Language policy-making in multilingual education: Mass media and the framing of medium of instruction

Language policy-making in multilingual education: Mass media and the framing of medium of instruction

• Tollefson, James W. Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong

Current Issues in Language Planning, 1-17, 2014

Routledge

2014

• P Social Context of Education
  • PG Mass Media & Education, Mass Media & Children & Youth

Medium of Instruction Bilingual Education Structured English Immersion Proposition 203

• Hong Kong
• Arizona.

• 1997.7 onwards

• Secondary Education

In some settings, medium of instruction (MOI) policies in multilingual education break out into public debates in mass media involving politicians, business leaders, government officials, parents, and school children. These public discussions of MOI often index struggles over the distribution of political power and economic resources, and issues such as national cultural identity, national security, equity, and social justice. Although there is a vast scholarly literature on framing and media effects, very little research has examined the role of mass media in MOI policy-making. Specifically, how do mass media shape the policies that are adopted in multilingual contexts? This article reports on a comparative analysis of the coverage in major newspapers of two important MOI controversies in multilingual education: mother tongue versus English MOI in Hong Kong and the continuing discussion of the role of English and Spanish in Arizona. Using the conceptual frameworks of representation theory, legitimization theory, and framing, I identify the major components of the ideological framing of MOI policy in these contexts, the political agendas implicit in media texts about MOI, and the implications for language policy research and practice.
[Copyright of Current Issues in Language Planning is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2014.947018]

• English

Journal Articles

• 14664208

• 10.1080/14664208.2014.947018

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/en/bibs/d1c3d1d5

2014-10-22