ABSTRACT
Societies have shown an abiding interest in how their citizens use language. Whether the outcomes of centurieslong attempts to educate and regulate language have been constraining or liberating, inclusive or just massive, and whether or not some notion of research has played a part, governing bodies have rarely regarded citizens’ ways of using language as peripheral, as mere accompaniments to the real business of the social world (Lo Bianco, 2007). Because it concerns the calibre and range of what youngsters will come to value, and talk, listen, read, and write about, language education has been at the heart of educational efforts for centuries, speaking directly to the creation of both persons and a people-citizens, workers, members of families, communities, societies, and cultures.
