Language Policy, Literacy, and Minority Languages

This paper surveys the development of language policy over the last 40 or more years, particularly with respect to linguistic minorities and the attendant problems of illiteracy and lack of access to basic education among these groups. While there are discernible, emerging trends in the area of language policy, we make considerable effort to point out that the evolution of such policy in the past has often been the product of an unpredictable confluence of national and international politics, economics (at all levels), social, cultural, and religious differences, intrigue, historical accident, human perversity, and serendipitous circumstances.