The changes taking place in the language situation of modern states are considered from the point of view of the theory of language capital, formulated by Pierre Bourdieu. The evolution of educational language policy is viewed at a broad sociolinguistic background including the Russian Federation, the USA, Hong Kong, Basque Country. For the explanation of unequal and stratificated production and reproduction of knowledge and skills such variables are considered as race, ethnicity, social class and gender. The key variable that explains the production and reproduction of educational capital is language. Language capital is an important part of cultural and human capital, provided that it can be transformed into other forms of human capital, primarily into economic and social capital. One and the same language can act as a marker of language capital, but in one case - positive (real), and in the other - negative (fictitious). The use of the theory of language capital allows explaining and predicting changes in the use and learning of languages in multilingual states.