This paper presents key insights from the analysis of a language debate in Cyprus, triggered when a number of individuals and groups refused to endorse the standardisation of the orthography of place names and the argumentation through which it was supported. The paper is based on a collection of newspaper texts and related documents and is…

This paper explores the interplay between the politics and policies of multilingualism by looking at the role of political macro-strategies in shaping language and multilingualism policies within the European Union. The paper focuses on the relationship between the European Union's 2000-2010 Lisbon Strategy on the European Knowledge-Based Economy…

This paper explores a period of advocacy on behalf of Spanish language education in the United States from 1914 to 1945. It interrogates claims made by policy actors about the centrality of Spanish language education to US geopolitical and economic interests in Latin America. I make two arguments: first, that realization of US economic and…

The 2010-2011 academic year marked the beginning of a new chapter in the long and controversial history of medium-of-instruction (MOI) policy in Hong Kong. Under the government's "fine-tuning" policy, schools hitherto compelled to use Chinese as the MOI have been given more scope to teach in English at junior secondary level, thereby eliminating…

The main purpose of the present paper is to draw attention to contexts where two conceptions of linguistic rights--the rights of languages and the rights of speakers--come into conflict. To illustrate such conflict, I will examine justifications of language laws adopted in two post-Soviet countries, Latvia and Ukraine. I will begin with an…

This article provides a textual analysis of the Naivasha language provisions in Sudan in an attempt to explore how political discourse is manifested in each policy statement. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as an analytic and interpretive framework, the article argues that the Naivasha language provisions as political discourse are shaped…

Maternity care in Ireland has been described as a "testament to the strength and influence of the medical profession" (Mc Kee 1986: 192). A review of maternity and gynaecology services in the Dublin area in 2004 revealed that "no participant...thought that the maternity services were women centred at the time" (Women's Health Council, 2007,…

In this paper, we discuss two types of discourse: the first one--the discourse of cognitive impairment of a long-term care facility (LTCF) reflected in the institution's language policy and in the language use of several caregivers of the LTCF; and the second one, the discourse of "small" stories (Bamberg and Georgakopoulou 2008) told by Alise, a…

In the healthcare arena, language policy-related research has thus far been limited to questions about "language access," i.e., whether individuals are supplied with health information in their languages, and whether interpreters for doctor-patient consultations are provided (Martinez 2008; Ngo-Metzger et al. 2003; Partida 2007; Vahabi 2007). This…

The ordinary social engagement of human life would not usually be considered an arena for language policy. Yet clinical evidence mounts that social interaction improves our lives as we age. Since social engagement decreases cardiovascular risks (Ramsay et al. in "Ann Epidemiol" 18:476-483, 2008) and delays memory loss among those living in…

In this article, we present a case study, undertaken in Uganda, in which 12 young people debated and critiqued four research articles on HIV/AIDS relevant to Ugandan youth. The rationale for the study was to provide students with the opportunity to respond to health research that had a direct bearing on their lives. It also complements applied…

This paper draws on theories that describe interrelationships between identity, language and the media to investigate how the Kurds utilise two forms of electronic media--satellite television and the Internet--to construct their identities. The data for this study is generated from four sources: a Kurdish satellite television channel (Kurdistan…

This paper reports on findings of a study examining attitudes and perspectives toward the public use of Arabic in Israel as reflected by minority and majority group members. Analysis of data from 32 Israeli students--Jewish and Arabs--who participated in a series of focus group sessions yielded two main theoretical constructs that characterize the…

In an effort to reverse the reading crisis purported to plague public education, schools and districts are mandating prescriptive reading programs and teacher-centered instructional practices in hopes of improving the academic achievement of minority students, including English learners (ELs). The wide-spread implementation of these programs in…

Singapore's language policy has no place for either the various dialects of Chinese (the exception is Mandarin), or Singlish (a colloquial variety of English). These have been the targets of government campaigns that aim, as far as possible, to ensure that Singaporeans stop using them. However, it is interesting to observe that government…