Language education: Policy and practice

Changing language policies and language practices reflect new forms of interconnectedness, interdependence and belonging (Coupland, 2003). In the context of globalisation, language change is accelerated by new technologies that increase opportunities to establish and maintain socio-cultural and economic relationships across geographical and political boundaries. Although globalisation remains a contested concept (Kenway, Bullen, & Robb, 2003), metaphors associated with global, online networks, such as ‘digital natives’ and ‘global marketplace’, promote an innocent view of globalisation and language change as evidence of social, technological and economic progress. New technologies also increase the rate at which information can be created, disseminated and added to a language’s lexicon. Consequently, the rate of technological innovation functions, in part, to emphasise the need for developing countries to ‘catch up and keep up’ with the practices of developed countries by investing in science and technology initiatives and promoting language proficiency in English: the dominant language of the technology and the knowledge economy (Ricento, 2012).