Language Policy and Language Acquisition Planning

In the sociopolitics of language, sometimes yesterday’s solution is tomorrow’s problem.  This volume examines the evolving nature of language acquisition planning through a collection of papers that consider how decisions about language learning and teaching are mediated by a confluence of psychological, ideological, and historical forces.  The first two parts of the volume feature empirical studies of formal and informal education across the lifespan and around the globe.  Case studies map the agents, resources, and attitudes needed for creating moments and spaces for language learning that may, at times, collide with wider beliefs and policies that privilege some languages over others.  The third part of the volume is devoted to conceptual contributions that take up theoretical issues related to epistemological and conceptual challenges for language acquisition planning.  These contributions reflect on the full spectrum of social and cognitive factors that intersect with the planning of language teaching and learning including ethnic and racial power relations, historically situated political systems, language ideologies, community language socialization, relationships among stakeholders in communities and schools, interpersonal interaction, and intrapersonal development.  In all, the volume demonstrates the multifaceted and socially situated nature of language acquisition planning.

• language education policy
• language acquisition planning
• language acquisition in educational settings
• plurilingual society
• monolingual ideals
• sociolinguistic research
• multilingualism and language learning
• consultancy for public policy
• complexity theory in applied linguistics
• second and foreign language learners
• TESOL

“As researchers, our explorations of LAP practices and discourses at the crossroads of other language planning activities, in additional geographical contexts and multilingual ecologies, focusing on a broader range of language learners, and making use of a diverse toolkit of research methodologies can also find much inspiration in this volume.” (Frances Kvietok Dueñas, Language Policy, Vol. 19, 2020)

• Center of Multilingualism in Society, University of Oslo Center of Multilingualism in Society, Blindern, Norway

  Maarja Siiner

• Centre for Languages & Literature, Lund University Centre for Languages & Literature, Lund, Sweden

  Francis M. Hult

• Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaft, University of Konstanz Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaft, Konstanz, Germany

  Tanja Kupisch

Policies and ethics