12 Mar 2026 - Language policy and language education – re-examining the relationship

The association of language policy with language education runs back to the beginnings of the field, though the closeness of the relationship between them has varied significantly through different language policy frameworks.

In this talk, I will discuss how the current critical, empirical focus of language policy research has conceptualized the link with language education and also consider how the scope of this link may be widened to account for both the practical functioning of language policy (how it works) and its impact within a given community or institution (what it does). Finally, I will consider the implications of current language policy research for teacher education.