Language Planning in Education

Introduction

Language planning refers to deliberate efforts to affect the structure, function, and acquisition of languages. In education, the most important language planning decisions are about the choice of medium of instruction (Tollefson and Tsui, 2004)-which variety or varieties should be used as the medium (or media) of instruction? In many settings, it is widely assumed that the obvious choice is a standard variety, normally with high prestige and spoken by powerful groups, including the upper‐middle class. Particular varieties become standardized as a result of complex social processes in which powerful groups shape language attitudes, and linguistic norms are codified (e.g., in dictionaries and grammar books). When official bodies, such as ministries of education, undertake language planning, the result may be language policies in education, that is, statements of goals and means for achieving them that constitute guidelines or rules shaping