Introduction [to a special edition of Current Issues in Language Planning]

Introduction [to a special edition of Current Issues in Language Planning]

Language policies and corresponding language-in-education policies in the past
50 years have had a major role in the development of nationhood and the formation
of national identities. The 21st century has brought new ‘winds of change’
(Lambert, 2000a) to policy makers, with two sharp tendencies as driving forces
for policy action: on the one hand, forces of globalisation necessitate intercultural
understanding through a common global language or some selected powerful
languages; on the other hand, forces of ethnic and grass-roots movements have
highlighted the need to shift policy attention to the maintenance of linguistic
diversity and pluralism in a rapidly shrinking and homogenising world. In other
words, language education policies of the 21st century need to grapple with the
challenge that language communities are ‘local and global at the same time’
(Canagarajah, 2005: 17). This volume provides an insight into various language
education policy contexts in the world and provides examples of policy
responses to these two wider challenges.

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