Language Planning and Policy: Negotiating with Global Actors in Local Contexts

Abstract

Although language is a crucial concern at all levels of education in plurilingual communities, the processes of language planning and policy in institutions of higher education in Sri Lanka have received less attention than at the secondary school level. The objective of this article is to address this gap by examining an intervention by a global actor in English language teaching at the Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo, from the perspectives of goals, outcomes, and underlying ideologies. While it is not always possible to resist top-down policy directives from external actors who wield both financial and institutional power, this article argues that negotiation and navigation are possible, provided that the local actors are prepared to claim agency and power at micro levels of planning and implementation.

Innovative Approaches to English Language Teaching in Indonesian Public Islamic Schools: Insights and Challenges

“…The purpose of English language learning in school is unclear, and English has not been taught effectively, making it challenging to acquire even with intensive efforts. English learners in Indonesia, despite spending numerous years studying English from early childhood to university, are unable to attain English proficiency (Hult, 2017;Mendis, 2021). Compared to Philippines and other countries in ASEAN regulation, they have already implemented good regulation on English language teaching that focuses on the students.…”