This article analyses the construction of linguistic value and recognition of linguistic resources in educational spaces in Finland, where Swedish is the second national language and in Sweden, where Finnish is one of five official minority languages. Drawing on ethnographic methods, critically informed notions of language policy and spatial…

Internationalisation policies introducing English as a lingua franca (ELF) have been initiated by the Taiwan Ministry of Education and executed from a top-down level without taking into consideration the competence and needs of administrative staff. This article begins by describing the ideology of ELF within the macro context of Taiwanese…

This paper discusses structural and ideological challenges to mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) which has in recent years been gaining ground in many educational contexts around the world. The paper argues, however, that MTB-MLE is set against these challenges - referred to here as inequalities of multilingualism - which prevent…

Although the Lao People's Democratic Republic has speakers of up to 230 different languages belonging to four ethnolinguistic families, the Lao Government's policy as stated in its Education Law is that Lao is the official language of education at all levels. This creates a challenging situation for teachers in ethnic minority villages throughout…

Debates about language and literacy in Uganda were renewed with publication in 1992 of a government white paper. Most likely this paper will conclude that the English language will continue to command the highest profile at the national level, with the local languages struggling, with diverse levels of success, to follow suit. (Contains 13…

Language choice (LC) for literacy must consider mother tongue, language of first sight, local lingua francas, and any readily accessible world language. Common but false assumptions regarding LC are noted: multilingualism as a barrier to development, the necessity of a world language, and the permanance of language patterns. (Contains four…

Draws on policy documents and interviews with educational policymakers and leading figures in the field of Kweyol to document changes in the status of the language in official and popular domains in St. Lucia. (Author/VWL)

The debate in Hong Kong over which language (Cantonese, Mandarin or English) should be used as the teaching medium in publicly funded educational institutions predates the city's transition from colony to Special Administrative Region in 1997. In the past nine years it has been presented as the cornerstone of the ongoing educational reform…

Discusses globalization and diversification within four language issues for adult literacy: (1) the spread of a small number of world languages, (2) development of the varieties of language, (3) choice of language for education and official life, and (4) disappearing languages. (JP)

Problems facing the literacy movement in the Solomon Islands are related to communication, economic, and linguistic barriers. The island is linguistically diverse. English is the official language, but a national literacy committee found that only 26% of people could speak English. Improving primary education is a government priority. Training of…

Addresses the question of mother-tongue education of children, especially in francophone countries of Africa. It seeks to contribute to the debate on the integration of local languages into educational systems in multilingual settings by stressing the opposing cultural messages carried by official and indigenous languages. (Author/JL)

Bahasa Malaysia (the Malay language) was chosen as the national language to unite the linguistically diverse groups in Malaysia in the mid-1950s. This choice brought about a total change in education policy, whereby Bahasa Malaysia became the medium of instruction for all subjects (other than English) in public schools. The decision saw a complete…

Since Reunification of French Cameroon and British Cameroons in 1961, the country has adopted French and English as its joint official languages and recommended the promotion of bilingualism in these two foreign languages in official domains. This paper focuses on the primary school level in the francophone sub system of education and examines the…

In many Southern countries, there are multiple and conflicting perspectives regarding the central role of language, particularly in relation to educational and developmental issues. A great number of multilingual, multicultural and multi-ethnic Southern countries are using "English" or some other dominant tongue as their only…

Examines the political implications of linguistic policy and reports on a recent visit to an Ethiopian Teachers' Training Institute. The article discusses the difficulties inherent in the imposition of major educational reform under severe resource restraints. (20 references) (Author/CK)