Language-in-education policies presents an in-depth analysis of the ideological construction of intercultural relations underlying the discourse of language-in-education policies. With a case study approach, the six-chapter book provides readers with a fresh yet profound perspective on language policy discourse, with each chapter focusing on one language planning context.
Chapter 1 begins by reviewing the key concepts of language planning and language policy. Liddicoat claims that language-in-education policies reflect the expected future pattern of language use. They primarily cover education policies for the official language, foreign languages, minority languages, and external language spread. On the one hand, the author suggests that policies should be examined as discourse produced in a certain ideological context. On the other hand, they should also be regarded as ideology having an impact on the world outside education.
Chapter 2 focuses on second/foreign language education and examines cases in Australia, Japan, and Europe, through which a different and changing framing of the intercultural relationship is shown. Foreign language learning in Australia is increasingly of utilitarian concern and is expected to bring economic benefit. English language learning in Japan is very much associated with the cultivation and communication of Japaneseness, while the prevailing ideology in European second language learning is in the context of European commonality and cultural diversity.
Chapter 3 discusses languages in the education of immigrants. Among the three countries analyzed—Japan, Italy, and Australia— common themes are the learning of the official language for the purposes of participation, employment, and social cohesion, while the learning of immigrant languages tends to be marginalized, especially in Japan. The intercultural relationship between immigrants and the mainstream is generally asymmetrical with the accommodation of the immigrant to the mainstream emphasized more than vice versa.
Chapter 4 addresses languages in the education of indigenous people. There is almost no place for indigenous languages in Japan, while in Columbia indigenous languages are recognized explicitly in its national constitution. As a result, the indigenous person as an intercultural subject is either an observer of diversity or a participant in diversity.
Chapter 5 looks into the external language-spread policies in the UK, France, and Japan. Very often they serve as an element of foreign policy and are associated with image and prestige building. It is suggested that a polity has the ideological potential of developing its hegemony through diffusing its language.
Chapter 6 winds up the discussion by concluding that language-in-education policy texts anticipate future intercultural communication and are a prism through which ideologies of intercultural relations can be seen.
This book is a valuable contribution to the critical analysis of the relationship between policy texts and embedded ideologies.
