Similar remarks have been made about various studies that claimfixed
acquisition orders. Variation takes another perspective when looked at not
as noise but as information, as CT/DST analyses show.
7.2.6 Language policy
According to Joseph Lo Bianco:“Language planning theory and language
planning was repudiated in the mid to late 1990s, has made a major come-
back in recent years, much stronger in theory but still needs more work.”
Elizabeth Lanza mentions that“in language policy research, a move has been
from examining macro language policy as seen in institutional structures and
documents to considering language policy as linguistic practices. A shift
from macro to micro.” As Terrence Wiley indicates, the AL research
agenda, in particular with respect to English as a second language, but
increasingly so for foreign languages, has been dictated by national and fed-
eral goals. As he mentions, most interest in language policy issues in the
United States now comes from the Department of Defence and Homeland
Security, while financial support from the Department of Education is
almost non-existent. This had partly to do with post-9/11 developments and
partly with the move against multiculturalism, which made labels like bilingual
education and immersion almost taboo words. According to Michael Long:
In the USA, many individuals in thefield have a positive impact locally,
e.g., through personal friendships opening doors with influential policy
makers at the school board level. In my opinion, the situation at the
national level is different, however, with so-called“proficiency scales”
and the under-examined notion of proficiency itself, having a stultifying
effect on national language policy and government language programs.Dick Tucker points to AL involvement with language planning for in-
digenous and heritage language learning. He also mentions“the need for
attention for articulation between levels and CLIL”. Articulation between
levels refers to how the competences acquired in primary schoolfit in with
the competences required in secondary education. In the Netherlands this is
a core issue, related to the CLIL/bilingual education development: when
CLIL in primary education catches on, more and more children will enter sec-
ondary education with fairly advanced levels of proficiency in English, which
means that English teachers in secondary are faced with on the one hand pupils
with hardly any proficiency in English and on the other hand pupils with a
good command of at least spoken English. This calls for differentiation in
the classroom, something that not all teachers are equally prepared for.
In the European context, the European Union treaty of Barcelona clearly
has had an impact on the AL research agenda. The main goals of the Euro-
pean language policy are to make larger sections of its citizens trilingual, with
two foreign languages in addition to the mother tongue. The approaches
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