Introduction to Part 1 Literacy: A new frontier for Canadian language policy research

This volume presents the results of two separate seminars organized by researchers at the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute, University of Ottawa, around the topic of language policy. Part 1 deals with the interaction between public policies, policy-making processes, and outcomes with respect to the role of literacy in the integration of immigrants to Canada. In other words, Part 1 is a broad case study of research into language policy. Part 2 consists of selected papers from an invitational seminar held at the University of Ottawa with early career researchers to discuss the new contours of language policy studies. The over-arching objective of the two parts is to examine how language policy is now being researched within broader frameworks than those usually adopted by most media coverage and Canadian academic writing, all of which gravitate toward discussion of governmental intervention and regulation. The readers of the volume will immediately note that the traditional Canadian focus on bilingualism involving two languages—English and French— is far too narrow to encompass the whole. The inadequacy of the old focus reflects both demographic changes in Canadian society and a growing awakening to the reality of what Europeans now call plurilingualism. In spite of academic