Language Planning And Student Experiences

This book is a timely comparison of the divergent worlds of policy implementation and policy ambition, the messy, often contradictory here-and-now reality of languages in schools and the sharp-edged, shiny, future-oriented representation of languages in policy. Two deep rooted tendencies in Australian political and social life, multiculturalism and Asian regionalism, are represented as key phases in the country’s experimentation with language education planning. Presenting data from a five year ethnographic study combined with a 40 year span of policy analysis, this volume is a rare book length treatment of the chasm between imagined policy and its experienced delivery, and will provide insights that policymakers around the world can draw on.

Language Planning is a resurgent academic discipline, reflecting the importance of language in issues of migration, globalisation, cultural diversity, nation-building, education and ethnic identity. Written as an advanced introduction, this book engages with all these themes but focuses specifically on language planning as it relates to education, addressing such issues as bilingualism and the education of linguistic minority pupils in North America and Europe, the educational and equity implications of the global spread of English, and the choice of media of instruction in post-colonial societies. Contextualising this discussion, the first two chapters describe the emergence and evolution of language planning as an academic discipline, and introduce key concepts in the practice of language planning. The book is wide-ranging in its coverage, with detailed discussion of the context of language policy in a variety of countries and communities across North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

This volume encompasses the range of issues encountered by language scholars who teach and research in departments of languages and cultures within the higher education system, predominantly in Australia, but touching other universities worldwide. Related studies on language planning, methodology or pedagogy have focused on one or more of these same issues, but rarely on their totality. Intersections as a metaphor running discreetly through the essays in this volume, connects them all to a lived reality. The field of languages and cultures, as it is practised and reflected upon in Australian universities, is essentially an interdisciplinary and interconnecting space - one in which linguistic and disciplinary diversities meet and join forces, rather than collide or disperse along different pathways. The international and local studies featured here focus on language planning, new pedagogies and language reclamation and link to meeting points and commonalities. They show that language scholars are increasingly finding themselves on common ground as they tackle issues of policy and practice affecting their field, whether within their institutions, within the tertiary system, or within the framework of government policy.

This book addresses the multilingual reality of study abroad across a variety of national contexts and target languages. The chapters examine multilingual socialization and translanguaging; how the target language is entwined in global, local and historical contexts; and how students use local and global varieties of English.

Provides school administrators and teachers a practical approach for dealing with the language problems that confront modern schools in pluralist contexts. Incorporates up-to-date language plans from North American schools.

This book brings together a diverse range of empirical chapters spanning various contexts and educational levels which explore the psychology of teaching and learning a subject through a second or other language. The chapters discuss both the psychological stressors and strains for learners and teachers, as well as the benefits and joys of being involved in such programmes. The studies encompass a range of areas, such as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), Foreign Language Medium of Instruction (FMI), bilingual education and other related approaches to integrating content and language. They feature a variety of psychological constructs, including identity, self-confidence, motivation, self-concept, teacher and learner beliefs, affect, anxiety, stress, mindsets, attributions and well-being, from the perspectives of both teachers and learners. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in ensuring that teachers and students are properly supported and that their experiences of integrated content and language settings enable them to flourish.

In a world where higher education is increasingly internationalised, questions of language use and multilingualism are central to the ways in which universities function in teaching, research and administration. Contemporary universities find themselves in complex linguistic environments that may include national level language policies, local linguistic diversity, an internationalised student body, increasing international collaboration in research, and increased demand for the use and learning of international languages, especially English. The book presents a critical analysis of how universities are responding these complexities in different contexts around the world. The contributions show that language issues in universities are complex and often contested as universities try to negotiate the national and the international in their work. In some contexts, universities’ language policies and the ways in which they are implemented may have a negative impact on their ways of working. In other contexts, however, universities have embraced multilingualism in ways that have opened up new academic possibilities for staff and students. Collectively, the chapters show that universities’ language policy and planning are a work in progress and that much further work is needed for universities to achieve their language goals. This book was originally published as a special issue of Current Issues in Language Planning.

This is the first volume exclusively devoted to research methods in language policy and planning (LPP). Each chapter is written by a leading language policy expert and provides a how-to guide to planning studies as well as gathering and analyzing data Covers a broad range of methods, making it easily accessible to and useful for transdisciplinary researchers working with language policy in any capacity Will serve as both a foundational methods text for graduate students and novice researchers, and a useful methodological reference for experienced LPP researchers Includes a series of guidelines for public engagement to assist scholars as they endeavor to incorporate their work into the public policy process