Language Policy in Education: Practices, Ideology, and Management

Abstract

By the middle of the twentieth century, the field of language education had moved from suggesting new methods to considering the implications of linguistics and in particular psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics to the task of developing proficiency in additional languages. Later developments in language policy, considering not just actual language practices and ideologies but also attempts to manage the practices and ideologies of others, provided a new focus by making clear the basic importance of family language policy and the complexity of agencies attempting to manage school language policies. Within the many communities that make up modern nations, ideologies concerning the relation between language and identity and religious beliefs have been recognized as major motivations. The realization that there are many putative managers, individuals, and agencies at all levels from family and nation and beyond (e.g., human rights, globalization) has made clear the complexity of negotiating an agreed language education policy and the difficulty of dealing with status and corpus problems. Part of the gap has been filled by the growth of a neighboring field of educational linguistics. But in spite of the growing evidence-based knowledge about language education, implementation of such obvious principles as teaching in a language the pupils understand continues to be blocked by ignorance and inertia.