While much research has demonstrated that English-only rhetoric negatively affects bilingual education for the children of US immigrants, few studies have examined the local negotiations and discourses that shape the development of multilingual programming for English-speaking students. Across the USA, educational leaders and policy-makers today…

Through a comparison of France and Germany, this article investigates why the overall conception of multilingualism promoted by the education systems of the two countries favours the teaching of "useful" European standard languages over that of minority and migrant languages that are conceived in merely cultural terms. Adopting a…

Since Italy's unification in 1861, the establishment and diffusion of the standard Italian language at the expense of all other linguistic varieties has dominated language and education policy discourses. Today, as Italy has transformed from a country of mass "emigration" to a country of mass "immigration," the language…

The introduction of languages, especially English, into the primary curriculum around the world has been one of the major language-in-education policy developments in recent years. In countries where English has been compulsory for a number of years, the question arises as to what extent the numerous and well-documented challenges faced by the…

Situated at the intersection of sociolinguistic and educational planes, English as a medium-of-instruction debate has always been at the crux of the intense debates, and offers a lens for a systematic investigation of the spread of English in Turkey. As Turkey is moving toward greater integration with the European Union and promoting its…

This paper investigates language ideologies relevant to medium of instruction policy within two postcolonial countries: Cameroon and Vanuatu. Each country experienced British and French rule, and has retained both English and French as official languages and media of instruction. However, since Independence, there has been a difference in the way…

The heterogeneous backgrounds, languages and proficiencies students bring to the classroom have always been a key challenge facing schools that wish to implement heritage language programmes. In this article I describe the evolution of one high school's approach to heritage language education and some of the roadblocks they encountered in…

This contribution traces the development of an educational support program ("Förderunterricht") for immigrant children in the German Ruhr area, a region that has traditionally been strongly impacted by different waves of immigration. The program has grown out of what was originally a small-scale application of research results of a study…

Heritage learners of minority languages can play a lynchpin role in reversing language shift (RLS) in their families; however, in order to enact this role, they must first overcome certain barriers to re-integrate the minority language into the home domain. Using a combination of conversation and narrative analysis methods, we demonstrate how both…

This paper presents findings from an exploratory study of foreign language planning in Saudi Arabia. In terms of official policy, the sole foreign language taught in Saudi public schools is English. Therefore, researching foreign languages there is often limited to researching the area of English as a Foreign Language. However, evidence shows that…

This article examines the various language ideologies and cultural models that inform Hawaiian-language learners' experiences, language practices, and socio-ethnic identity as they attempt to become speakers of their heritage language. While Hawaiian-language education is often noted as a revitalization success story, and certainly is in…

While the medium-of-instruction (MOI) has been seen as one of the most crucial decision-making areas in language policies, it is curious that the equivalent Japanese expression to MOI is absent from educational policy documents. In a nation where the Japanese language is called the national language and enjoys the status of an official language,…

This paper analyzes the ideologies and practices of local languages as the medium-of-instruction (MOI) policy in a multilingual school in Nepal. Grounded on the notion of language policy as a locally situated social practice, this critical ethnographic study investigates challenges--both ideological and implementational--that local languages MOI…

The use of English as a medium of instruction (MOI) in polities across the world has drawn attention of language policy and planning scholars and researchers. Increasingly, research on MOI policy and practice focuses on how macro-level policies are translated into action by "actors" including teachers and students in the micro-context. However,…

Recent research on language planning and policy highlights the effects of globalisation in spreading the English language as a medium of instruction (EMI) in non-native English speaking (NNES) countries. This trend has encouraged many universities in NNES countries to offer EMI education programmes with the objective of developing national human…