Beyond the rather obvious observation that language policy and language practice are likely to be at the very least out of step with each other, the more important question is what is meant by these terms. The question is not therefore whether it is the state that is the key player in language policy, but whether language ideologies that favor statist orientations to language are used. This chapter therefore explores not only the evident tension between policy and practice, but more important, the tension between what is meant by practice in the old and new approaches to sociolinguistics. The chapter explores the notion of language practices and the translingual turn, looking at new ways in which language diversity is being conceptualized and asking to what extent this is a new paradigm or the reinvention of older ways of thinking.