Capturing the dynamism of Canadian language policies, the essays in this volume analyze and compare the effects, histories, and features of language policies as they have been enacted and implemented by Canadian provincial and federal governments. The contributors' comparisons reveal significant domestic and international implications for language policy. An important study of a social and political issue that has immediate local, national, and international consequences, Canadian Language Policies in Comparative Perspective assembles knowledgeable authorities on language policy to provide a comprehensive synthesis of its consequences.

This book presents an in-depth study of the language policies present in the Canadian province of Quebec, and considers them from a comparative perspective, with special focus on Singapore and Wales. In so doing, it uses a mix of methods to look at the effects of language planning on language use: questionnaires, linguistic landscapes (visible language in public space), ethnography, and psycholinguistic experiments. Besides offering background information on Canada and Quebec, the comparative element uses data from Singapore and Wales to shine a new light on how language is managed in Quebec.

This volume compiles a unique yet complementary collection of chapters that take a strategic comparative perspective on education systems, regions of the world, and/or ethnolinguistic communities with a focus on non-dominant languages and cultures in education. Comparison and contrast within each article and across articles illustrates the potential for using home languages – which in many cases are in non-dominant positions relative to other languages in society – in inclusive multilingual and multicultural forms of education. The 22 authors demonstrate how bringing non-dominant languages and cultures into schooling has liberatory, transformative potential for learners from ethnolinguistic communities that have previously been excluded from access to quality basic education. The authors deal not only with educational development in specific low-income and emerging countries in Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, the Philippines Thailand and Vietnam), Latin America (Guatemala and Mexico) and Africa (Mozambique, Senegal and Tanzania), but also with efforts to reach marginalized ethnolinguistic communities in high-income North American countries (Canada and the USA). In the introductory chapter the editors highlight common and cross-cutting themes and propose appropriate, sometimes new terminology for the discussion of linguistic and cultural issues in education, particularly in low-income multilingual countries. Likewise, using examples from additional countries and contexts, the three final chapters address cross-cutting issues related to language and culture in educational research and development. The authors and editors of this volume share a common commitment to comparativism in their methods and analysis, and aim to contribute to more inclusive and relevant education for all. “A richly textured collection which offers a powerful vision of the possible, now and in the future.” Alamin Mazrui, Rutgers State University of New Jersey, USA “This book takes the local perspective of non-dominant language communities in arguing for a multilingual habitus in educational development. Benson and Kosonen masterfully extend theories and clarify terminology that is inclusive of the non-dominant contexts described here.” Ofelia García, City University of New York, USA

Language policies impact language choice, language prestige, and language spread. Rising regional integration, both formal and informal, adds to the sensitivity and complexity of language politics, whether in North America, South America or Europe. This book shows how language politics vary across the Americas and contrast with Europe.

In a world where higher education is increasingly internationalised, questions of language use and multilingualism are central to the ways in which universities function in teaching, research and administration. Contemporary universities find themselves in complex linguistic environments that may include national level language policies, local linguistic diversity, an internationalised student body, increasing international collaboration in research, and increased demand for the use and learning of international languages, especially English. The book presents a critical analysis of how universities are responding these complexities in different contexts around the world. The contributions show that language issues in universities are complex and often contested as universities try to negotiate the national and the international in their work. In some contexts, universities’ language policies and the ways in which they are implemented may have a negative impact on their ways of working. In other contexts, however, universities have embraced multilingualism in ways that have opened up new academic possibilities for staff and students. Collectively, the chapters show that universities’ language policy and planning are a work in progress and that much further work is needed for universities to achieve their language goals. This book was originally published as a special issue of Current Issues in Language Planning.

Tensions and conflicts related to linguistic identity and security are inevitable - even necessary - in liberal democracies. However, if conflicts related to language and identity negatively impact democratic participation, and lead to social fragmentation, civic withdrawal, and lack of trust in societal institutions, then the political system itself may become suspect and unstable. Written by experts from the fields of sociolinguistics, bilingual studies, political science/philosophy, and education, this volume provides a comprehensive picture of the current political, cultural and social factors impacting language policy in the United States and Canada. The chapters cover many aspects of social life in North America, such as immigration, bilingual education, heritage languages, and linguistic identity, and explore the challenges and set-backs, along with the many positive steps taken in recent years to advance the values of inclusion amidst diversity in a variety of contexts and domains in the United States and Canada.

Cultural and linguistic diversity and plurality are seen as markers of our time, linked to discourses about citizenship and cosmopolitanism in the context of economic globalization in the late twentieth century. It is often monolingualism, however, that informs understanding and policies regulating the relationship between languages, nations, and communities. Grounded by the idea of language as lived experience, Negotiating Linguistic Plurality assumes linguistic plurality to be a continuing human condition and offers a novel transnational and comparative perspective on it. The essays featured cover concepts and praxis in which linguistic plurality surfaces in the public sphere through institutional and individual practices. The collection adopts a critical view of language policies and foregrounds distances and dissonances between policy and language practices by presenting lived experiences of multilingualism. Translation, seen as constitutive to the relations inherent to linguistic plurality, is at the core of the volume. Contributors explore a range of social and institutional aspects of the relationship between translation and linguistic plurality, foregrounding less documented experiences and minoritized practices. Presenting knowledge that spans regions, languages, and territories, Negotiating Linguistic Plurality is a thoughtful consideration of what constitutes language plurality: what its limits are, as well as its possibilities.