Gaining global perspective: educational language policy and planning

Abstract

Beginning with the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), language-based educational policy in the United States has shifted toward an emphasis on English language acquisition and away from an emphasis on native language assistance. The English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement Act clearly mandates English language acquisition as the commanding objective of instructional programming for Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students. This paper addresses a critical question that emerges in light of this shift: Is it possible to develop educational language policies that effectively achieve global competition objectives and civil rights objectives concurrently? Using an ecological systems theory framework for examining education and language, this paper examines the current educational language policies of three globally competitive nations to delineate how each addresses language based social justice and language based civil rights. The policy analysis focuses on relevant literature from applied linguistics, research on multilingualism, and emerging technologies to evaluate educational language policies across the macro-spheres. Recommendations for educational language policies that may be capable of satisfying language based social justice objectives and language based civil rights objectives concurrently are discussed.