Thesis (Ph.D.)--Georgetown University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 38) Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 50-51). Also available in print.

This research aims to examine how migrant families living in England establish their family language policy and practice. It is set within a context of increased levels of transnational migration and globalisation (OECD, 2015). The number of migrant families in which parents have different language backgrounds is increasing on a European level (Lanzieri, 2012) and in London one in three families is thought to be multilingual (OECD, 2010). This has implications for research into the role of languages for education of children from migrant families. According to the Department for Education (DfE, 2017) in England, the percentage of pupils who are believed to be exposed to a language other than English at home has been steadily increasing since 2006, and in 2017, 20.6 per cent of primary school pupils and 16.2 per cent of secondary school pupils had English as an additional language. While some research has investigated how children from migrant families succeed at school by measuring their educational outcomes, there are a lack of studies which explore what is happening within migrant families themselves: how and why do some migrant families in the same context practise and maintain their heritage languages, while others do not? (Curdt-Christiansen, 2009, 2016). To examine the ways in which migrant families in England decide on their family language policy and practice, this study adopts a coherent model which integrates two theoretical frameworks, namely Pierre Bourdieu’s (1977b) theory of social practice with its concepts of habitus, field and capital, and Family Language Policy (FLP). The aim of bringing together the two theoretical frameworks is to examine how family language policy and practice is mediated by the families’ subjective experience and the conditions in the objective social context of which they are a part. This study employs ethnographic methods of inquiry including interviews, participant observations and family self-audio recordings to allow for an in-depth exploration of the ways in which five migrant families in England set up their family language policy and practice. The mothers in the families are all Macedonian and the fathers are either English, Italian, Chinese, Scottish or Serbian. Ethnographic interviews were conducted with the parents in five migrant families, their children, grandparents and relatives, the parents’ and the children’ close social network of friends, the children’s mainstream school teachers and members of the Macedonian community in London. The analysis of each family case focuses on the family language policy and practice and the parents’ language ideologies and aspirations that underpin them. The study also analyses the ways in which the national language education policy context in England structures the family language policy and practice. The findings suggest that the family language policy and practice in migrant families is established based on the ways in which the parents mediate their past experiences including their family upbringing, education and employment as migrants in England (habitus) and the cultural, linguistic, social and economic resources they are able or unable to draw on (capital) within the context of national and local language education policies and practices in England (field).

No description available.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This thesis is concerned with Language in Education Policy (LiEP) and literacy acquisition in multilingual Uganda with the urban district of Kampala as the case study. Specifically, the study investigates the implementation of a monoglot LiEP for early literacy acquisition in a multilingual situation. The thesis analyses three LiEP instruments for Uganda, namely; (i) The 1992 Government White Paper on Education, (ii) The 1995 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda and (iii) The Uganda Education Sector Strategic Plan 2004-2015. After that analysis the study presents views and perceptions of LiEP Stakeholders in Uganda; Policy makers, Curriculum developers, Literacy researchers, NGO Officials, Head teachers, Literacy teachers and Parents/Guardians. The study is mainly prompted by the LiEP which recommends English as the Medium of Instruction (MoI) but not the common language to be used throughout the Primary School cycle. The thesis trys to shed light on the following aspects; principles of a LiEP in a multilingual setting, a relevant LiEP model for multilingual situations, multilingualism as a resource for literacy acquisition, appropriateness of a bilingual LiEP in Kampala with a local language, classroom and home literacy practices and lastly, literacy acquisition. The research question is to find out the extent to which the current LiEP in Uganda provides for literacy acquisition in multilingual settings.

No description available.

No description available.

On October 13, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Plain Writing Act of 2010 into law. It requires federal government agencies to use plain writing in all "covered" documents "the agency issues or substantially revises" (Sec. 4 (b)). The goal of the Plain Writing Act is to "enhance citizen access to Government information" (Introduction) and improve government operations and accountability "by promoting clear Government communication the public can understand and use (Sec. 2). This dissertation examines what plain language, as the Act defines it and the U.S. federal government (USG) is implementing it, means and does at the various levels of language policy -- institutional, writer, and user. I argue that "real" plain language policy differs from the policy documented by the Plain Writing Act of 2010. While plain bureaucratic writing can help to make government documents more understandable for users, plain writing alone cannot achieve the Act's goals. Plain writing is a style of writing. As such, it is not only contingent, but it is also subjective and based on preference, which is impossible to legislate. Hence, plain bureaucratic writing is and does different things at different levels of language policy. Moreover, institutional- and writer-level representations of plain bureaucratic writing are at odds with user representations in many respects. Plain bureaucratic writing for USG agencies and federal writers is another way to describe good writing in the tradition of Edited American English and "fixes" the problem of bad government writing. At the user level, understandable writing is plain writing, regardless of whether it adheres to the principles of standard written English or the plain style. Plain language legislation does not affect the work of most writers in the study or their ability to do it. Nonetheless, user participants generally prefer plain language, reporting that they are more inclined to do what a government document intends for them to do when they understand it. Efforts to enhance government communication should focus on usability instead of plain language since usability is a better measure of the extent to which plain bureaucratic writing impacts the textual government-citizen interaction. / Ph. D.

Thesis advisor: María Estela Brisk / Linguistic assimilation has been historically regarded as a cornerstone for nationalistic sentiments in the United States. Schools have been utilized as influential filtering sites where non-English languages are marginalized, and then assimilated into the dominant American English ways of languaging (Crawford, 1992; Flores, 2014; Heath, 1976; Nieto, 1999; Wiley & García, 2016). Drawing on theories of language policy (Spolsky, 2004) and governmentality (Foucault, 1991), this dissertation examined the links between family language policies and educational language policies at two public elementary schools in the state of Massachusetts during its final year of enforcing an English-only educational policy (Chapter 71A of Massachusetts General Laws). The participants were four fourth grade children, four parents, and eight school staff at two public elementary schools in two different districts (one urban and one suburban). The families spoke Cape Verdean Creole, Mandarin, Portuguese, and Spanish as their heritage languages. The study was designed as a qualitative multiple case study to conduct a multi-sited analysis of language policy. The data for the case studies were collected through surveys of parents, language logs filled by the children, interviews with the children, the parents, and the school staff, as well as weeklong school observations of each child. The units of analysis were family and school as two main language policy contexts the children regularly navigated. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to analyze the data (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The findings indicated that although the families and the schools seemed to appreciate bilingualism, they were still strongly influenced by the historical monoglossic ideologies of the society that convinced them to eventually conform to English in the name of ensuring success for the children. These ideologies were communicated between schools and families as “unspoken dialogues” through children who navigated language policies in both contexts. The findings highlight implications for teacher preparation, curriculum development, language policy research on schools and families, and educational language policies that impact children of immigrants. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.