This new edition of takes a fresh look at enduring questions at the heart of fundamental debates about the role of schools in society, the links between education and employment, and conflicts between linguistic minorities and "mainstream" populations.

The articles in this volume commemorate A. Ronald Watson, a member of the National Foreign Language Center in Washington. They focus on two topics - foreign language policy and pedagogy. Many of the articles reflect Walton's interest in the teaching of non-western European languages.

This volume covers basic fields of Sociolinguistics and the Sociology of Language; both macro- and micro-domains are presented in the fields of language teaching, minority languages, and problems of language acquisition as well as practical issues of curricula planning and textbook writing. This book addresses students and scholars in the social sciences as well as public officials in education, language teachers and textbook writers.

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.

This work provides a knowledge base for those addressing the first, second or foreign language problems of schools in pluralist modern societies. It gives international examples of language policies already in action in primary and secondary schools.

In this memorial volume for A. Ronald Walton, cutting-edge scholars interrelate two normally separate domains: the formation of language policy and the improvement of language teaching. Bernard Spolsky, Elana Shohamy, Joshua Fishman, and Kees de Bot address theoretical aspects of national language policy. John Trim relates the historical development of the Council of Europe’s international language policy. Richard Lambert, Ronald Walton, Richard Brecht, and Xueying Wang deal with structural issues in language instruction in the United States. Eleanor Jorden, Galal Walker, Myriam Met, and Gilbert Merkx discuss the special problems of providing instruction in the non-Western languages. And Michael Long, Ross Steele, Ralph Ginsberg and Laura Miller are concerned with specific pedagogical issues: task-based language teaching, the role of culture in language instruction, and what is learned during study abroad. These articles stand both as definitive statements on their individual topics and, taken together, as a fresh amalgamation of policy and pedagogy.

This volume offers comprehensive 'state-of-the-art' overviews of educational policies concerning the teaching of English in a large number of Asian countries. Each contribution is written by a leading expert and gives a clear assessment of current policies and future trends. Starting with a description of the English education policies in the respective countries, the contributors then delve into the 'nuts and bolts' of the English education policies and how they play out in practice in the education system, in schools, in the curriculum, and in teaching. Topics covered include the balance between the acquisition of English and the national language, political, cultural, economic and technical factors that strengthen or weaken the learning of English.

In foreign language education, decisions must be taken on what languages to teach, who will teach them, in which schools (i.e. all, only urban, only rural), in which grades, the number of hours a week, and the cost involved. This book explores the answers to these questions across a number of Asian polities. It illustrates why some of the efforts undertaken are successful and why some are not, why – despite significant investments of time and resources – some students do not seem to acquire the languages being taught, and why some teachers responsible for instruction in the designated foreign languages have problems achieving fluency in the designated language or have other language teaching difficulties. It suggests some strategies various polities might attempt to achieve their stated language learning objectives. This book was originally published as a special issue of Current Issues in Language Planning.

In South Asia, English is the major link language for people from diverse linguistic backgrounds. With globalisation and the subsequent rise in the demand of English, almost all South Asian countries are in the process of introducing English at the early school level. This widens the scope of investigating into the national policies regarding English and probing the status of English language in relation to pedagogy in the countries of the South Asian region. "English Language Education in South Asia" provides a strong foundation for scholarly work on ELE in South Asia. The volume contains compilation of scholarly and investigative essays, especially written for this volume, by some of the most prominent and emerging scholars of English language education in South Asia. The chapters provide up-to-date information on the politics, policy, theory and practice of ELE in seven countries of South Asia - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The volume, divided into three sections - Policy, Pedagogy and Politics of Pedagogy - investigates how the socio-economic, local and global language politics shape the ELE in South Asia. It also addresses the theoretical as well as practical issues of classroom procedures, teacher preparation programmes, resource management, examinations, educational constraints and limitations.

With contributions from leading scholars all around the world, this volume underlines the ever-pressing need for new language in education policies to include all learners’ voices in the multilingual classroom and to empower teachers to develop responsive and transformative pedagogies. Using testimonies, narratives and examples from different international contexts, this book points clearly to what can be achieved practically in the multilingual classroom so that multilingual learners’ voices are legitimated, while also addressing the complex inter-relating sociolinguistic issues around the promotion of bilingualism and multilingualism in education.