Language Planning and Policy

The field of language planning and policy (LPP) is concerned with the policies both explicit and implicit that influence what languages are spoken when, how, and by whom, as well as the values and rights associated with those languages. LPP scholars focus on understanding the development of both top-down and bottom-up language policies, but also their implementation and impact at local, regional, and national levels. While the focus of LPP is on how language policies are formed, implemented, and sometimes resisted, LPP scholars note that nonlinguistic issues often play a critical role. The ecology metaphor firmly locates LPP analysis within the broader social, political, and linguistic environment. These frameworks and metaphors are often used in LPP research, including in the new and developing areas of scholarship and debate. LPP routinely utilizes methodology from a number of subdisciplines, including discourse analysis, corpus analysis, and media studies.