive overview of the "economics of language". This field of research, which is grounded in the discipline of economics, displays a strong interdisciplinary orientation, which places it on the fringes of mainstream economics. It studies the ways in which linguistic and economic processes influence one another. It is…

A policy favouring one foreign language can only be imposed if measures are taken to make it accepted. Therefore, the development of perceptions about the policy takes on as much importance as the measures taken for promoting its use. This paper aims to demonstrate the cogency of this assertion particularly in the area of science and technology…

The development of literacy in selected bilingual societies was investigated. Historical and comparative studies were conducted of medieval Jewish communities, the Navajo community, a northern New Mexico village, and the countries of Paraguay and Tonga. The goal of the case studies was to develop a model for the development of literacy in the…

"Iranian Journal of Language Studies" ("IJLS") is a quarterly journal devoted to all areas of language and linguistics. Its aim is to present work of current interest in all areas of language study. No particular linguistic theories or scientific trends are favored: scientific quality and scholarly standing are the only…

This monograph examines the language situation in Cameroon, a Central African country where fewer than 20 million people speak close to 250 languages. Specifically, the monograph addresses the issues of language use and spread, language policy and planning, and language maintenance and prospects. The study is divided into five parts. The…

The papers included in this issue are from a conference on language policy. The papers are: "Why Promote European Multilingualism? French Experience" (Claude Truchot); "German Attitudes to European Language Policy" (Ulrich Ammon); "Minority Language Rights in Contemporary Europe" (Tove Skutnabb-Kangas); "Teacher…

A discussion of language policy in Australia chronicles the history and context of policy formation and looks at the role of the National Languages and Literacy Institute. The paper first examines the phases and processes of both explicit and unofficial policy-making on language issues in Australia, highlighting the role that language…

This paper examines efforts to reverse language shift in two indigenous communities in southern Ecuador. The ongoing decline and rapid pace of extinction of many of the world's languages have received increasing amounts of attention, but while processes of language loss and extinction have been extensively studied, relatively little work of…

Various groups of Native American peoples and other non-English speakers are required to become literate in English and are promised that literacy will solve their social, economic, and political problems. Yet, having achieved some level of English literacy, many of these people find that not much has changed. The educational system attributes…

This report demonstrates the extent to which Quebec's laws, especially the Charter of the French Language, meant to protect and promote the French language, are actually hurting the present and future use of the English language in that province. It is shown that, through court decisions, individual users of English, a minority, are being denied…

Conjectural outcomes of the passage of a recently proposed constitutional amendment to make English the official language of Texas may be compared to the actual linguistic situation in Belgium. Following the revolt led by French-speaking Walloons in 1830, French was used for all national laws and decrees in Belgium as well as for secondary and…

A three-language model for language education in Sub-Saharan Africa is outlined. The three languages would be the local community language, a major language chosen to be the "lingua franca" of a region, and the official language to be used country-wide. The model is developed to include the following factors: ethnic, linguistic,…

Despite the fact that the twentieth-century ecumenical movement was coeval with the beginning of a "language revolution" and the "theology of crisis," it was only at the beginning of the present decade that the problem of unity in verbal formulations reached the agenda of the World Council of Churches (WCC). At that time the…

As a result of the Turkish language reform, modern Turkish spans a range of styles from traditional to reformed, the former preferred by right-wing, traditionalist, and religious sectors of the population, the latter by left-wing, modernist, and secular sectors. Turkish students evaluate the two styles differently, and attribute attitudes and…