This paper reviews patterns of primary foreign language policy across the world, analysing the development of
policy and subsequent implementation processes with reference to the particular local histories and current politics at regional,
national and supranational levels of governance. In providing an overview of current provision and recent research the paper draws
on the theoretical frame of historical materialism to consider the impact of global forces in three economic regions of the world
today in contexts where substantial growth in the provision of primary foreign languages is now evident – described by Graddol,
with reference to English specifically, as a process of “moving up the educational escalator”. Themes threaded throughout the
paper include power and resistance to soft policy, perspectives of social justice and an emerging global expectation for
accountability and transparency with regard to primary foreign languages policy. In reviewing recent developments in the field of
educational policy research the final section raises questions around the extent to which teachers may shape language policy in
education, acting as critical interpreters of policy in an agentive role, adapting and refining national and local curriculum
policy to meet the needs of their learners.
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