ABSTRACT The integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) within education technology (EDTech) aims to transform Singapore into a global hub for GenAI by 2030. This means that schools, including postsecondary and higher institutions, must support this shift, and teachers must become key facilitators in transferring these new experiences to their students. Using Bourdieu’s Capital Theory, this chapter article discusses how the shift towards GenAI-infused teaching will revolutionise the education landscape, particularly in the teaching and learning of English, and improve enhance Singapore’s human capital, including international students living in Singapore, at the macro level. However, given the varying levels of English-language competency among students from different socioeconomic backgrounds and countries, this shift could lead to more significant social inequalities and stratification, as GenAI could act as both a leveller and a limiter. This paper article highlights that while GenAI empowers the education landscape and becomes a ‘non-human’ actor in this transformative journey, AI-empowered teachers become critical for effective language acquisition, as traditional teaching ensures not only personalised learning and a contextualised understanding of English but also acts as a social leveller.

ABSTRACT Language-in-education policy is a powerful space where linguistic hierarchies are negotiated, political power is (re)distributed, and cultural identities are affirmed or marginalized. In postcolonial contexts, the medium of instruction (MOI) operates not merely as a pedagogical tool but as a political instrument that often carries colonial legacies. While empirical studies have examined MOI and related language-in-education decisions, the field lacks a comprehensive, systematic mapping of its scholarly discourse, particularly from a critical postcolonial perspective. This study addresses this gap through a bibliometric analysis of 420 Scopus-indexed publications on language-in-education policy research in postcolonial settings. Data were analyzed using the Bibliometrix package for R (via Biblioshiny) and Bibliomajika, combining descriptive performance indicators with advanced co-word techniques: trend topic analysis, thematic mapping, and conceptual structure mapping. Findings show uneven growth patterns, Global North institutional and journal dominance, and thematic disparities favoring English-medium over indigenous language perspectives. The analysis also identifies under-theorized and emergent research areas, including community-led language planning and multilingual pedagogies in marginalized regions. By situating bibliometric findings within a decolonial framework, this study highlights epistemic inequities in the production of language-in-education knowledge and offers an agenda for more context-responsive scholarship.

ABSTRACT Peru’s constitution recognizes its multicultural identity, yet most of its 48 indigenous languages face extinction. This paper shifts from a static diagnosis of language condition to a dynamic SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the revitalization process itself – the machinery of policies and programs designed to reverse language shift. We argue the state-led apparatus is systemically failing. Strengths like a robust legal framework and grassroots digital activism are neutralized by weaknesses such as chronic budget gaps and a crisis in Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE). Opportunities from international models and economic synergies are counteracted by threats like structural discrimination and political instability. The paper proposes a strategic framework for the State, educational institutions, and the private sector to bridge the gap between top-down policy and bottom-up vitality, transforming symbolic multiculturalism into substantive intercultural citizenship and linguistic justice.

ABSTRACT The actors and decision-making processes that shape integration language testing policies remain under-explored. To help address this research gap, the present study draws on elite interviews with top-level bureaucrats and politicians to examine policy changes introducing a compulsory language test for integration in Flanders. Using the Multiple Streams Framework for analysis we highlight how the newly elected Minister of Integration succeeded in elevating language tests on the policy agenda as a solution that would address bureaucratic inconsistencies and the integration of migrants in the labor market. The analysis highlights how the solution was valued for its symbolic function as a motivational tool as well as for its practical utility. We also demonstrate how the approved policy received opposition that threatened to derail the policy implementation process. This study contributes to research on language integration policies by providing a rare look at a full policy cycle and policy dynamics across actors and stages.

ABSTRACT Our paper discusses language questions in censuses as enactments of ideologies which both reflect, and shape, language policies in two nation states in Europe: Latvia and Germany. Both countries largely base their identities on a unifying national language - Latvian and German, respectively. At the same time, both countries display fundamentally different practices regarding active language policy and management, with Latvia having a strong language policy tradition, whereas Germany does not conduct coherent overt language policies. In this vein, the paper first provides an overview of the development of language questions in the censuses of Latvia and Germany under different political constellations since the first censues took place in the nineteenth century. We then discuss language ideologies in most recent census-type investigations in both countries. In this, we focus on the distinction between monolingual state policies and multilingual realities, and on the relation between languages and ethnic affiliation in shaping and analysing censuses. This relates both to migration-induced multilingualism (regarding, e.g. Russian in Latvia and Turkish in Germany), and to the presence of autochthonous or regional languages such as Latgalian and Low German. Thereby, we hope to raise awareness about language policy implications of language censuses in countries where nation-state ideologies are met by far more multilingual realities.

ABSTRACT This study presents a general picture of constitutional language legislation worldwide by collecting the language-related articles in the current constitutions of 183 countries and adopting the policy approach from the framework for language planning goals. The analysis reveals that status planning is the most prevalent, generally focusing on language designation and protection of language use. The designation of official languages and working languages usually highlights the pragmatic values of languages, while the designation of national languages highlights their symbolic values. Regarding language use protection, constitutional language legislation protects individual rights to use any language freely, and protects group language use through regional autonomy and devolution. Prestige planning is also frequently mentioned in the collected constitutions. Although it emphasizes language equality, there is often an implicit preference for specific languages. Acquisition planning, which primarily relates to access policy and language of instruction, features much less heavily in the constitutions. Corpus planning is the least common and often assigns linguistic obligations to language committees or academic departments. These findings reveal the soft-law features of constitutional language legislation, characterized by promulgating articles that are not legally binding, flexibly designating languages, and assigning linguistic obligations to relevant institutions.

ABSTRACT The standardization of the national language has been a long-standing policy in China. Although many studies describe this policy, few have examined its significance using large-scale census data. To explore the socio-economic factors associated with this language policy, this study utilizes data from the 2016 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). We investigated the choice of residents between Putonghua and local dialects during interviews in 1,233 cities and examined its association with 10 socioeconomic factors. The findings reveal that: (1) language choice correlates with immigrants’ length of residence; (2) Putonghua use is positively associated with higher socio-economic status; and (3) dialect use correlates with greater neighborhood intimacy. These results illuminate the patterns of language use among urban residents and the complex socio-economic factors involved, shedding light on the implications of the decades-long promotion of Putonghua. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the feasibility of using probit regression models with large-scale census data for multifactorial exploration.

ABSTRACT This study examines Saudi Arabia’s strategy for promoting the Arabic language globally through the lens of comparative language policies and soft power. It utilises a triangulated methodology combining content analysis of policy documents and media, elite interviews with language-policy experts, and review of international language-promotion frameworks. In comparing Saudi Arabia’s investments with those of leading cultural powers (e.g. the UK’s British Council, France’s Alliance Française, Spain’s Instituto Cervantes, Germany’s Goethe-Institut), we find that Saudi efforts centre on high-profile cultural diplomacy and UNESCO partnerships rather than a global institute network. Saudi Arabia’s financial and institutional commitments (e.g. UNESCO’s Prince Sultan Programme) are substantial but lack the systematic execution of older models. In the soft-power domain, Saudi cultural production (heritage, media, and digital outreach) offers potential yet faces gaps in global reach and stereotypes (such as associating Arabic with regional conflicts). Geopolitically, Arab countries’ emerging opportunities (in Africa, Asia, and multilateral fora) are counterbalanced by divisive regional conflicts. Ultimately, the analysis indicates that while Saudi Arabia is increasingly leveraging language as soft power, its global Arabic-promotion strategy remains in development, requiring enhanced coordination and content innovation.

ABSTRACT This study investigates the family language policy of a multilingual Tibetan family across three generations in Ganzi, Sichuan, China. Employing Spolsky’s (2004) tripartite framework and Hornberger’s (2012) spectrum-based conceptualisation of language shift, the research reveals how language practices, ideologies, and management strategies dynamically interact within the family domain. Drawing on interviews, linguistic landscape analysis, and immersive observations, the findings document a transition from monolingualism to balanced Tibetan-Chinese bilingualism among third-generation siblings, with Tibetan maintaining strong vitality. This linguistic achievement can be attributed to family emphasis on Tibetan language maintenance, religious promotion, and established formal bilingual education. However, potential trajectories for language shift emerge in two areas: while Tibetan remains dominant in domestic contexts, Chinese has become the regional lingua franca for community interaction; additionally, an ideology favoring language standardisation, while not yet threatening Tibetan’s status, has contributed to the decline of smaller language varieties like Muya (木雅) and Sichuan dialect in this family. The study offers a richly textured, empirically-based portrait of sociolinguistic dynamics in this multi-ethnolinguistic context.

ABSTRACT This study investigates how meso-level structures for Languages Other Than English (LOTE) education are formed, constructed, and mediated within Chinese higher education. While national policies increasingly advocate for multilingual capacity, LOTE programmes remain marginalised and unevenly supported across institutions. Drawing on a multiple-case qualitative design and reflexive thematic analysis of 21 interviews and 17 institutional documents, the study explores the dynamics of meso-level policy processes. Findings reveal that meso-level structures are discursively aligned with national policy rhetoric yet shaped by diverse stakeholder interests; they are institutionally embedded but often constructed through ad-hoc negotiation; and they mediate between macro policy and micro practice via discursive self-justification. These dynamics are conceptualised through the lens of endogenous policy, a theoretical construct adapted from Hayek’s notion of endogenous money. Endogenous policy refers to policy processes generated internally within a closed network of institutional actors, rather than imposed hierarchically from above. The study contributes to language policy and planning scholarship by advancing a structural understanding of meso-level agency and by reframing policy enactment as a negotiated, internally sustained process. Practical implications include recognising the complexity of institutional mediation and designing policy interventions in systems where policy is centrally framed but locally enacted.