This interdisciplinary paper shows that investigating community language beliefs, as a pillar of language policy research, can be enriched by the principles of theory of mind. The case study is Malaysia where ethnonationalist law and policy elevates the language and culture of the Muslim Malay majority above those of citizens of Chinese and Indian…

In this paper we explore the nexus of language policy, ideology and power in the linguistic landscape of urban Rwanda. In post-genocide Rwanda, English has been promoted and gained status. This has led to an increased usage of English on shop signs in the streets of Kigali and other towns in Rwanda at the expense of both French and Kinyarwanda.…

The final decolonization of Timor-Leste, in 2002, happened during an era characterized by intensification of globalization processes and, as a result, the reconstruction of the country involved diverse types of multilateral and bilateral cooperation. The cooperation projects of Portugal and Brazil took on the main role in the development of local…

Research into Family Language Policy (FLP) focuses on language planning by and among family members within home spaces. In this study we gather data from multilingual young adults with different backgrounds across Mexico through an online questionnaire. We use a trajectory approach to look at how FLP changes over time and space from the…

In this opening commentary, we draw on Ruiz's (NABE J 8:15-34, 1984) metaphorical representations of language to outline the ideological and implementational spaces for language policy making in Greater China. In particular, we highlight how the 'resource' orientation allows different stakeholders to negotiate the development of language policies…

In this study, we examine how mobility and on-going changes in sociocultural contexts impact family language policy (FLP) in the UK. Using a questionnaire and involving 470 transnational families across the UK, our study provides a descriptive analysis of different family language practices in England and establishes how attitudes influence the…

This article compares French and Corsican middle school language policy. Above the micro-level of the classroom, and below the macro-level of the EU (or beyond), I analyze two policies sandwiched at the meso-level, national (France) and regional (Corsica) middle school curricula. Based on a content analysis of two curricular policy texts, the…

This article examines "de jure" language officialization policies in Andorra and Luxembourg, and addresses how these are discursively reproduced, sustained or challenged by members of resident migrant communities in the two countries. Although the two countries bear similarities in their small size, extensive multilingualism and the…

Since their introduction by the Conservative government in 2013, primary school children in England have taken a mandated grammar, punctuation and spelling assessment, which places an emphasis on decontextualised, standardised English and the identification of traditional grammatical terminology. Despite some concise criticisms from educational…

Building on the emerging notion of "normative language policy", this article seeks to contribute to the further development of an integrated framework for researching the ethics of language policy and planning. Using the case of minority language rights in France as an example, it demonstrates the benefit of combining context-sensitive…

The aim of this paper is to show that the current discourse on languages, constructed as meaningful for Europe's establishment and maintenance as a geopolitical unit, is just the latest round in a much longer debate on managing the diversity of languages taking place within the Council of Europe. From a critical sociolinguistic perspective, this…

Where censuses are concerned, politics and ideology are pervasive. The 2011 census in Scotland (a semi-autonomous part of the United Kingdom) was the first to ask a question about Scots, a close relative of English, which is historically the vernacular in many parts of Scotland. While at one time Scots had high status as the national language of…

Choosing which additional language to include in national curricula and when to begin teaching it are important educational policy decisions. The current study aims to provide a contextually embedded picture of such policymaking process in the Iranian context. More specifically, the study is intended to explain the agency mechanism of different…

This paper takes language policing as an ideospace, a space where multiple language ideologies are constructed and contested. Drawing on critical language policy and linguistic anthropology, it unravels how participants in a Nepalese Facebook group construct and reproduce language ideologies that both challenge and impose homogeneity and…

This case study describes how a beginning teacher struggled to meet her students' needs in an ESL classroom. Her struggle demonstrated the interrelated nature of policy and practice: Policy effects in her school isolated her and made her feel solely responsible for the achievement of her newly arrived English-learning (EL) students. Her case…