ABSTRACT
It is clear that literacy development in multilingual contexts is affected by quite a few interrelated factors. This complexity requires a wider perspective and necessitates the inclusion of political, social, and cultural contexts while studying the psychological or educational issues. As Paulston (1994) convincingly argued, when different language communities come in contact with each other, the political and economic forces in that larger community—such as nationalism and availability of jobs—affect the vitality of both languages and lead to language maintenance, language shift, or bilingualism. Hence, “rational policy-making requires that all these factors be considered in the establishment and understanding of educational policies for language-minority groups” (Paulston, 1994, p. 4). Wagner, in chapter 9 of this volume, stresses the similar point that only after understanding the learning and literacy contexts should any attempt be made to determine the educational policies. In sum, literacy development in multilingual contexts needs to be viewed and supported within the overall context of political, social, and economic forces that affect the use of language(s).
