Over the last twenty years, sociolinguistic research on multilingualism has been transformed. Two processes have been at work: first, an epistemological shift to a critical ethnographic approach, which has contributed to a larger turn toward post-structuralist perspectives on social life. Second, the effects of globalization-transnational population flows, new communication technologies, transformations in the political and economic landscape-have sparked increasing concern about the implications of these changes for our understanding of the relationship between language and society.

This book explores the meaning of modernization in contemporary Chinese education. It examines the implications of the implementation of reforms in English language education for experimental-urban schools in the People's Republic of China.

Perez-Milans sheds light on how national, linguistic, and cultural ideologies linked to modernization are being institutionally (re)produced, legitimated, and inter-personally negotiated through everyday practice in the current context of Chinese educational reforms. He places special emphasis on those reforms regarding English language education,...

This volume considers a range of ways in which bilingual programs can make a contribution to aspects of human and economic development in the global South. The authors examine the consequences of different policies, programs, and pedagogies for learners and local communities through recent ethnographic research on these topics. The revitalization of minority languages and local cultural practices, management of linguistic and cultural diversity, and promotion of equal opportunities (both social and economic) are all explored in this light.

Language, Literacy and Diversity brings together researchers who are leading the innovative and important re-theorization of language and literacy in relation to social mobility, multilingualism and globalization. The volume examines local and global flows of people, language and literacy in relation to social practice; the role (and nature) of boundary maintenance or disruption in global, transnational and translocal contexts; and the lived experiences of individuals on the front lines of global, transnational and translocal processes.

The contributors pay attention to the...

This book explores the social, political, and historical forces that mediate language ideology and practices in post-colonial education and how such ideology and practices influence students' academic achievement. Jean-Pierre provides empirical evidence that a relationship exists between language practices and school underperformance.

He takes Haiti as the focus of study, finding that students and teachers experience difficulty constructing knowledge in a setting in which the language they speak at home (Creole) differs from the language of instruction (French). The research is...

This volume brings together scholars in sociolinguistics and the sociology of new media and mobile technologies who are working on different social and communicative aspects of the Latino diaspora. There is new interest in the ways in which migrants negotiate and renegotiate identities through their continued interactions with their own culture back home, in the host country, in similar diaspora elsewhere, and with the various "new" cultures of the receiving country. This collection focuses on two broad political and social contexts: the established Latino communities in urban settings in...

This book aims at deconstructing and problematizing linguistic ideologies related to Portuguese in late modernity and questioning the theoretical presuppositions which have led us to call Portuguese 'a language.' Such an endeavor is crucial when we know that Portuguese is a language which is increasingly internationalized, used as the official language in four continents (in ten countries) and which has come to play a relevant role in the so-called linguistic market on the basis of the geopolitical transformations in a multipolar world. The book covers a wide range of social, political and...

In this volume, Li Wei brings together contributions from well-known and emerging scholars in socio- and anthropological linguistics working on different linguistic and communicative aspects of the Chinese diaspora. The project examines the Chinese diasporic experience from a global, comparative perspective, with a particular focus on transnational links, and local social and multilingual realities. Contributors address the emergence of new forms of Chinese in multilingual contexts, family language policy and practice, language socialization and identity development, multilingual...

Navigating Languages, Literacies and Identities showcases innovative research at the interface of religion and multilingualism, offering an analytical focus on religion in children and adolescents everyday lives and experiences. The volume examines the connections between language and literacy practices and social identities associated with religion in a variety of sites of learning and socialization, namely homes, religious education classes, places of worship, and faith-related schools and secular schools. Contributors engage with a diverse set of complex multiethnic and religious...