Implementation and impact of languages-in-education policies: Presentation of a comparative analytical framework

Language-in-education – including language pedagogy, an integral part of planning language-in-education – has been one of the most popular areas of policymaking in many contexts, as languages are perceived to have utilitarian values. Numerous studies have been conducted to evaluate the impact of individual policy cases, and the factors which contribute to their impact. However, often these studies understand a policy as a static product and the discussions are limited to a particular policy. Reflecting the current understanding of a policy as an iterative process and taking a comparative perspective, this paper presents a framework which will help investigate and discuss implementation and impact of a language-in-education policy. In particular, it shares insights from analyses of relevant policies from telling case contexts of Hong Kong and South Korea. Drawing on general policy studies as well as language-in-education research, the paper will contribute to building the knowledge base of language-in-education research and to improving the effectiveness of language-in-education policy processes, by providing a tool to help better understand and research the phenomena reflecting their situatedness and the complexities involved and to predict the trajectory of such policies. Copyright © 2018 Asia TEFL.