ABSTRACT The adoption of English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education has gained popularity in China's tertiary education as a result of globalization. International students in Chinese universities are celebrated as part of soft power projection to extend China's global impact. Informed by Piller and Cho's concept of “Neoliberalism as language policy” (2013) and Collins' “social reproduction theory” (2009, 2012), this study attempts to explore the EMI learning experiences of a cohort of international students at a border university in China. The policy documents, in-depth interviews, classroom observation, reflective journals and online interactions converge to reveal that, international students in EMI programmes experience exclusion and inequality despite the welcoming discourses of diversity. The paper highlights the necessity to pay attention to the ways in which higher education institutions reproduce inequalities of social stratification of international students through explicit and implicit institutional practices. It is argued that EMI policy in China's peripheral regions targeting international students from less-developed countries tends to perpetuate and accentuate educational inequalities. The study sheds light on a more inclusive pedagogical approach to alleviating international students' marginalisation and educating students of diverse linguistic, cultural, socioeconomic backgrounds for global citizenship in the context of China's Belt and Road Initiative.

ABSTRACT The teaching of native languages is seen as being key to the development of cognitive skills, better academic performance in early grades and a resource for linguistic (re)vitalization and cultural revival. This study examines the institutional challenges in teaching and learning native languages in Pakistan. The study uses teachers’ agency through the public sphere paradigm as a theoretical framework to investigate the concerns and opinions of teachers and their agency regarding the challenges to native languages policy. The majority of teachers overwhelmingly support native languages, and endorse their importance in education, particularly in the development of cognitive skills and better academic performance. However, several institutional challenges hold back the teaching of native languages in public schools in Pakistan. The participants argue that native languages need an effective language-in-education policy. In addition, students, teachers and parents are not likely to deem native languages as resources until they gain some economic value. The study suggests that the current policy regarding native languages should be reviewed and refashioned considering their importance to students’ academic performance. Further, a dynamic policy-making mechanism is proposed where stakeholders at every level are able to coordinate in policy formulation and its effective implementation.

ABSTRACT The present study provides an insight into foreign language policy endeavour in Algeria. It responds to the concept of an English ‘tidal wave’ (Spolsky [2004]. Language policy. Cambridge University Press), and uses Spolsky’s ([2009]. Language management. Cambridge University Press) social approach and Djité’s ([1994]. From language policy to language planning. National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia) definition of language policy. The study is a qualitative research which relies on the contribution of 20 Algerian university students who are affiliated with eight Algerian universities, and on the researchers’ observations, social media pictures, videos, social media comments, and news outlet reports. The study concludes that there is a ‘seismic wave’ of English language (in terms of beliefs, practices and demands) amid the smile revolution protests (hirak) that will give rise to a future tidal wave of English based on the bottom-up involvement of participants in the policy-making process.

ABSTRACT This study examines how China’s LOTE (languages other than English) students perceive English and their target languages as different types of linguistic capital with different values, and how they exercise their agency as micro level LPP (language planning and policy) actors in language learning. Data were gathered from in-depth interviews with 35 university students (including Hindi, Persian and Thai learners) and analysed through the lens of individual agency in language planning and policy, as well as the Bourdieusian constructs of linguistic capital and the linguistic market. The findings reveal that English is regarded as a requisite, while LOTE(s) is/are perceived as a plus by LOTE learners. It was also found that English learning seems to be a default choice among LOTE learners, while LOTE learning is more often an extra choice in their language learning investment. Such findings have a counter-intuitive implication, namely that without recognizing the role of LOTE learners as micro LPP agents and the gap between the individual needs of career development and the macro and meso level demands for high-level multilingual personnel, LOTE education planning and policy may contribute to the English domination over LOTE(s) rather than enhancing (supra-)national linguistic capacity and multilingual and multicultural diversity.

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the language ideologies held by a group of international students in an English medium instruction (EMI) university in multilingual Hong Kong. The findings indicate that the participants’ beliefs about English extend beyond its role as an instructional medium and encompass its use as a lingua franca and as a means of social inclusion. It is also found that the participants hold complex yet sometimes contradictory ideologies about the kinds of English to be used and/or accepted and about the monolingual and multilingual uses of English in the EMI university context. Taken together, the study suggests that the participants’ ideologies with respect to the roles of English and the norms of English use in the EMI university context are much more complex than what language policy from above suggests. The findings also reveal the ideological tensions over the norms of English use in the EMI university context and the closely intertwined relationship between the participants’ language ideologies and the maintenance of their interests, especially in relation to access to learning opportunities in the classroom. The study calls for attention to broader issues pertaining to social inclusion/exclusion, linguistic advantage/disadvantage and educational equality/inequality in the multilingual EMI university context.

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the positions of state policymakers in Latvia on Latvian, English, and Russian in higher education. By using argumentation analysis, the study explores policymakers’ statements in two public debates: on the use of Russian as a medium of instruction (May 2018–June 2020) and on the use of English as a language of doctoral theses (November–December 2019). The paper shows that the main difference of opinion among policymakers is about the role of the state in university language policies. Through a focus on the discursive elements in policymaking, four responses to language use in academia are outlined: firstly, the dominant nationalising discourse, which is reinforced to insist on the need for the state to continue with its nationalising language policies; secondly, the globalising discourse, which is manifested in the statements of the same policymakers to justify the state’s support to English, but not Russian; the final two discourses emphasise that universities should be autonomous to implement their own language policies, yet one of these is solely used to argue for institutional autonomy, whereas the other links autonomy with arguments that suggest construing Russian in academia as a right and a resource, not as a problem.

ABSTRACT The discussion of African languages as languages of learning and teaching can be traced back to the 1980s. To date, this discussion still continues and efforts to intellectualise African languages have been lax. Here, we present practical South African examples of higher education achievements in African languages that demonstrate the challenges and opportunities of African language planning and corpus development. We particularly focus on the development of a peer-reviewed bilingual (IsiZulu and English) book on the frogs of Zululand, South Africa. The publication under consideration falls within the life sciences, and it is the first comprehensive book on South African frogs to be written in an African language. Developing life sciences reading material in vernacular is a time-consuming process that requires a multidisciplinary team which understands both life and social sciences. Furthermore, when vocabulary relating to a focal species is undocumented, field research is necessary to identify the nuances of a specific language or culture. This language planning effort under discussion demonstrates the IsiZulu language’s ability to communicate life sciences and how language planning efforts can be made integrative and inclusive of previously marginalised languages.

ABSTRACT This paper reports on a study of 148 Sibe youths and their parents from the Charbuchar Sibe Autonomous County of Xinjiang, North-western China, investigating their attitudes toward their mother tongue. Language attitude questionnaires that looked into the youths’ and their parents’ perceptions of their mother tongue’s solidarity (friendliness, beautifulness, usefulness and learnability), status (significance in the country, in economic development, in daily life and in cultural wealth) and vitality (including linguistic, extralinguistic and related factors) were used to collect data. The results show that Sibe youth were more pessimistic than their parents about the solidarity and vitality of the Sibe language, but shared their parents’ optimistic perceptions of the Sibe language’s status. Parents’ attitudes differed by education, income, profession and residence, with high-income, highly educated parents in urban centres holding more pessimistic attitudes than low-income, rural parents. Students’ attitudes also varied by gender and grade levels, with girls being more positive than boys. The findings suggest that concerted efforts in school, home, and communities, especially in urban communities, must be devoted to bridging the intergenerational gaps in language attitudes. Emphasis should also be placed on supporting youths,’ especially boys,’ ethnic identity and affirmation.

ABSTRACT This article gives a presentation of the Swedish Language act and its application and reception by the public. Ten years have passed since its introduction, and for this reason a study was conducted by the Swedish Language council about what kind of issues were brought to governmental and local authorities by the public. By the collection of e-mail from the public presenting questions or comments in connection to the law this study could show two main topics. A little less than half of the e-mails were concerned about two of the national minority languages in Sweden, Finnish and Meänkieli, mostly from an educational perspective. Another main group of e-mails were concerned with the situation for sign language. The remaining minority languages and others issues related to the Language Act were hardly mentioned at all. Conclusions to be drawn are that strong lobbying groups do invoke legislation that can be associated with their aims, and that there may be other parts of the legislation that better cover the rights that the e-mailers wish to defend or that the Language act is still unknown as to its content.