Discourses shaping the language-in-education policy and foreign language education in Nepal: an intersectional perspective

Language policy and planning in Nepal has been contested due to the co-existence of multiple contradictory discourses concerning teaching learning local, national, foreign, international languages. Recently a multilingual was issued create space for once-banned ethnic/indigenous languages public schooling, further complexifying landscape. A few studies have paid attention lesser taught foreign languages; however, what discursive orientations contributed towards enabling (or constraining) use such education how yet receive scholarly attention. Framed by perspectives intersectionality discourses, drawing on in-depth interviews with policymakers, headteachers, teachers, students, their parents five schools Nepal, this paper concludes that interplay between broader as globalisation, neoliberal marketisation nationalism played significant role shaping language decisions localised practice language(s). It also reveals spaces are delimited, preference English, Nepali, other emerging languages, leading marginalisation. Such trends diminish potential threatening Nepal’s sustaining existing linguistic diversity.