Abstract:
Language Policies Across the Curriculum' (LPAC's) have gained increasing prominence in recent times as curriculum innovations which can be implemented at the school level. The benefits attributed to LPAC's most often concern the possibilities they engender for empowering minority students through the recognition and inclusion of minority languages within the curriculum. However, as with many previously heralded innovations, there is a noticeable discrepancy between the enthusiastic endorsement of LPAC's in the literature and their successful implementation in schools. Many schools are ambivalent about LPAC's and/or implement them to little effect. It is argued here that if this is to change, schools need to recognise the organisational, pedagogical and relational demands that the development of an LPAC at school-level entails. These demands are not insignificant but Richmond Road School in Auckland, New Zealand will be discussed as an example of what can be achieved when these considerations are taken into account.