This paper attempts to draw the key aspects of the widely scattered litterature by unifiyng some of the disparate threads of language policy and planning, to clarify the origins and history of language policy and planning over the recent past, to point to various trends that have emerged, and to explore the possibilities of moving toward the development of an adequate theory of language policy and language planning. The article focuses on initial concepts in language policy and planning and provides an introduction to the field from an interdisciplinary perspective, discussing the concepts, terminology and frameworks used to analyse and describe modern language planning situations.