1. BOOK REVIEW
LANGUAGE PLANNING AND EDUCATION
Reviewer
Rajan Poudel
M Phil (ELE)
Kathmandu University

2. ABOUT THE BOOK
Book: Language Planning and Education
Author: Gibson Ferguson
Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia
The global spread of English
Date of Publication: 2006
Publication: Edinburgh University Press
City: Edinburgh

3. BACKGROUND
Focuses on educational aspects of
language planning
Consists of seven chapters, followed by a
brief chapter with discussion questions and
further reading suggestions.
Claims that language planning/language
policy is an interdisciplinary field with a very
wide scope, geographically as well as
conceptually through this book.

4. CHAPTER ONE
THE DISCIPLINE OF LANGUAGE PLANNING: A HISTORICAL
OVERVIEW
 establishes the language planning is one of the pertinent
issues in academia,
 talks about the sudden rebirth of language planning and
policy at the beginning of the twenty first century,
 provides a historical overview of developments within
the discipline over the last fifty years,
 views the ideological reorientations in the discipline
includes a widening scope like top-down policy and
bottom-up processes,
 Finally, this chapter discusses the language planning is
a more interdisciplinary approach that takes account of
political, social, economic and ideological dimensions.

5. CHAPTER TWO
THE PRACTICE OF LANGUAGE PLANNING: AN OVERVIEW OF KEY
CONCEPTS
 introduces more constructivist view of nations as
imagined communities and national standard
languages as ideological constructs
 discusses the key concepts of the discipline;
corpus and status planning,
standardization,
codification and
linguistic purism.

6. CHAPTER THREE
EDUCATIONAL AND POLITICAL DIMENSIONS OF BILINGUAL
EDUCATION: THE CASE OF THE UNITED STATES
 analyses the debate concerning the schooling of
language minority students in the US
 gives information about different bilingual
education, political aspects, debate within the out of
school and socio-political context.
 examines the major arguments based on national
unity and social justice,
 concludes that the debate is not about language but
about contrasting understandings of the nature of
society and its identity.

7. CHAPTER FOUR
MINORITY LANGUAGES AND LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION
 is related with the situation of minority languages in
Europe after the 1992
 deals with the topics of language endangerment
and revitalization
 lists out the sociological and sociolinguistic causes
of language death,
 critically discusses the arguments for the
preservation of global linguistic diversity especially
ecology of language and identity arguments
 Socio-political, and economic factors causes the
revival of language

8. CHAPTER FIVE
THE GLOBAL SPREAD OF ENGLISH: CAUSE, AGENCY, EFFECTS AND
POLICY RESPONSES
 focuses on causes and effects of the global spread of English,
considering the impacts on other languages, cultures, and
inequalities
 concentrates on an emergent theme like language policy
alone cannot contain the spread of English
 issue of globalization of English and with its causes and
effects are also discussed
 deconstructs Phillipson (2003) linguistic imperialism thesis as
a top-down theory of language spread which ignores the ways
in which English has been appropriated and denies agency to
speakers in the periphery.
 his final assessment is “it is simple, unsatisfactory explanation
for the ongoing spread of English as a global lingua franca”

9. CHAPTER SIX
NEW ENGLISHES AND TEACHING MODELS: THE
CONTINUING DEBATE
 discusses about New Englishes and norms and
models for English language teaching in the age of
global English
 addresses the issues of intelligibility, identity,
practicality and acceptability, and reaches on the
conclusion
 talks the distinction between spoken and written
language
 evokes for alternative teaching models of English to
educate the local varieties

10. CHAPTER SEVEN
LANGUAGE EDUCATION POLICY AND THE MEDIUM OF
INSTRUCTION ISSUE IN POST-COLONIAL AFRICA
 returns to the issue: the medium of instruction, and
specifically the role of pupils’ home languages in
the educational process
 discusses the choice of instructional medium is the
key issue in language planning in education.
 claims that it is also a highly controversial one for
the use of English and other former colonial
languages to be restricted in favor of a greater role
for particular national languages
 Finally, he seems in favor of bilingual education,
medium of instruction in the bilingual country.

11. CRITICAL WRAPPING UP
 criticizes to the process of globalization,
 tries to empower the ethnic, minority languages
 encourages the minorities and rationalizes to preserve the
cultural treasures which are the assets of human beings
 one of the best book: language planning and policy
 provides contextual examples which thoroughly visualizes
the particular context specific scenario.

12. MY RECOMMENDATION
It helps to minimize the current
hot and fire debate of
“Medium of instruction either
English or mother tongue” in
educational scenario or Nepali
academia

13. Thank You