ABSTRACT
The chapters in this collection propose a number of valuable new directions for the study of language policy in relation to actual language use. This is important because, as with the distance between perceptions of language use and actual language use (Blom & Gumperz, 1972; Labov, 1972), there is typically a gap, where not a chasm, between program and outcome, or between language “policy and practice” (on literacy, see Freebody & Welch, 1993; Hornberger, 2003). Nonetheless, policies matter, not least because they are often formulated by official bodies with the powers of officialdom to channel and direct behavior. Of course, how they matter is a question both of facts in the world and our perspective on those facts. Thus ethnography, part of the common research program of the authors in this volume, matters also, because as a method and ethos ethnography enjoins the study of specific behaviors and their significance for those involved in given language programs, whether they be involved in or aware of official policies or not. However, if we are to use the details of ethnographic inquiry to understand why policies succeed or fail, then questions of general perspective, or theory, also matter.
