Introduction

The introduction to an edited volume on the sociolinguistics of language education, the chapter looks at how demographic, economic and social changes influence socio-political agendas in the sphere of language education, especially second language education, where local, national and regional concerns often dominate the objectives underpinning policy choice and prioritisation. It highlights a number of sociolinguistic issues and ambiguities as well as myths and (mis)conceptions in the areas of language education and language learning, and also introduces the contents of the other chapters in the volume.