Abstract A brief introduction to the theme of language policy with some historical references to show that language has been a political issue in East and West since ancient times and has not lost any of its importance to this day. By way of an introduction to the theme of language policy this chapter addresses the question why there is such a thing as language policy in the most general sense. Some historical references to Biblical sources and Chinese philosophy show that language has been a political issue in East and West since ancient times and has not lost any of its importance to this day. The chapter concludes by introducing the Policy Cycle Model that is widely used in policy studies. It consists of a cycle of the four stages of agenda setting, policy formulation, policy implementation and evaluation which, the chapter argues, can be applied to language policy.

Abstract If languages were not both means of and obstacles to communication, they would not be an object of political concern. Basic concepts and theories applied to the analysis of language as an object of policy making are introduced in this chapter, among them politics, diversity, abstand and ausbau, status planning, corpus planning, acquisition planning, domain, proficiency, language shift, language rights, legitimate language, and language ideology. As for theory, the chapter expounds differences and commonalities of language policy (closer to political science) and language planning (closer to linguistics). It argues that because of the contingency of social science concepts and language ideologies no generally accepted theory for analysing policy decisions concerning language as a rule-governed system, on one hand, and society as a rule-governed system, on the other, is available, and that the highest priority of such a theory is to explain the causes of language conflicts.

Abstract Language follows power. In order to give this general principle some substance, this chapter examines international language regimes. It extends from the failed attempt by the first intergovernmental organization, the League of Nations, to establish a neutral language regime, to the sophisticated and lavish multilingual regime of the European Union of our days. In between, other international organizations are examined and compared with each other regarding their language regimes. How do nations, or rather their representatives, communicate? Whose interests are served by the language regimes of international organizations? How do pragmatism and symbolism (ideology) relate in this regard? Returning to some of the issues touched upon in the first chapter, this one offers some answers to these questions. It shows that the question whether international language regimes reflect and perpetuate structures of domination is still relevant today and discusses the importance of nation state and national language in this regard.

Ethiopia, with no colonial language legacy, adopted English medium instruction (EMI) policy with the establishment of its first higher education institution, University College of Addis Ababa, over seven decades ago. Over the last two decades, the country has significantly expanded its higher education institutions (HEIs) to increase skilled human capital that contributes to economic growth and alleviating poverty. The expansion of HEIs has inevitably increased English taught programmes, which means universities must teach entirely through English presenting myriad issues as most students, especially in rural Ethiopia, have limited English proficiency. This study aims to explore higher education policy statements and how these policy statements were interpreted in public universities’ mission statements. The study further examines language support policy for effective implementation of EMI policy. Data gathered from publicly available Ministry of Education and universities’ official websites were analysed using qualitative content analysis. In our analysis we identified two language-relevant key concerns: English language support and internationalisation. The study uncovered a gap in the statements concerning provision of English language support, despite research evidence and government acknowledgement of students’ and teachers’ weaknesses in the language of instruction. The findings of this study call for Ethiopian universities to focus more on improving provision of targeted language support for students experiencing language-related challenges, and for policymakers to rethink monolingual EMI policy, to raise the quality of education in such contexts.