Arabic Downgraded in Israel
Israel has passed a “nation-state” law that gives exclusive rights to Jewish people and removes Arabic as an official language. The law states that Arabic will no longer be an official language but says...
Last Chance For Boren Scholarship
Friday February 8 is the last chance to apply for the study abroad Boren Scholarships. These scholarships promote long term linguistic and cultural immersion, and therefore study abroad proposals for two or more semesters...
Ontario Supports French-Language Education
The province of Ontario will invest $19.41 million in several projects and initiatives to support students, parents and teachers in French-language schools....
Iran Bans English From Primary Schools, Citing “Cultural Invasion”
Iran has announced that English would no longer be taught in primary schools after Islamic leaders warned that early exposure to English would help facilitate a “cultural invasion.” Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,...
Spanish Speakers Rising by Five Million a Year
Spain’s Instituto Cervantes has released its annual report on the Spanish language: El español en el mundo 2017, revealing that more than 572 million people speak Spanish worldwide, of...
Immigrant Students Worldwide Need More Support
Socio-economic disadvantage and language barriers are the biggest obstacles to success at school and in society for students with an immigrant background. More effective and better targeted education and social policies are needed to...
Russian Set Backs in Ukraine, Armenia
Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko has signed into law a controversial bill that makes Ukrainian the required language of instruction in state secondary schools (from fifth grade on)....
French Genders Get Political
The French prime minister, Édouard Philippe, has banned “inclusive writing” in official texts, clamping down on attempts to make the French language more female-friendly. Moves to end the linguistic dominance of the masculine over the...
Macedonia Agrees Name Change and Expands Albanian Use
In what may be the most significant diplomatic step in the Balkans since the end of the war in the 1980s, after 27 years, a name deal...
Ancient Script Found in Sudan
In northern Sudan, archaeologists have uncovered a trove of new artifacts at the necropolis of Sedeinga, an ancient Nubian city. Tablets, lintels, and steles...