Language Planning and Policy: Issues in Language Planning and Literacy (Language Planning and Policy, 5)

While literacy has always been central to language planning work, there are fewer studies which focus primarily on literacy as a language planning activity. Often planning for literacy is treated as an aspect of status, corpus or language-in-education planning, rather than addressing literate practice itself as a planning objective. This volume investigates the complex issues and social and political pressures relating to literacy in a variety of language planning contexts around the world. The studies presented in this book examine language planning for literacy in official and vernacular languages and address issues relating to literacy in first and additional languages in North America, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Pacific. As a collection, these studies show that language planning for literacy is not simply a matter of planning a written version of a language, but involves more complex questions relating to the nature and practice of literacy and the power relations which exist within societies.