This article examines stewardship as a mechanism of supra-regional language management under conditions of extensive non-native use, drawing on historical cases of Sanskrit, Latin and Classical Arabic. Unlike models grounded in native-speaker “ownership” and state-centred language policy, stewardship emerges when proficient non-native users collectively sustain a lingua franca across long spans of time and wide—often discontinuous—spaces. In these historical cases, learned communities managed stability and controlled innovation in predominantly written high registers, preserving the languages as cosmopolitan media long after any substantial native-speaker base had receded or disappeared. The article argues that supra-regional written registers of English are now undergoing a conceptually comparable—but technologically distinct—shift in its own supra-regional management. Central is an erosion of control by traditional norm-enforcing institutions and a reconfiguration of norm provision through text-generative AI: widely used LLM-based tools diffuse standard-like formulations at scale and, crucially, do so from training inputs that include large volumes of both native and non-native English. The article concludes by framing AI-mediated norm provision as an emerging stewardship regime for global English and by outlining the empirical questions this hypothesis raises: whose usage is amplified, how institutional actors respond and what this implies for the future politics of English standards.
English-medium instruction (EMI) is widely promoted in non-Anglophone higher education as a route to internationalization, employability, research visibility, and institutional competitiveness. Yet EMI policy research has largely treated time as exposure duration, implementation chronology, or program length rather than as a governing mechanism. This article examines how time is produced, organized, and contested in EMI-related policy reform in Pakistan. Drawing on Torres’s concept of temporal regimes and Koselleck’s theorization of historical time, it analyzes 17 official Higher Education Commission (HEC) sources through critical qualitative document analysis, combining reflexive thematic analysis with theory-sensitized policy discourse analysis. The study asks how HEC policy documents operationalize time in English-driven internationalization and what neoliberal, neocolonial, and policy-discursive openings they contain for alternative multilingual academic rhythms. Findings show that HEC policy organizes higher education through five temporal mechanisms: calendarized compliance, degree-time corridors, audit-time cycles, transnational synchronization, and temporal stratification. These mechanisms align institutional quality, English-mediated academic legibility, and global competitiveness with deadlines, review cycles, completion rules, rankings, publication timelines, and eligibility thresholds. The analysis further shows that neoliberal temporalities of efficiency, audit, and measurable performance intersect with neocolonial temporalities of external recognition, English-dominant indexing, and globally benchmarked legitimacy. However, the corpus also retains limited openings through flexibility, contextualization, force majeure, local relevance, and alternative delivery provisions. The article argues that EMI-driven internationalization functions as chronopolitical governance and proposes a Temporal Equity in EMI (TE-EMI) framework for designing more time-sensitive, multilingual, and context-responsive higher education policies.
This paper examines teacher agency in the context of a state-initiated online English language programme in Global South higher education. Drawing on in-depth interviews conducted in Arabic alongside media documents, it argues that language policy implementation in this context was shaped by two distinct and partially competing registers of agency. The first is fractured agency as a political mechanism which is a governance arrangement that operates through the deliberate spatiotemporal organisation of teachers’ professional autonomy. The second is moral agency which is a multi-layered force grounded in locally embedded virtues and religious epistemologies that sustained policy implementation independently of, and at times despite, the structural conditions imposed upon teachers. In reconceptualising moral agency through local epistemologies and Islamic ethical frameworks, the paper responds to calls for Southern theory in applied linguistics and contributes to understanding how language policy is lived, felt, and sustained in postcolonial contexts where institutional governance and moral selfhood operate according to fundamentally different logics.
This study examines the proliferation of English-medium instruction (EMI) within North Macedonia’s higher education system, a context emblematic of broader regional trends towards Europeanisation in the Western Balkans. Moving beyond the steering at a distance framework (Kickert, 1995), we analyse EMI development through the lens of post-socialist state-building and marketisation. Employing social process tracing (Kaas et al., 2025), we analysed higher education policy documents and regulations, complemented by interviews with key decision-makers to map the trajectory of English-taught programmes. Contrary to the assumption that EMI growth is driven by explicit language planning, our findings reveal a consistent pattern of policy spillover. We demonstrate that while no national policy explicitly mandated EMI, successive reforms—aimed variously at multilingual inclusion, privatisation, marketisation, Bologna harmonisation, and institutional liberalisation—inadvertently created the conditions for EMI to thrive. This study contributes to the literature by reframing EMI institutionalisation not merely as a pedagogical or linguistic goal, but as an institutionalised by-product of broader governance transformations. These findings offer significant implications for policymakers and researchers, suggesting that effective language planning requires analysing the unintended consequences of macro-level governance reforms.
This study situates artificial intelligence (AI) use within broader structures of linguistic inequity in multilingual schools, where monolingual norms continue to shape learning despite increasing linguistic diversity. Challenging “AI hype” that frames educational technologies as neutral tools, the study draws on the concept of practiced language policy to advance an alignment-based account of AI efficacy across macro- (societal), meso- (programmatic), and micro-level (interactional) contexts, alongside students’ and families’ language practices. Using qualitative data from a design-based study conducted in an after-school literacy program serving elementary-aged (Grades 2–5) multilingual learners in British Columbia, Canada, the research examines students’ engagement with AI-generated multilingual literacy supports, including text-to-home-language audio resources designed to support English reading development. Findings show that the pedagogical value of AI is not inherent but contingent on the degree of alignment across nested language policy contexts. When alignment was present, AI enabled students to mobilize their home languages as both linguistic and symbolic capital, supporting English comprehension while affirming multilingual identities. When alignment was weak or disrupted by English-dominant norms, AI became a site of tension and constraint, and in some cases reproduced existing inequities. By foregrounding alignment across practiced language policy scales, this study contributes a critical framework for understanding AI in education, demonstrating that technology-mediated equity for multilingual learners depends not only on access to AI tools, but also on the ideological and policy ecologies in which such tools are embedded.
The goals of this paper are to think carefully about the uncertain place historical thinking has had in Language Policy and to consider alternatives available to us. Along the way, the paper makes three arguments. First, it identifies two sides of the same problem, namely a narrow understanding of history as a way of seeing and doing language policy that informs, and is exacerbated by, apprehensions about empiricism in Language Policy. Second, the paper expands on an argument introduced in the editorial for this issue that there is a richer tradition of historical inquiry in language policy than is often recognized. Finally, the paper argues for notions of historical thinking in language-policy scholarship that eschew a unitary model and instead hold on to the openness of history in ways that might inform new leaps towards radical change.
Drawing on the concept of performance-based identity, this critical ethnographic study examines the complex interplay between university English placement test policy and the identity negotiation of first-year English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in China. The analysis reveals how placement test policy streams EFL learners into listening and speaking courses based on written-test performance, resulting in destabilization of their performance-based identities. Two distinct identity trajectories emerge: an “in-between identity struggle,” trapped between exemption unreachable and an unwillingness to game for an easier track, and a “self-directed identity adaptation,” marked by acute awareness of oral gaps and proactive recalibration of exam-oriented practices to meet university demands. Yet both trajectories reveal how the misalignment between entry placement and course assessment tends to (re)produce structural disparities by privileging oral competence while relying on written-only placement, systematically undervaluing “written-strong/oral-weak” EFL learners. By introducing the concept of “performance-based identity” into language policy studies, this research enriches understanding of identity work within policy-mediated educational transitions. Future research could focus on transitional periods where new language policies alter performance evaluation standards, as these are critical sites where learner identities are revalued and renegotiated within power dynamics.
This paper analyses the policy processes of the National Roadmap for Global Competitiveness in Communication Skills (NRGCCS) at institutional and classroom levels. The policy adopts the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) to standardise English proficiency and enhance the global competitiveness of Filipino graduates. Drawing on qualitative data from social media posts and webpages, policy documents, classroom recordings, and fieldnotes, we trace how NRGCCS entered Blue University (BU), a private university in Manila, and how it was enacted in an Advanced Communication classroom. The findings show that NRGCCS was adapted by BU through a series of connected policy actions that involve the coalescing of institutional and Western forces, the credentialisation and compliance of lecturers, the circulation of Western materials, and the production of enterprising English speakers. We argue that NRGCCS operates as a policy synergy in which institutions, Western frameworks, testing instruments, discourses, social actors, and classroom practices align and reinforce one another across institutional and classroom levels. The analysis shows how NRGCCS assembles a roadmap towards neoliberalisation. It functions not merely as a technical reform for improving communication skills, but as a policy synergy that ties English language education to employability, internationalisation, private testing markets, Western knowledge, and the production of employable Filipino subjects.
ISO 24495-2 standardises plain legal language as an international benchmark; however, its implementation is hindered by the lack of clear evaluative criteria for assessing the clarity of wording, structure, and design in new legislation. Drawing on an ISO-inspired categorisation of these three dimensions, this study undertakes a structured examination of governmental policies from six major common law jurisdictions: Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Findings reveal both similarities and differences in standardisation patterns. The wording and structure dimensions demonstrate strong stability and convergence, particularly in micro-level features such as modal verb usage, whereas the design dimension exhibits significant variability, operating as adaptive supportive practices rather than compulsory requirements. Based on convergent principles in plain-language policies across six jurisdictions, this study constructs a Three-Dimensional Framework of Plain Language Principles in Legislative Drafting. This framework aims to promote the standardisation of plain legal language within common law traditions and provide a valuable tool for legal drafters seeking to align new legislation with ISO 24495-2. Furthermore, it is believed to offer practical benchmarks for civil law jurisdictions by translating laws into English for international audiences. Eventually, this study contributes to legal linguistics and language policy by elucidating the institutionalisation of plain-language policies across analogous legal systems.
This paper aimed to investigate instructors’ perspectives and experiences of instructional challenges at English-medium instruction (EMI) universities in Kazakhstan. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and focus-group discussions with instructors from eight purposefully selected EMI universities across five main cities. The data analysis revealed three major trends in instructors’ beliefs and practices: openness to strategic use of all available languages, reluctant multilingualism, and outright rejection of translanguaging. Given the complexities of language education, especially in EMI contexts, the study underscores the need for open and candid discussions about EMI policies, not only in Kazakhstan but also in other countries facing similar linguistic challenges. It calls for the development of clear, consistent, and contextually appropriate policy guidelines to inform administrators, trainers, and instructors involved in EMI programs. Such policies should acknowledge the intricacies of language in education, reflect local linguistic realities, and align with current academic trends and debates in English teaching, applied linguistics, and multilingual education globally. The study argues that the ambitious goals of Kazakhstan’s trilingual education policy, as well as similar initiatives in other countries, cannot be realized without careful planning, systematic implementation, and robust support mechanisms for EMI instructors. Ultimately, it advocates for more inclusive, equitable, and context-sensitive policies and practices to address the language-related dilemmas and challenges in education worldwide.
The prevailing influence of neoliberal ideologies has had language learning increasingly propelled by socioeconomic motives. This is particularly true when talking about English. The Chinese government (like many other governments) has actively promoted English by associating it with modernisation and internationalisation. A multitude of guidelines related to English language education have been issued, and English courses have been set from primary schools nationwide. This raises a question regarding whether the universal promotion of English nationwide really suits peripheral minority regions where communication with English-speaking countries remains rather limited. This research, thus, investigates how the Blang, a minority group residing close to the China-Myanmar border, perceives the English language. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews in the Blang Mountain Township in Yunnan Province, China. The analysis of data revealed that the neoliberal discourse of English within the education and employment system has formed an ideological backdrop for the Blang people’s perception of English. Nevertheless, this institutionally driven discourse did not appear to override the pragmatic concern of English in the local area. The disconnection between the compulsory learning of English and its absence from the Blang’s lived reality reduced its learning to a mere institutional obligation, further reinforcing linguistic instrumentalism and a neoliberal logic of English learning. This problematises the current language education policy that exclusively recognises English as the only useful foreign language and ignores local actual needs. This research thus calls for a more context-sensitive language education policy and a flexible curriculum that is responsive to local language needs. In minority areas close to the border, such as Blang, encouraging the learning of languages of neighbouring countries as a foreign language at school can equip students with more pragmatic language competence and enable them to appreciate the intrinsic value that different languages hold.
This study explores how an English as an Additional Language undergraduate student, Wei, at a Sino-foreign joint venture university in China navigated interconnected temporal regimes shaped by neoliberal logics, institutional acceleration, and English Medium Instruction (EMI) expectations. Drawing on a single-participant case study, we adopt a scalar analytical framework to examine how macro-level discourses of internationalization and global competitiveness, meso-level EMI policy and curriculum structures, and micro-level individual agency worked together to shape our participant’s emotional and academic experiences. Our findings revealed how Wei internalized a neoliberal logic of time (i.e., perceiving the present as an investment for future gain), which was manifested in her anxiety over her GPA (Grade Point Average) and academic performance. Through adopting strategies such as impression management and GenAI use, we illustrate how she negotiated accelerated institutional tempos at the cost of undertaking emotional labor. The study contributes to the literature on language policy by constructing EMI not only as a language choice, but as a temporal governance that works to accelerate, evaluate, and shape EAL students’ learning within a broader globalized higher education landscape.
Drawing on in-depth interviews with returnee scholars, this study explores how the implicit language policies driving the internationalisation of Chinese higher education produce distinct and often dissonant time regimes. While prevailing scholarship on language policy has rarely engaged with temporality, this paper argues that time is a crucial, underexamined dimension of how policies are experienced and negotiated. Participants describe a shift from the more elastic, self-directed academic rhythms they experienced abroad to the contracted, metric-driven and boundaryless temporalities in China. These tensions, analysed through Bergson's dur & eacute;e and Confucian shi ((sic), 'timeliness'), reveal how English-medium internationalisation policies can subvert both creative duration and a traditional sense of scholarly appropriateness. By focusing on scholars in language-related fields, the analysis demonstrates how the Tetris effect (the mental fatigue of stacking fragmented tasks) is a direct consequence of a language policy environment that prioritises quantifiable outputs over deep intellectual work. The paper concludes by advocating for temporal pluralism as a necessary consideration for future language policy research and practice.
This article examines the chronopolitics of English-Medium Instruction (EMI) in Moroccan higher education, introducing three novel and interlinked concepts. First, it conceptualises ‘temporal infrastructuring’ as the multi-faceted process through which policies, reforms, and institutional instruments construct, impose, and naturalise a temporal order. Second, it diagnoses the ‘geotemporal bind’ as the resulting structural dilemma, referring to the entrapment of a system, structure, policy, institution and/or individual in navigating different and competing timescales driven by irreconcilable logics and objectives. The analysis reveals how EMI policies, through temporal infrastructuring, reproduce a geotemporal bind, as postcolonial universities are entangled in contradictory positioning because they are concurrently compelled to develop according to Anglo-neoliberal speed (Scopus-indexed publication, global rankings) while grappling with bureaucratic temporal legacies of former colonial regimes (slow accreditation systems, exclusive automatic equivalency for certain degrees) and the sidelined local temporalities (cyclical, event-based). Third, the article argues that this bind sustains a condition of the ‘never-yet-postcolonial’ in which the promised break with coloniality is perpetually deferred. The article demonstrates that policies and institutional temporal cultures function as sites of chronopolitical governance. For instance, the successive reforms, characterised as unsuccessful, exemplify this temporal politics as accelerated internationalisation timelines and colonial validation procedures were simultaneously mandated, while failing to account for local conditions, needs, and aspirations. The cascading relationship of these concepts, in which temporal infrastructuring produces the geotemporal bind, which in turn sustains the never-yet-postcolonial, provides a new framework for understanding how the governance of academic time marginalises local epistemes and impedes (post)(de)colonial futures.
While pursuing language policy objectives will often require interventions that cut across many different sectors, language policy research has not engaged with the notion of policy integration. In response, this article investigates policy integration by focusing on language policies that aim to maintain and revitalise regional or minority languages. Specifically it asks whether governments committed to language maintenance have succeeded in incorporating relevant linguistic considerations into policy-making in the key field of economic development. To address this question, an original content analysis framework is developed to examine economic development policy documents. It is then applied to the case of Wales, one of the UK’s devolved nations, to evaluate the extent to which consideration of the Welsh language has been integrated into recent economic development policy documents. Overall, the results reveal a mixed picture. While attention to the Welsh language increased in Welsh Government economic development strategies between 2002 and 2021, this trend has since reversed. Furthermore, the Welsh language remains a marginal consideration in policy documents produced by key sub-national economic bodies. The conclusion considers the implications of these findings for language maintenance efforts and reflects on the broader applicability of the analytical framework.
Rapid industrialization and globalization have intensified the complex dynamics between dominant languages and regional dialects (fangyans), giving rise to significant challenges for linguistic diversity and language policy. Situated in the Chinese context, this paper explores the ways in which middle-class parents’ language ideologies and beliefs about Putonghua, fangyans, and English influence their family language planning and decision-making processes of Chinese families. Data were collected from 18 families through semi-structured face-to-face interviews and recorded conversations during family visit, as well as two focus groups of parents conducted online. The findings reveal that parents view English as a valuable investment for enhancing their children’s academic and professional prospects, while fangyans are seen as vital for fostering familial bonds and preserving cultural identity. Putonghua is regarded as a key tool for professional mobility, both domestically and internationally, in the foreseeable future. The study highlights parents’ favorable attitudes towards fostering multilingual competence in their children with the association of improved career opportunities, professional mobility, and educational advantages. The findings reveal a critical disconnect marked by parents’ increasing investment in children’s multilingualism amidst a significant policy vacuum. This highlights the complex negotiation of ideologies and resources inherent in family language management. This paper thus calls for policy support at both national and community levels to empower parents with practical strategies for language planning and practice for more effective investment in children’s multilingual repertoires.
When generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technologies emerged a few years ago, they were welcomed as innovative tools with the potential to transform teaching and learning. Yet now this initial optimism has been replaced by scepticism and concern over their role in perpetuating digital neocolonialism through linguistic hierarchies embedded in these tools. This study addresses these issues by examining how language teachers in the Global South perceive and negotiate pedagogical, ethical, and policy implications of generative artificial intelligence in English language education. Drawing on qualitative survey data and semi-structured interviews with 12 multilingual teachers across the Global South, the study explores their perceptions of GenAI’s pedagogical impact and their awareness of biases that AI tools can promote. Findings reveal teachers operating as policy arbiters in institutional vacuums, demonstrating variable but emerging critical awareness of how AI tools privilege certain English varieties, erase local linguistic practices, and reflect Global North epistemologies. The study argues that equitable AI integration requires systemic change: participatory policy frameworks, critical AI literacy, and fundamental redesign of tools to recognise linguistic and cultural diversity beyond dominant Western norms.
In this paper, I argue that the global spread of English-medium instruction (EMI) is not just about language but also about time. Policies promoting English are often tied to speed, competitiveness, and future-oriented goals, creating pressure to “rush” toward English to succeed. This rush is driven by global forces such governments, universities, and markets, and pushes learners away from their communities and everyday realities. As a counterpoint, I revisit the Philippine community school movement in the mid-twentieth century. These schools emerged from local needs, using vernacular languages to address real issues like farming, health, sanitation, and literacy. They moved at a slower, community-based pace, focusing on the present rather than an imagined global future. This slower temporality briefly challenged English dominance before being overshadowed by Cold War–era acceleration. I use this history to imagine alternative ways of approaching EMI today. Rather than accepting top-down, fast, globally oriented timelines, language education can be slower, community-driven, multilingual, and more meaningful. This is not about rejecting English completely but about questioning its role as a symbol of speed and global competitiveness, and about re-rooting education in local life.
