Language learning for language minority students in a globalized world

Abstract

Today, the world is characterized by multilingual practices that have led to dynamic power structures and language choices.Despite the prevalence of multilingualism, language research has focused on language education policy or evaluating specific programs in mainstream schools, thus neglecting the needs of immigrant languages in multilingual contexts (Rubino & Cruickshank, 2016).Immigrants moving to a new language context may experience an identity crisis and frustration in the new society, which may affect their overall wellbeing (Teng & Wang, 2020).It is essential to provide a quality education for all learners, including ethnic and linguistic minorities.However, language minority students often receive limited educational resources, leading to a lack of English proficiency and limited opportunities for socioeconomic well-being in the host society (Chowdhury & Hamid, 2016).Furthermore, broader ecological factors such as acculturation, gender, and identity can influence minority students' academic identity construction and mainstream language learning (Gu, Chiu, & Li, 2022).To address this issue, it is crucial to help minority learners maintain their heritage identity and sense of belonging to their cultures.A lack of attention to this aspect of language instruction can lead to weaker language learning performance among minority learners.Although there have been efforts over the past few decades to train teachers for language minority students, such preparations fall short of the high standards required for effective multilingual education development.While language isolation and monolingual ideologies may have been effective strategies for preserving and reviving minority languages in the past, they are no longer as beneficial to minoritized communities today and can even have counterproductive effects (Cenoz & Gorter, 2019).Therefore, throughout this special issue, we call for more attention to language minority learners in a globalized world, acknowledging their unique needs and highlighting the importance of providing them with quality target language education to ensure their successful integration into the host society.

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