Book Reviews, François Grin. Language policy evaluation and the European charter for regional or minority languages. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003. Pp. xii, 281. Hb$75.00

2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-225
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Policy Evaluation ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Regional Or Minority Languages ◽  
Language Policy Evaluation

scholarly journals Language policy in multi-level systems: A historical institutionalist analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 709-727
Author(s):  
Elin Royles ◽  
Huw Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Policy Studies ◽  
Theoretical Contribution ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Welsh Language ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Regional Or Minority Languages ◽  
Distinct Field

Efforts are underway to develop a stronger political science perspective regarding the practice of language policy to establish language policy as a distinct field of public policy studies. The article’s original theoretical contribution is to develop a framework, grounded in historical institutionalism, to analyse the multi-level institutional factors that influence language policy choices relating to regional or minority languages within European multi-level states. The framework is tested by applying it to analyse the multi-level factors that condition language policy decisions regarding the Welsh language, and through further investigating the framework’s significance and robustness to analyse language policy trajectories in two contrasting European cases. Overall, the article makes the case for the strengths and adaptability of the framework in producing convincing explanations of the multi-level dimensions of language policy development in different institutionalised contexts and calls for greater investigation of its ability to analyse other regional and minority languages in Europe.

scholarly journals Language Policy: European Criteria and Ukraine

2019 ◽  
pp. 9-31
Author(s):  
Bohdan Azhniuk
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Planning ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Diversity ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Linguistic Rights ◽  
Expert Opinions ◽  
Regional Or Minority Languages ◽  
State Language

The article discusses a much-debated in Ukraine issue: what are the principles of language policy that can be labelled European, what are the major sources for the deduction of these principles and to what extent they could be implemented in Ukraine’s current language policy. It is argued that these principles can be deduced from the following major sources: national constitutions and legislative acts on language issues, international legal instruments (The European Charter of regional or Minority Languages), international declarations (The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights) that are not legal instruments at the moment, expert opinions of international committees and other bodies like the Venice Commission, OSCE, etc, scientific publications on language policy and language planning. The analysis of these sources gives justification to the following principles as reflecting the mainstream European conception of language policy and language planning: 1) maintaining the leading role of the official state language as the backbone of national unity, 2) protection of endangered languages and preservation of language diversity, 3) promotion of the bilingualism with sufficient competence in the state language, 4) effective management of the enforcement mechanism. The ratification by Ukraine of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages called attention to its implementation in Ukraine. The comparison of Ukraine with most European countries shows that in terms of linguistic rights the country’s main language (Ukrainian) is in a rather underprivileged position. There is growing awareness in the society that the idea of official or semi-official Ukrainian-Russian bilingualism was designed as an instrument of Russian foreign policy and became one of the key factors that provoked political instability in the country. Nowadays Russian is associated with the annexation of Crimea and justification of further aggression and the official upgrading of its status is perceived as jeopardy for the Ukrainian national identity and statehood. The change of the popular attitude to the idea of the official bilingualism has modified the positions of the major political players.

Language policy evaluation in business settings

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-46
Author(s):  
Dieter Vermandere ◽  
Lieve Vangehuchten ◽  
Rebecca Van Herck
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Policy Evaluation ◽  
Language Policy Evaluation

Maintaining the status quo

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Ready
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Ideology ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
The Status ◽  
Regional Or Minority Languages

Abstract Arabic is considered one of the defining cases of diglossia (Ferguson, 1959; Sayahi, 2014). Despite previous scholars’ critiques that the construct of diglossia perpetuates linguistic and societal inequalities, few studies have examined how this seminal construct has been enacted in language policy (Woolard & Schieffelin, 1994; Pennycook, 1994; Harris, 1981). This paper addresses this gap by examining language policy in context through an intertextual analysis of language policy documents including the 1992 European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and several reports on their fulfillment of the charter’s requirements. Using Irvine and Gal’s (2000) framework of three semiotic processes of ideology, the texts demonstrate the use of the notion of diglossia as a tool of iconization, fractal recursivity, and erasure used to naturalize current linguistic inequalities. Consequently, diglossic descriptions are taken up in policy documents in service of a particular language ideology that justifies suppression of minority languages such as is the case of Arabic in Ceuta.

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