Charles Alderson is Professor of Linguistics and English Language Education at Lancaster University, UK. He was Director of the Revision Project that produced the IELTS test; Scientific Coordinator of DIALANG (www.dialang.org); Academic Adviser to the British Councilâ¿¿s Hungarian English Examination Reform Project; and is former co-editor of the international journal Language Testing and the Cambridge Language Assessment Series (Cambridge University Press). He has taught and lectured in over 50 countries world-wide, been consultant to numerous language education projects, and is internationally well-known for his teaching, research and publications in language testing and assessment, programme and course evaluation, reading in a foreign language and teacher training.

Politics can be a very important influence on educational developments and their deployment. However, this volume is different from other volumes since it looks, not at the macropolitics and the ideological agendas of nations and multinational or global organisations, but rather focuses on micropolitics, the agendas and motivations of individuals within organisations, and on their actions. Micropolitics can be seen as ways of manoeuvring within institutions which are themselves not political, but commercial, financial and educational. Indeed, politics with a small p includes not only institutional politics, but also personal politics, which can influence language education both in daily matters, and in projects for innovation and change. The aim of this edited book is to begin a debate about the nature and role of micropolitics, to contribute to a better understanding of language education, change and resistance to change, and the processes of language education.

Chapter One: Setting the scene - J Charles Alderson

Chapter Two: Professional advice vs political imperatives - Alan Davies

Chapter Three: Micropolitical issues in ELT project implementation - Tom Hunter

Chapter Four: The politics of ELT projects in China - Ron Kerr

Chapter Five: Teaching immigrants the language of the host community: two object lessons in the need for continuous policy development - David Little and Barbara Lazenby Simpson

Chapter Six: The commercialization of language provision at university - Glenn Fulcher

Chapter Seven: Micropolitics in multinational language assessment systems - Mark Crossey

Chapter Eight: Challenges and constraints in language test development - Gary Buck

Chapter Nine: The politics of examination reform in Central Europe - Karmen Pizorn and Edit Nagy

Chapter Ten: Language educational policies within a European framework - Neus Figueras

Chapter Eleven: The micropolitics of research and publication - J Charles Alderson