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Language plays a crucial role in education; yet, while issues of language are undoubtedly relevant to all teachers, school‐level language policies, which aim to provide explicit guidance underpinned by a clear set of principles, are too often conspicuous by their absence. In a range of educational contexts around the world it has been found that where such policies do exist, they are frequently fragmented and underpinned by monolingual ideologies that do not reflect the linguistic diversity of schools today. The aim of this study, therefore, is to map the provision of school‐level policies from a representative sample of secondary schools in England (n = 998) and explore the extent to which they address (either implicitly or explicitly) the following dimensions of language: (a) English, both as the language of instruction and in relation to support for English as an additional language (EAL) learners; (b) modern languages in the curriculum; and (c) other home or community languages. Drawing on an ecologically informed approach, where these three dimensions of language are conceptualised as systems, analysis was conducted to identify areas of divergence and (potential for) intersection. Findings suggest that policies relating to languages, where they exist, are largely compartmentalised and tensions emerged between the various systems. However, we also note several promising points of intersection which indicate that there is scope for developing cohesive and holistic languages policies at a whole‐school level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bulk of the instruments that make up the written Constitution of Canada were enacted in English and have force of law solely in that language. It is to address this anomaly that the architects of patriation included section 55 of Constitution Act, 1982, which creates a peremptory obligation to draft and enact a French version of Canada's constitutional texts. Four decades later, this obligation remains woefully unfulfilled. This article analyzes the section 55 obligation in the context of Canada's official bilingualism legal framework, as expressed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Official Languages Act. The article sets out both substantive and practical reasons in support of its claim that the continued breach of section 55 is untenable. The authors argue that a predominantly English constitution not only violates the principle of equality between official languages, impacting Francophone communities, but also threatens Canada's commitment to constitutionalism and the rule of law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a description of the area in Europe where Dutch is an official language, the historical developments are discussed that resulted in differences between the Netherlands and Dutch‐speaking Belgium (Flanders) in attitude towards Dutch and foreign languages. Next, features of English in these areas, its effects on Inner Circle and other speakers of English and norms strived for are dealt with. English competence is described on the basis of learning objectives for English and results of large‐scale studies. Subsequently, domains where English is used are described: education, scientific research, business, songs. Finally, the attitude of the Dutch and Flemish towards English is outlined. These data are considered in the perspective of the Outer or Expanding Circle status of English. In both the Netherlands and Flanders English does not have second language status, but is the first foreign language, although French has that status by law in Flanders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses, from an applied linguistics perspective, the position English maintains among the myriad of languages spoken in the European Union (EU). The linguistic make‐up of EU society, as well as the language policy of the Union, is scrutinised. The role English is playing in European unification is also important for the discussion, as is the call for a re‐evaluation of the norms deployed in English language teaching. The linguistic nativisation currently taking place in mainland Europe, which indicates that English is functioning more as an Outer Circle rather than as an Expanding Circle language, is juxtaposed with these developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research unveils retrospective child language brokering experiences within local ethnic minorities in Turkey. Employing a multiple-case study research design, the investigation delves into the brokering experiences of three adult participants from diverse ethnic backgrounds – Kurdish, Arab, and Pomak communities. The semi-structured interviews shed light on individual encounters, including primary motivations and settings for brokering, employed translation strategies, perceived impacts of brokering, and the normativity of child language brokering. They also illuminate the societal positioning of these ethnic minorities, especially minority women, within Turkey and the prevailing state policies affecting minority language rights. The findings obtained are discussed in connection with a nuanced exploration of the contextual and historical dimensions surrounding these ethnic minorities. In this sense, departing from the prevailing focus on child language brokering within immigrant families, this research redirects attention to brokering practices among local ethnic minorities. Beyond the preliminary exploration of child language brokering in Turkey, this study is an early investigation into non-professional interpreting activities among ethnic minorities residing in the country. The study also generates implications that intersect the domains of public service interpreting and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sign language is significant in its linguistic complexity and sociocultural values to its users. The linguistic situation of sign languages in the Middle East is controversial. For Arab deaf communities, each country has a rich and complex national sign language without the need for a superior, more standard unifying Arabic sign language (ArSL). There have been attempts to unify sign languages by creating ArSL. This initiative has been mostly taken by nondeaf persons and has been met with opposition and resistance. This paper investigates sign languages in Kuwait and the attitudes towards both Kuwaiti Sign Language (KSL) and ArSL from both deaf individuals and sign language translators/teachers using surveys, informal interviews, and fieldwork visits. The research question is: What sign language would the deaf community and sign language interpreters/teachers in Kuwait choose (KSL, ArSL, or both) to better serve the deaf community. This paper is designed to uncover the impact of language policies on communities' representations of self and explore the richness and complexity of national sign languages that can be underestimated by language policymakers. The findings of this study indicate a preference for KSL or the use of both KSL and ArSL, but not ArSL alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have investigated current English-medium Instruction (EMI) programmes for international students studying in universities in China's mainland. The present study applies Spolsky's language policy framework to analyze Chinese EMI programmes in terms of language ideology, language management, and language practices on the national level, the university level and the individual level. Data are collected from policy statements, interviews, and questionnaires. This study finds that in EMI programmes for international students, language belief lays the foundation for meso-level language management. Guided by macro beliefs, meso institutions use the management tools of curriculum design, instructional staff management, and evaluation to implement EMI programmes. Language practice is influenced by and modifies beliefs and management. In practice, professional learning is prioritised, and a slight mismatch between the language support provided by the institutions and international students' actual expectations is found. This study contributes to the development and implementation of EMI in Chinese higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early childhood professionals can act as catalysts in encouraging home language maintenance in multilingual families. However, there is a dearth of research on whether these professionals advise parents to speak their home language(s) to their offspring, and furthermore, little is known about what prompts professionals to proffer language advice. To respond to these queries, we relied on two theoretical frameworks: Spolsky's language policy model and Bandura's perceived self-efficacy theory. We gathered data from professionals (N = 305) employed at infant welfare clinics in Belgium and examined whether a high sense of multilingual confidence (i.e. a form of perceived self-efficacy), together with positive multilingual beliefs and multilingual practices, would induce professionals to offer multilingual advice (i.e. a form of language management). Our logistic regression results revealed that multilingual practices and multilingual confidence were positively associated with multilingual advice. Additionally, multilingual training was found to be strongly related to advice-giving. Multilingual beliefs, however, were only connected with multilingual advice when they were considered without the inclusion of multilingual confidence, as multilingual beliefs seemed to operate via multilingual confidence. We, therefore, suggest an enrichment of Spolsky's model by taking into account multilingual confidence when investigating individuals' language policy dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ways in which apology functions as a stance act at public speech events. Rather than focusing on speakers' intentions, in this study I pay attention to indexical meanings associated with apologies in a specific context. The study primarily analyses apology sequences that involve code-switching, which were drawn from ethnographic data gathered in a Korean university where English has been adopted as its official language (EOL). Data analysis shows that the use of apology allows speakers to take a stance towards their language choice and the institutional language policy. Both apology and speakers' metalinguistic articulations prior to code-switching reflect and reinforce the two language ideologies: (1) the language policy is intended to serve for international members of the university, and (2), Korean can be used when needed. A closer look at the way in which apology is used in specific contexts suggests that speakers' main purpose of apology is self-presentation in a public event. Apology functions to index speaker's defiance of an institution's language policy while avoiding their responsibility for the action. The sociolinguistic concept of stance allows us to better understand speakers' positioning with respect to norms and expectations informed by institutional language policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalisation poses a challenge for businesses with linguistically diverse staff, prompting the choice of English as the default corporate language. Although many studies extensively explored the role of corporate language policy in large corporations, employees' perceptions of such policy has not been explored adequately. Fewer studies investigate the trends in such perceptions in social media texts. This study fills this gap; it examines the barriers in multinational companies that have adopted a foreign language and analyses employees' attitudes. The study uses computer-assisted text analysis to investigate changes in employees' perceptions of an English-only policy in Rakuten, a Japanese company. It analyses a corpus of 704 social media posts on OpenWork from 2010 to 2018. The study finds some trends in employees' attitudes such as the inconsistency between expectation and reality in terms of 'Englishnization' and the popularity of the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC). The findings suggest that Rakuten is not global in the true sense; the value of the TOEIC score is overestimated and the neoliberal employment system affects employees in complex ways. This study contributes to international business language with a bottom-up, employee-centred, and diachronic perspective on language management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on Brunei Malay have made inconsistent findings: while some have asserted that this variety is thriving and is in no way endangered, others have found that its use is now waning. As the dynamics of family speech can inform what is happening linguistically at the community level, this study seeks to investigate the family language policies of the Brunei Malays by assessing parents' language ideologies, practices and management strategies. This is done via a survey involving 178 ethnically Malay parents. The overall results paint an unpromising picture of the future of Brunei Malay, shaped by the parents' weak beliefs on this Malay variety, and defined further by their home language practices and management strategies. The majority of the Brunei Malay families are bilingual, but English features prominently in most investigated items. The findings reveal that the parents are motivated to maintain Brunei Malay but have little confidence in their abilities to pass down the home language to their children. That a majority agrees for the introduction of lessons on Brunei Malay in schools is an indicator that the home domain is no longer adequate for the maintenance of this Malay variety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite Estonia being ranked among the highest performing nations in the world-wide testing of students, these encouraging results are somewhat overshadowed by the challenge to overcome the divided school system with different languages of learning that impacts crucially on students' social, academic and professional paths. The study examines teachers' (N = 312) attitudes to languages of learning and teaching through various components from a sociolinguistic perspective. The findings, gathered from a correlation and hierarchical clustering analysis, point to a strong connection between the affective (situational variable), conative (operational variable) and cognitive (situational variable) component of an attitude. The results indicate how attitude direction varies in four sub-groups of the sample when interpreted through the element of the cognitive component. The exploration of the latter underlines the necessity to consider the complexity in teachers' attitudes, as almost two-thirds of the participants share a monoglossic vision of learning and teaching languages, giving preference to either Russian or Estonian. Further research is needed to investigate how to enhance a positive attitude towards both languages of learning and teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an increasing context of internationalisation, the European Commission announced in 2019 the creation of the first seventeen 'European Universities' (EUnis), a Pan-European consortium of higher education institutions designed to promote European values, cooperation and identity. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to examine the ways in which these newly created EUnis construct their views of linguistic diversity and multilingualism. The research used as a case study the example of UNA EUROPA, an alliance of eight leading universities with eight different languages. Drawing mainly on content analysis combined with a discourse analysis approach, three data sources – the project proposal for the EU Commission, the UNA EUROPA website documents, and a research interview with one of its representatives – were examined to look into the ways in which languages and multilingualism are conceptualised. Findings reveal that linguistic diversity and multilingualism are given different degrees of visibility in the three sets of data examined and that utilitarian objectives seem to predominate over identity ones. It is expected that these findings will help unveil the ways in which language issues are problematised or not in the agenda of these newly created transnational universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the complex interplay between language policy and linguistic landscape (LL) in the city of Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. It highlights how local governmental policy advocating for Tamil prominence in public signage interfaces with the sociolinguistic realities of the city. Despite the policy directives emphasising Tamil, English retains a dominant role, suggesting an ongoing negotiation between language policy and practical language needs, particularly in the commercial sphere. This scenario suggests the city's response to global realities while preserving regional linguistic diversity. The presence of regional languages such as Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, and Hindi in Vellore's LL also reflects the city's multicultural character. The incorporation of these languages not only points to an inclusive language policy accommodating diverse communities but also contributes to the city's multicultural identity. The differential language use in top-down government-sponsored signs and bottom-up community-driven signs reveals the complexities associated with policy formulation and implementation in multilingual, multiethnic contexts. In conclusion, the study underscores the value of LL analysis as an effective tool for assessing the ground-level impact of language policy, illuminating the power relations among languages, the status of various ethnolinguistic groups, and the effect of commercialisation on language use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This mini-ethnographic case study examined the enactment of the mother tongue (MT) medium of instruction policy in teaching information and communication technology (ICT) to preschoolers or early childhood development (ECD) learners in a Zimbabwean school. The study employed an eclectic cognitive sense-making, ethnography of language policy and planning (ELPP), and technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) framework to look into practices of one preschool teacher, Mrs K, in her quest to enact the mother tongue policy. Despite her 26 years of experience in teaching preschoolers, Mrs K had not received adequate training on teaching ICT, a new subject in the ECD curriculum. While at first glance, she appeared to be abiding by the policy, some of her lessons proved to be teacher-dominated, and the classroom dialogue formulaic thus undermining the all-pervading learner-centred pedagogy on which the new curriculum edifice was premised. The paper thus explores the complex interplay of knowledge of content, technology and pedagogy; experience; cognitive and other contextual factors in impacting teacher sense-making and enactment of the mother tongue policy in teaching ICT to pre-school learners. One major factor which appeared to be influencing teacher understanding of policy was lack of ICT content knowledge and knowledge of how to teach ICT using both English and MT. The policy reformers seemingly rushed to implement the curriculum without capacitating teachers on how to use the mother tongue to teach ICT at ECD level. The study thus proposes strategies for teacher professional development in ICT, particularly for resource-constrained environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been widely recognised that plurilingual pedagogy offers many benefits both for language learning and learning in general. However, in contexts where the linguistic profile of students is diverse, it can still be challenging for teachers to view working with the language resources of their students as feasible. In this article, we discuss how engaging students in digital multimodal composing (DMC) can support teachers' uptake of plurilingual pedagogy. We draw on data collected from a design-based qualitative study that investigated the implementation of plurilingual pedagogy in primary classrooms in Australia. In this study, teachers engaged in professional learning on plurilingual strategies alongside digital multimodal composing. The study identified a number of affordances of digital multimodal composing that were particularly beneficial for inclusion of students' varying knowledge of language. They included (1) an aural mode of meaning-making, (2) a playful composing process and (3) a flexible interplay of languages and modes in digital texts. The article concludes by discussing approaches to the use of digital multimodal composing for plurilingual strategies in linguistically diverse settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing popularity of radical right, anti-immigrant, neo-nationalist movements can be seen as a response to super-diverse and complex migration and globalization processes challenging the ideology of the 'nation-state' and the traditional education system. Based on the question of how English is increasingly viewed as a threat to Swiss national languages and identities, this study presents data from Switzerland, often portrayed as the ideal multilingual country. Such a challenge was nevertheless confirmed through the qualitative analysis of 38 in-depth interviews conducted with students and teachers at three secondary schools in three language regions, policy makers, and open-ended questions from 94 student questionnaires. Language education policies have divided the educational landscape into certain regions prioritizing English over a national language and others adhering to the traditional curriculum. The data reveal strong ideological beliefs, lacking intranational communication, and personal as well as societal struggles of positioning based on linguistic competences, expectations, and policies. This article advocates for interdisciplinary approaches to (language) education as societies' and students' needs constantly evolve and calls on all learners' and educators' responsibility to counteract such movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empathy is a crucial component to infer and understand others' emotions. However, a synthesis of studies regarding empathy and its neuronal correlates in perceptual tasks using event-related potentials (ERPs) has yet to occur. The current systematic review aimed to provide that overview. Upon bibliographic research, 30 studies featuring empathy assessments and at least one perceptual task measuring ERP components in healthy participants were included. Four main focus categories were identified, as follows: Affective Pictures, Facial Stimuli, Mental States, and Social Language. The Late Positive Potential was the most analyzed in Affective Pictures and was reported to be positively correlated with cognitive and affective empathy, along with other late components. In contrast, for Facial Stimuli, early components presented significant correlations with empathy scales. Particularly, the N170 presented negative correlations with cognitive and affective empathy. Finally, augmented N400 was suggested to be associated with higher empathy scores in the Mental States and Social Language categories. These findings highlight the relevance of early perceptual stages of empathic processing and how different EEG/ERP methodologies provide relevant information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has suggested that Swedish higher education institutions' (HEIs') language policies may exclude some academic staff from work-related activities due to (dual) monolingual ideologies requiring one language at a time. This study, based on the analysis of twenty-one language policy texts, investigates HEIs' policies using a lens of inclusion at workplaces with linguistic diversity, drawing on concepts from diversity management and language policy for democracy of inclusion. All documents examined began with statements of HEIs' values relevant to the policies. Inclusion was seldom explicitly emphasized, although policies suggested ways to facilitate it. We argue that some of the approaches – namely, taking a top-down monolinguistic approach to language choice, requiring staff to be highly proficient in both Swedish and English, and offering unspecified language support – reinforce language-based in-groups and out-groups, likely compromising rather than facilitating inclusion. Another approach, emphasizing individuals' rights to choose what language they use, facilitates inclusion only if support is provided for everyone's understanding. Providing immediate language support and encouraging bottom-up, flexible language choice were less common approaches but seem particularly likely to facilitate inclusion. Our analysis suggests that policies prioritizing successful communication, not specific languages, facilitate inclusion and help employees develop job-related language and intercultural communicative competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers play an essential role in fostering linguistic security in their classrooms. The aim of this study is to identify the language ideologies articulated by teachers in the Francophone schools of the English-dominant context of British Columbia (Canada) in order to explore how the different practices they implement to foster the use of French in their multilingual classrooms and foster linguistic security may interact and expose contradictions. The findings are based on a thematic analysis of interviews with twenty-one French-speaking high school teachers. I argue that linguistic ideologies provide a useful locus for studying the tensions produced by institutional policies and practices and the possible impact on the students' feelings of linguistic insecurity. Building on excerpts from the interviews, the findings indicate that the practices the teachers use to implement the French-language policy in their classrooms must be examined further as they might be harming the efforts they are making to increase linguistic security. This paper is intended to contribute to the ongoing conversation about the practical process of engaging with linguistic insecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study examined the role of different languages used in the country in the lives of 12 participants from the four main ethnic groups of Sri Lanka (i.e., Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, and Burgher). It sought to understand how monolingual language policies have impacted upon the country's plurilingual language ecology. The study examined the language ideologies of participants to understand how structures of social power have worked through monolingual language policies to influence and shape their language behaviors and practices. While the impact that language policies have had on different Sri Lankan languages has been examined, no study has analyzed it through the point of view of language ideologies of actual speakers of different languages. The observations made by the participants show that the monolingual ideologies of the language policies of 1832 and 1956, by assigning sole official language status to English and Sinhala respectively, have caused them to gain dominance and diminished the status of other languages, thereby altering the plurilingual language ecology of Sri Lanka. Their observations also showed how the 1956 policy's establishment of Sinhala as the dominant language within the language ecology of the country had elevated the position of the majority community—the Sinhalese, and strengthened the power of the then government which had ridden into power through the Sinhalese majority vote. The analysis of data also indicated that, although the 1956 policy was implemented with the aim of dismantling the structures of power introduced during colonial rule, both policies have served to support and reinforce a social hierarchy based on a Western model. What the data revealed about the role that the two monolingual language policies of 1832 and 1956 seem to have played in establishing and reinforcing the dominance of Sinhala and English respectively, suggest that although political subjugation of the country by European powers has officially ended, Sri Lanka continues to operate within the structures of power established during colonial times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term repair refers to strategies deployed by language users to resolve breakdowns in communication. In this study, I ask what strategies for conversational repair are deployed, and who takes responsibility for their execution, when a language is used in a small local signing ecology. I focus on signers from a single family within a larger speech community that does not use a national signed language and analyze conversations from four dyads of signers who engaged in a director-matcher referential communication task. I find that for three of the four dyads, there is a preference for restricted repairs that closely matches studies of repair in other signed and spoken languages. I also find a strong connection between participant role and repair type—with matchers more likely to use other-initiated repairs while directors produced self-repairs. The findings from this study highlight the complex relationship between participant identities and pragmatic strategies and the complicated social function of different types of repair in interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature in the field of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is developing in Türkiye as well as over the world. However, theses and papers written in Turkish are waiting to be disseminated. This paper aims to investigate LSS in the Turkish context with the purpose of identifying the current state, gaining insight and exploring future directions. This paper implements the systematic literature review methodology to identify and review all relevant studies in Turkish literature. This paper covers the literature on LSS in Türkiye from 2004 to 2021. As a result, a total of 32 theses and 29 papers were investigated in detail. This paper not only focuses on years, sectors, areas etc. of the studies, but also analyses the contents of papers in relation to enterprise size, project prioritization, and quality tools used in DMAIC phases, and improvements after implementation in terms of descriptive and content analysis. The results show that, although there are many LSS implementations in Turkish context, they could not be shared with global academic area due to the national language usage. LSS implementations have an increasing trend in last years and highly focused on manufacturing sector and large companies. The lack of structured way of applying LSS, especially not using project prioritization and selection methodology takes attention. This paper shows the gaps and future directions in Türkiye for researchers and provides a groundwork to develop a roadmap for Turkish organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key points: Publish in English or perish is becoming a reality in many non‐Anglophone countries.Non‐Anglophone journals are facing a dilemma: losing appeal to authors/reviewers if published in local languages or losing linguistic/cultural identity if published in English.This article analyses language policies those journals may use and positions them on a capital‐identity matrix to highlight their advantages and disadvantages.The article elaborates on two emerging language policies (bilingual publishing and extended English summary), both helping preserve their identity and take advantage of the capital of the English language.The article provides insights into the pros and cons of different language policies and how to select policies that best support journal survival and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language policy studies must include family language policy. Chinese-relevant research needs improvement, but international-relevant research has matured. Nevertheless, the number of professionals such as Yuming Li and Curdt-Christiansen who are conducting research in this field is increasing. The Spolsky triple theoretical framework improves knowledge of family language policy and explains family language policy research. More international communication and population movements will complicate family language. Policy research will also generate new questions and findings. China's internal research mostly centers around challenges, study findings, and visual aspects, necessitating a comprehensive comprehension. This study uses 38 papers on family language policy research from 2016 to 2022 in the Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning (CJLPP), an authoritative Chinese journal. It does qualitative analysis to assess the status and progress of family language policy research in China. The research findings indicate that the focus of family language policy studies in journals has primarily centered around two specific themes during the period of 2017–2019. The family language policy study was imbalanced, homogenized, qualitative, and theme-based. Through statistics and analysis of family language policy publications in "Research on Language Strategy," this study summarizes existing research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thomas Babington Macaulay's 1835 minute on Indian education is widely held to be representative of the views which underpinned the English East India Company's replacement of Persian with English as the official language of administration in India in 1837, and the promotion of English and Indian vernacular languages as part of colonial educational policy. Yet, it is often overlooked that Macaulay failed to even mention Persian in his condemnation of "oriental learning", focusing his attention solely on the shortcomings of Sanskrit and Arabic. Macaulay's omission of Persian is telling: despite its centrality to Mughal rule and the political transactions of the East India Company alike, Persian did not fit easily into emergent colonial formulations regarding Indian languages and their relationships with particular locales, ethnicities and religions. Through an examination of colonial discussions regarding Indian education, this article argues that the complicated, often contradictory, status of Persian in educational discourse allowed the language to elude definitive categorisation and to survive in government schools and colleges during the nineteenth century. It further suggests that as multilingual cultures were formalised and reconfigured within the domain of colonial education, the continued presence of Persian alongside vernaculars such as Urdu, Hindi, and Bengali at colonial institutions both shaped – and disturbed – their identification as viable modern languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tima (ISO 639-3: tms) is a Niger-Congo language spoken by roughly 7,000 people in the Nuba mountains of Sudan, in north-eastern Africa, as well as in smaller communities in the bigger towns of Sudan such as Khartoum and Port Sudan. It is part of the Katla language group which includes the languages Katla and Julut as well as Tima, with Tima being the most distinct of the three. All three languages are regarded as endangered, mainly due to the spreading influence of Arabic in recent decades, but also due to greater speaker mobility. Broadly speaking, there is a decline in speaker fluency from older to younger speakers of Tima. The Tima people are not only exposed to Arabic as the lingua franca and official language of Sudan, but also to English and Kiswahili. These latter languages were introduced into the school system during the extremely difficult circumstances of the second civil war (1983–2005), when teachers from Kenya came to the Tima region (in addition, many Tima people went to Kenya for further education).1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a recognised need for stronger language skills in the United Kingdom which could be partly addressed by valuing and harnessing the home language skills of its population. One way in which these skills could be supported is through formal accreditation, an opportunity which is not consistently being offered to pupils who speak a language at home which differs from the classroom language. This article draws on data from focus groups with multilingual pupils, interviews with mainstream and complementary school staff, and information from university admissions teams to explore the experiences of these stakeholders regarding home language qualifications, the perceived value of qualifications, as well as barriers and opportunities with regard to language qualification uptake. We discuss actions that could support higher levels of uptake and offer three short-term feasible policy interventions which could make a positive contribution to support for home language skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role of development NGOs and the power dynamics that exist between educated consultants and rural communities. It highlights how NGOs often assume that the rural communities lack the ability to initiate social and economic change on their own. The article also explores the importance of language and translation in development endeavors, and how they can either facilitate or hinder communication between NGOs and local communities. The book provides empirical data on language and development, and offers recommendations for donors, NGO practitioners, and higher education institutions to promote inclusivity and multilingualism in development projects. [Extracted from the article]

With the rise in the number of international students (ISs) in many Asian universities, some recent research has investigated ISs' linguacultural experience in the new Asian educational hubs. Current research has shown that while English is used as the de facto academic lingua franca in many of these hubs, the local language of the host nation also plays critical roles in shaping ISs' social and academic interaction in multilingual Asian universities. Nevertheless, in most studies, ISs were generally positioned as a homogeneous group, dismissing the idiosyncrasies in their historical and sociocultural backgrounds. Informed by multilingualism [Kramsch, C. 2009. The Mmultilingual Ssubject. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press] and the theory of identity and investment (Darvin, R., and B. Norton. 2015. "Identity and a Model of Investment in Applied Linguistics." Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 35:36–56), this study adopted a qualitative case study methodology to investigate the multilingual development of a male, doctoral Vietnamese international student in a Taiwanese university where English and Chinese are the academic lingua francas. Data were collected through interviews, reflection journals, observation of social media posts, and relevant documents. Findings of the study illuminate how capital, ideologies, and identities worked in tandem to shape the participant's multilingual development in a Taiwanese university. These findings invite educators to challenge the hegemony of monolingualism and cultivate multilingual users in the globalized world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late 1980s, Taiwan has moved away from Mandarin-only language policy in favour of greater recognition of local Taiwanese languages as part of a greater localisation movement. While continuing to implement language policies aimed at promoting local Taiwanese languages, in December 2018, Taiwan announced intent to implement a bilingual language policy to incorporate English by 2030, titled Bilingual Nation. Applying Ball's (1993) policy as discourse framework, this paper endeavours to investigate the Bilingual Nation policy planning and rhetoric so as to shed light on Taiwan's official conceptualisation of national identity. The case study finds that English is the primary focus of Bilingual Nation policy documents and is relegated to the discursive arenas of internationalisation and global economic competition. English is rarely discussed in tandem with any other specific language or language category, with little consideration for the interaction of English and Taiwan's official national languages. In sum, Bilingual Nation acts as an affirmation of the current status quo in Taiwan's official conception of national identity: muddled, with the assumption of Mandarin at its centre. Questions remain for Bilingual Nation and its ability to push beyond a symbolic state effort for internationalisation or unproductive labours for international status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines L2 speakers' accent attitudes in relation to their linguistic profile and current practices, recruiting 107 multilingual postgraduate students of 34 different nationalities enrolled in leading research universities in Japan. The participants completed a survey regarding their perceptions of different English varieties in English as a lingua franca (ELF) contexts. Interviews were additionally conducted to solicit in-depth perspectives on their accent attitudes and contextual accent variation. Factor analysis of the survey data generally supported the thematic trends observed during the interviews, in which three-quarters of the interviewees expressed a wish to attain native-like English accents. However, those who aspire to native-like pronunciation do not necessarily maintain negative attitudes towards others who speak with foreign accents. Rather, they appear indifferent to others' accents and varieties of World Englishes, and they do not associate their accents with nationhood or cultural identity. Thematic analysis of the interview data revealed that participants' pressing need to sound native-like stems from not only pragmatic considerations such as better intelligibility but also their context specificities, which entail frequent high-stakes ELF interaction and arrangements for professional entry in the imminent future. These observations imply that a linguistic hierarchy still lingers in the World Englishes paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalisation has resulted in European families that have a variety of home languages, leading to the need for heritage language learning (HLL). The purpose of HLL is to ensure that in addition to learning the language of their schools, children with migrant backgrounds also maintain their heritage language (HL). Besides the 'regular' teaching, in many countries, there are usually voluntary, extra-curricular maintenance courses available for migrant children. The purpose of our study was to investigate the impact that HL teachers working in Finnish schools have on the process of learning HLs. The data were collected using a Likert-scale questionnaire (N = 25) and semi-structured interviews (N = 15) with HL teachers representing 24 different languages. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was conducted to check the survey construct validity. The statistical and qualitative analysis of the data indicated that HL teachers act as multilingual identity supporter, that is that they showed understanding of their students' multilingualism and were convinced about the positive impact of HL for students' future lives. Our study also reported on the challenges teachers face in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to identify factors associated with Vietnamese-Australian parents' language use and attitudes towards home language maintenance. Vietnamese-Australian parents (n = 151) with children aged under 18 completed a survey regarding demographic factors and factors conceptualised by Spolsky's language policy theory: language practices, language ideologies, and language management. Bivariate analyses and multiple regression models were conducted to explore associations between parents' language use and their attitudes towards home language maintenance and associated factors. Parents' language use with their child was significantly associated with their language practices (parents' language use in social situations). Parents' language use in social situations was significantly associated with language practices (parents' Vietnamese and English proficiency, parents' language use with their child), language management (frequency of attendance at community events), and one demographic factor (age). Parents' attitudes towards home language maintenance was significantly associated with language ideology factors (perceptions of cultural identity, belief in the importance of English language maintenance, belief that home language strengthens relative bonds and widens career options), and one demographic factor (income). The results can be used to assist families with Vietnamese heritage to maintain their home language by informing targeted approaches to supporting language maintenance at the community and family level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our preferences and evaluations are often affected by contextual factors. One unavoidable context is language. We used an evaluative conditioning (EC) paradigm (pairing neutral stimuli with emotional or neutral stimuli) to investigate whether our evaluations are equally conditioned in a first (L1) and a second language (L2). An EC effect was observed in both languages, however, if in L1 it occurred independently of recollection of the pairing of the stimuli, in second language memory seemed to play a larger role. These results were confirmed using a more implicit measure (memory confusion paradigm). Overall, the results suggest that conditioning occurs both in L1 and L2 but is weaker and more sensitive to memory of the emotional stimuli in L2. The study is the first demonstration that EC is modulated by language and converges with recent findings showing that linguistic context can modulate our behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine the linguistic and non-linguistic goals of the Southeast Asian languages (SEAL) policy in Taiwan. It was proposed by former President Ma Ying-jeou's administration to develop grades 1–12 students' multilingual awareness, for there has been an increasingly significant presence of second-generation Southeast Asian immigrants at school. Since current President Tsai In-Wen's first-term in 2016, the SEAL policy has been fuelled with an economic and sociopolitical agenda – the New Southbound Policy, the measure which is designed to advance the nation's prospects in Southeast Asia. This study applies Cooper's [1989. Language Planning and Social Change. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press] language policy as marketing and analyses the instrumentalist value of the SEAL. The Tsai government is conceptualised as a marketer; the SEAL are defined as the product; the Ministry of Education is assigned to the place as a hub which distributes the SEAL product to nationwide consumers; promotion piques the consumers' interest in SEAL learning; price is set by making one's profit gains larger than the sum of investment. The study concludes that the value of the SEAL product increases when its communication network is expanded from local immigrant communities and national school systems to an international business area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article responds to recent calls to investigate the role of agents and the connections between layers of agency in the development and implementation of language policy and planning (LPP). Using a corpus linguistic and discursive approach to language policy, we identify interventions made in plenary sessions by Secretary-Generals and Member States at the United Nations when discussing language issues over 46 years (1970-2016). The article identifies which individuals prioritise language issues and the change agents and/or (un)successful brokers in matters of LPP. Analysis reveals that language issues were discussed infrequently, suggesting benign neglect in matters of multilingualism: the silent majority were agentive in largely maintaining the status quo. However, in exploring power in discourse and power over discourse we were able to determine which interventions resulted in minor changes to policy and who were the powerful agents. The study points to the importance of using corpus-assisted methods in diachronic and synchronic studies of agency in LPP. Future research should explore networks of agents, using CL to investigate longitudinal trajectories of decision-making and policy change over time. Moreover, CL can usefully complement other approaches, (e.g. interviews and ethnography), to further explore the dialectic relationship between agency and structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language acquisition and Language Maintenance (LM) both depend on ample opportunity and motivation. Currently, many national language societies are undergoing Language Shift (LS) to English, impacting their acquisition as first (L1) and possibly even more as second (L2) language. This study interviewed 44 adolescents, including 24 L1 and 20 L2 speakers of Icelandic, on their views on the importance of Icelandic and English, whether Icelandic is hard to learn, and their future plans. Qualitative and quantitative results showed highly similar views and future plans across groups; both languages were considered important but for different purposes. However, L1 speakers were far more likely to think that Icelandic is hard to learn, and only L1 speakers attached cultural value to Icelandic. L1 speakers were more ambivalent than L2 speakers on whether immigrants should learn Icelandic. L2 students' ability to learn Icelandic appears impacted more by lack of opportunity than by lack of motivation. The study suggests that LS to English contributes to decreased opportunities to learn Icelandic as L2. It is further suggested that language policy in Iceland as well as international policy on which languages should be considered vulnerable due to a minority status need to be revisited in a globalised world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research applies interactional sociolinguistics within a family language policy framework to investigate how social structures and institutional discourses outside the home trickle into daily mundane activities within a Malay-English bilingual family in Singapore. Drawing upon ethnographic interviews and naturally-occurring interactions at home, the study examines the parents' reported linguistic ideologies and the 'practiced' family language policy. The analysis suggests that the family embraces language mixing in the family and reports making efforts to strike a balance between Malay and English at home as a way of raising the children bilingually. The analysis of familial interactions, however, shows that the parents' and children's language practices vary as certain frames are evoked in the conversation. The findings suggest that a better understanding of language maintenance and shift processes through family language policy research necessitates a nuanced examination of how languages are used to evoke, negotiate and establish certain frames during daily activities at home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a comprehensive exploration of Vietnamese surnames, with a specific focus on those attributed to the Kinh people, from an onomastic perspective. Beginning with a broad overview of general studies on Vietnamese names, the paper introduces the prevailing name structure, which follows the format [Surname + (Middle name) + Given name]. The study then delves into a careful examination of Vietnamese surnames, addressing key facets such as their origin, distinctive characteristics, quantity, and distribution. Notably, the article emphasizes the widespread usage of the Nguyễn surname, offering arguments and insights into its prevalence. Furthermore, the paper discusses the intricate nature of the meanings associated with Vietnamese surnames and highlights the legal considerations surrounding them. By combining historical context with cultural significance, the article aims to provide valuable insights into the complexities inherent in Vietnamese surnames. Ultimately, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the historical roots and cultural significance of Kinh group surnames within the broader context of Vietnamese onomastics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article Renata Love Jones and Patrick Proctor introduce the notion of pursuing language to engage in critical dialogue about the nature and focus of language and literacy education in multilingual and multicultural contexts. A persistent threat in language and literacy education is standardization that constrains how language and literacy are operationalized, which further limits how children can bring their unique communicative practices into schools and classrooms. In response, the authors describe pursuing language as a state of being responsive in our language and literacy instruction, with the goal of developing literacy skills through culturally affirming and anti-oppressive practices. They operationalize this pursuit of language in classroom contexts by delineating a framework of critical metalinguistic engagement. The article begins with a theory of languaging and goes on to unpack critical metalinguistic engagement by each of its component parts—critical, metalinguistic, and engagement—and concludes with an argument for being intentional about pursing language through relationships and dispositions that affirm language diversity in educational practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New York City offers an example of the national trend to expand dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs, yet only a small proportion of multilingual learners are enrolled in these programs in city schools. Our examination of new DLBE programs in three city schools builds on research about the "gentrification" of DLBE. Specifically, our findings show how school leaders opened DLBE programs to re-engineer the demographics of their student population by enrolling more White, privileged students in the name of "school turnaround"—namely, to increase enrollment and popularity in a school choice context and improve performance on accountability measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linguistic diversity at Czech schools has increased in the last decade, and it has become a new everyday reality. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of studies investigating lived experiences with managing multilingualism at schools. Our study examines schools as multilingual social spaces in which the visible language choice on signs reveals the language regime based on ideologies and policies. We contextualize our study according to top-down language policy, and the essential theoretical concepts such as social space or language regime are explained. The linguistic landscapes at schools (so-called schoolscapes) are analysed and interpreted to capture schools as multilingual social spaces. The focus lies on (1) displayed languages; (2) authorship of the object: (3) location of the object. The data from schoolscaping are complemented by interviews with school principals, who are responsible for language choice decisions. The investigation took place in four schools, where multilingualism plays an essential role. The results indicate that despite the multilingual reality and the promotion of multilingualism by anchoring it in the agenda of inclusive education, language homogenization is operative in schools. Our results are relevant for exploring the linguistic environments and language regimes at schools and reveal possible explanations for linguistic homogenization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the concept of family language policy (FLP), this paper reports on how four Chinese–English interlingual families maintain the minority language of Chinese with their preteenager children in Australia. The study takes an integrative approach to explore both parents' and children's perspectives on language development. While highlighting the increasing role that preteenagers play in the maintenance of a minor heritage language, the findings reveal that successful language maintenance in interlingual families is influenced by many other interacting factors, like language practice, attitude and support from each parent, language status, and the role of community schools. The study has clear implications for bilingual parenting and heritage language education in terms of the importance of a consistent FLP, preteenagers' self-efficacy, and actual language use in language maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores the factors contributing to information sensitivity in debt markets, focusing on the potential influences of uncertainty, economic performance, and journalist-dependent language. Building upon the foundational work of Dang et al. (Ignorance, debt and financial crises. Yale University Unpublished Working Paper, 2018), we analyze the mechanisms underlying the transition from information-insensitive to information-sensitive states—a shift with implications for potential financial crises. Leveraging machine learning techniques and daily data on variables such as default probability, information acquisition, and newspaper articles, we discern specific narrative triggers embedded within the news. Our analysis underscores the pivotal role of economic states and journalist language in inducing information sensitivity—a phenomenon intricately tied to different psychological thinking processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This participatory action research project conducted through the USAID-funded Transforming Teacher Education activity examined how two pre-service teacher education programs in Zambia prepared teachers for primary reading instruction. College and university lecturers and in-service primary grade teachers participated in focus groups and interviews. We identified gaps between training and practice within the framework of Zambia's language of instruction policy. We find that pre-service teacher preparation was generally theoretical and not practical. Opportunities for practice were limited, leading to teachers lacking required competencies and using outdated approaches in schools. We suggest strategies to improve the alignment of pre-service teacher education and classroom instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the use of translanguaging in the assessment of content subjects in the context of Nepal's higher education. Since its proposition in the 1990s, translanguaging has been receiving much scholarly attention in multilingual educational contexts. In such contexts, individuals' language practices show a shift from the understanding of languages as separate autonomous systems to the recognition of integrated and heteroglossic practices. Drawing on the analysis of relevant policy documents and examinees' answer sheets of formative assessment, and interviews with eight purposively selected teacher educators teaching at the master's level at a university in Nepal, this paper reports that examinees' translanguaging practices in responding to assessment questions exhibit their translanguaging instinct resisting unplanned English-prioritised monolingual policies. It also reveals fluidity and simultaneity in examinees' use of diverse linguistic resources defying demarcated language boundaries as aspired by the institution's English-prioritised policies. The study further reports layered translanguaging exercised by examinees which educators acknowledged as an attempt to enhance efficacy in content communication. Examinees' translanguaging practices and educators' acknowledgment of translanguaged writing indicate collective resistance from the bottom-up countering monoglossic ideologies in assessment systems. This implies consideration of examinees' and educators' roles in promoting translanguaging for future language policy changes to facilitate effective assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research, conducted at a major university in Tanzania, investigated the personal experiences of multilingual students vis-à-vis the government's language policy requiring Swahili as the language of instruction (LoI) at the primary level and English at the secondary level. The participants, who spoke 25 different languages as their L1, were placed into 49 different language groups and asked to write what they remembered about the language policy where they attended school. The data show that Gramsci's cultural hegemony is occurring in Tanzania. The 'common sense' is that people truly believe English is symbolic of prestige and power–even though few people know it or use it. The parents insist that their children be taught in English (consensus), and the schools strictly enforce the language policy (coercion). As subalterns, the students in this research reported that they did acquire Swahili, but they also wrote about not knowing the LoI when they began school; undergoing inordinate physical and psychological punishment; feeling their L1s were stigmatized; and learning little English–or any other subject. Thus, the elites of the country have been trying to impose a European language on the citizens–in lieu of an educated, multilingual, African nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]