By looking closely at the multilingual democracies of India, France and the USA, Harold F. Schiffman examines how language policy is primarily a social construct based on belief systems, attitudes and myths. Linguistic Culture and Language Policy exposes language policy as culture-specific, helping us to understand why language policies evolve the way they do; why they work, or not; and how people's lives are affected by them. These issues will be of specific interest to linguists specialising in multilingual/multicultural societies, bilingual educationalists, curriculum planners and teachers.

By looking closely at the multilingual democracies of India, France and the USA, Harold F. Schiffman examines how language policy is primarily a social construct based on belief systems, attitudes and myths. Linguistic Culture and Language Policy exposes language policy as culture-specific, helping us to understand why language policies evolve the way they do; why they work, or not; and how people's lives are affected by them. These issues will be of specific interest to linguists specialising in multilingual/multicultural societies, bilingual educationalists, curriculum planners and teachers.

Bringing together scholarship on issues relating to language, culture, and identity, with a special focus on Asian countries, this volume makes an important contribution in terms of analyzing and demonstrating how language is closely linked with crucial social, political, and economic forces, particularly the tensions between the demands of globalization and local identity. A particular feature is the inclusion of countries that have been under-represented in the research literature, such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Pakistan, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Korea. The book is organized in three sections: Globalization and its Impact on Language Policies, Culture, and Identity Language Policy and the Social (Re)construction of National Cultural Identity Language Policy and Language Politics: The Role of English. Unique in its attention to how the domination of English is being addressed in relation to cultural values and identity by non-English speaking countries in a range of sociopolitical contexts, this volume will help readers to understand the impact of globalization on non-English speaking countries, particularly developing countries, which differ significantly from contexts in the West in their cultural orientations and the way identities are being constructed. Language Policy, Culture, and Identity in Asian Contexts will interest scholars and research students in the areas of language policy, education, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, and critical linguistics. It can be adopted in graduate and advanced undergraduate courses on language policy, language in society, and language education.

An Introduction to Language Policy: Theories and Method is a collection of newly-written chapters that cover the major theories and methods currently employed by scholars active in the field. provides an accessible introduction to the study of language policy research and language’s role in social life consists of newly commissioned essays written by internationally recognized scholars helps define and describe a growing field of inquiry and is an authoritative source for students, scholars and researchers in linguistics, applied linguistics, education, policy studies and related areas includes section overviews, annotated chapter bibliographies, and discussion questions

In the third part some practical issues are raised by looking into the role of language and culture in teaching reading, foreign language policy in higher education, Hawaiian language regenesis, and gender neutralization in American English."--BOOK JACKET.

Engaged Language Policy and Practices re-envisions language policy and planning as an engaged approach, drawing on and portraying theoretical and educational equity perspectives. It calls for the right to language policy-making in which all concerned—communities, parents, students, educators, and advocates—collectively imagine new strategies for resisting global neoliberal marginalization of home languages and cultural identities. This book subsequently emphasizes the means by which engaged dialectic processes can inform and clarify language policy-making decisions that promote equity. In other words, rather than descriptions of outcomes, the authors emphasize the need to detail the means by which local/regional actors resist and transform inequitable policies. These descriptions of processes thereby provide all actors with ideological, pedagogical, and equity policy tools that can inform situated school and community policy-making. This book depicts ways in which engaged language policy embodies the intersection of critical inquiry, participant involvement, and ongoing engaged language planning processes. It further offers an alternative to the traditional top-down approach to language education policy-making. Engaged Language Policy and Practices is essential reading for scholars, teachers, students, communities, and others concerned with worldwide language and identity equity.