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Investigating Language Education Policy

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Encyclopedia of Language and Education

Introduction: Definitions

Before we can discuss how to carry out or read Footnote 1 research in language education policy, we need to define the field. Language education policy is a significant part of language policy. In the model developed by Kloss ( 1966) and enriched by Cooper ( 1989), language policy deals with the status of languages and varieties (are they official or not?), their form (are they appropriately cultivated to perform the functions associated with their status?), and who (apart from people who grew up speaking them) else should learn them. Cooper called this last point ‘language acquisition policy’ and I call it language education policy. In practice, these three areas are closely intertwined. For instance, in a nation where a language is official (in status), it will generally be used as the medium of instruction in state schools and therefore will need a writing system and terminology for modern concepts and technologies and have to be taught to a lot of...

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Among books on research methods in applied linguistics, Seliger and Shohamy ( 1989) set out to teach students how to do research; Perry ( 2005) assumes a more manageable task is to train them how to read research.

  2. 2.

    SIL International has started to conduct and publish electronically detailed sociolinguistic studies; see http://www.sil.org/silesr/. These give clear and useful methodological information.

  3. 3.

    See http://www.nabe.org/press/press9.html. An article by Michael Grunwald in the October 1 2006 in the Washington Post describes a report by the Inspector-General of the Department of Education on similar problems with Reading First.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bar-Ilan University, Jerusalem, Israel

    Bernard Spolsky

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  1. Bernard Spolsky
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, 19104-6216, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Nancy H. Hornberger

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Spolsky, B. (2008). Investigating Language Education Policy. In: Hornberger, N.H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_243

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_243

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

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