We explore the impact of language education policy on language enrolments and provision in primary and secondary government schools In Australia, specifically in New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, which have strikingly different policy settings. NSW adopts a 'weak but flexible' policy, mandating a very limited minimum time allocation for language…

Primary school second/foreign language (SL/FL) programmes in Asia, as well as in other parts of the world, are becoming more common, with many targeting English as the SL or FL. The pressures for such English language programmes come from top-down notions that in a globalised world English is required for societies to be competitive, especially…

This paper explores a major curriculum innovation in English language teaching in Turkish primary education from macro and micro perspectives. After an overview of the role of English in Turkey, macro-level planning underlying the introduction of English language teaching policy in state-owned primary education is presented. Then the diffusion of…

In this paper a comparative analysis of the status of four types of languages present in the Serbian compulsory education system is presented: (1) Serbian as L1; (2) Serbian as L2 (for ethnic minorities); (3) minority languages; as well as (4) traditionally designated "foreign languages", such as English, French, Russian and German,…

Education is the right, but not the reality, of all. Various international trends are identified to set the scene for languages education. Challenges facing the teaching profession--in the contexts of teachers, students, teacher training, conditions and the curriculum--are addressed by effective strategies. Policy is prioritised, as it is in this…