Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. First part of the book traces the impact of language policy in three school models prominent in three periods of history. It focuses in on some effects of the new language policy at the micro level of local Indigenous teacher training events among members of several Indigenous peoples in western Amazonia. The book then describes the extension of the new language rights and policies, granted under the 1988 Constitution, to Brazil's large heritage language communities. Initially, these language rights were only granted to Indigenous peoples. The book then exemplifies this process of policy extension with reference to two German dialects: Hunsrückisch and Pommersch. Brazil has moved from being a country characterized by a lack of state attention, segregation and even violent oppression of Indigenous peoples until the 1970s, to a nation that is now developing unique leadership in Latin America.