Findings

Abstract

The previous chapter reviewed eight studies that incorporate innovative methods and theories, offer intriguing findings, and suggest new directions for the field. This chapter builds on the findings from those studies, and many others, to proffer a list of twelve general findings that have been evidenced by multiple studies. While the field of language policy is theoretically rich, empirical data collection on language policy creation, interpretation, appropriation, and instantiation has, historically, not matched the theoretical and conceptual robustness. In part, this is a natural result of the inchoate nature of the field. Recently, however, there have been an increasing number of micro-level studies that examine the impact of macro-level language policy texts and discourses on schools and communities, the development of local language policies and practices, and the interaction between the two. Hult (2012: 235) characterizes this as the ‖new wave‗ of LPP research, which ‖aims not at comprehensive sociological inquiry but at representing specific ways in which language policies are socially and discursively situated, thereby documenting instances of how LPP takes shape in texts and practice.‗ This chapter synthesizes the findings from this line of research (as well as the old wave) and presents twelve findings.