On ‘Promoting and Demanding’ Integration: A Discursive Case Study of Immigrant Language Policy in Basel

Author(s):  
Mi-Cha Flubacher
2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Nazari

This paper is an attempt to analyse one of the documents which may affect the classroom activities of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers, namely teachers' guides. It also explores the context at which the document is aimed and critiques how EFL teachers are advised to teach as well as how EFL is taught. As such, the paper stands where critical discourse analysis and language policy come together in the study of language policies in education. The teachers' guide chosen and the analysis carried out here are not necessarily concerned with their representativeness and typicality but with the opportunity they provide to the researchers and teachers to learn about such language policy documents and how language and language teaching objectives are represented in them. The issues raised in this paper will have relevance to the EFL teachers' guides and EFL education in other contexts, as these issues are likely to be true of other EFL milieux.


2022 ◽  
pp. 823-842
Author(s):  
Marie Jacobs

The effects of immersive strategies and the benefits of a multilingual language policy have been extensively explored in the literature; however, it is valuable to look at the actual application of a multilingual policy. Putting linguistic-educational research into practice by implementing a transformative pedagogical approach is characterized by a process of trial and error, which has remained understudied. This chapter aims to fill this gap by adopting a case study approach that focuses on the implementation of a multilingual/cultural policy at a preschool in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. More than half of the children attending the preschool come from a multilingual background. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, consisting of observations, participations, interviews, and focus group discussions with different stakeholders, this chapter analyzes the mechanisms behind the preschool's switch from negatively undergoing multilingualism to positively engaging with it.


Author(s):  
Aoife Lenihan

New media and the new communication spaces they bring are often heralded as revolutionary contexts of language use. This chapter aims to look beyond this hype to consider the effects of this recent context of use on existing language policy theory. An initial case study is Facebook and its Translations application, which I examine using virtual ethnographic methods. In this context, the commercial entity Facebook and the individuals of the Irish language Translations application are the primary language policy actors, developing the de facto language policy of this domain and affecting the multilingual World Wide Web. It is concluded that commercial entities, technological developments, and individuals are not merely agents or actors in language policy processes. Instead, the author adopts the concepts of media convergence, participatory culture, and collective intelligence to understand how media producers and consumers act in new and unpredictable ways in language policy processes online.


Author(s):  
Colleen E. Chesnut

In Indiana and many other areas of the Midwest, Latino populations have recently experienced quite rapid growth. This study will focus on how Indiana’s state and local institutions, including government agencies, schools, and community organizations have responded to expansion of Latino communities, examining evidence of language policy and planning in these responses. An epistemological framework outlining the parameters of language policy and planning will be provided, as well as a brief historical narrative to set the context for Latinos settling in Indiana. Demographic data and document analysis reveal both the salience of this research for a growing Latino population and the current availability of resources and information aboutpolicy around language planning for this group. Findings illustrate that English remains the primary lingua franca for Indiana, though some evidence indicates scattered efforts to reach out to Latino citizens in Spanish through a variety of means. This research contributes to a growing body of literature on experiences of Latinos in the Midwest and policymakers’ efforts to better serve the needs of these growing communities.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 101-106
Author(s):  
Shkumbin Munishi Prishtina

Abstract Language relations as manifestations of the phenomenon of multilingualism are also expressed in the area of the so-called linguistic landscape. Undoubtedly, the linguistic landscape not only reflects the use of languages in public space but at the same time reveals the depth of public perception of different languages, depending on their function and prestige. In this paper, I will treat Albanian, English and Serbian rapports through their coverage in the Pristina linguistic landscape, focusing on the use of these languages in advertising space in the city of Prishtina and in other tables that perform semiotic functions of indexes in this city. Likewise, within the reflection of the status planning of languages in Prishtina linguistic landscape, the use of Serbian in the official tables will be treated. This case study will also reflect the features of language policy and the impact of the globalization phenomenon in different languages. The results presented in this paper will reflect on the field research within a certain time span. The research has shown that in the Pristina linguistic landscape, in addition to the Albanian language, English has a dense use, while the use of Serbian is mostly limited to official charts i.e. names of the streets of the city and is not found in private advertisements tables.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mary Lucy Roberts

<p>This thesis makes a contribution to the study of language maintenance and shift among New Zealand ethnic minority communities; it explores reasons for different rates of shift and different outcomes in relation to language maintenance in different communities; and the results are related to wide-ranging issues of New Zealand language policy. Research was undertaken in three minority immigrant groups in Wellington. The Gujarati community in Wellington is a major part of the Indian community totalling approximately 6,000 people at the time of the research; the Samoan community consisted of approximately 16,000 people, and the Dutch of 3,000. 141 members of the Gujarati community responded to questionnaires and interviews about themselves and their children, providing information on patterns of reported language proficiency, language use and attitudes to language maintenance from a total of 327 people. 184 Dutch respondents replied to a postal questionnaire about their own and their children's language knowledge, language usage patterns and attitudes to language maintenance, providing data on 412 people. 93 Samoan respondents filled out questionnaires and responded to interviews about themselves and their 133 children. Thus Information on a total of 965 New Zealanders belonging to minority immigrant communities was obtained. The data collected on patterns of language maintenance and shift is examined in the light of a wide range of language policy issues. The history of language and identity politics, minority immigration in New Zealand, and the immigration histories of the three groups are examined in detail, and the history of language and policy formation in New Zealand, is outlined and evaluated. The research focuses on the process of immigrant language maintenance and shift in the family and immediate community, and also investigates the role of language maintenance education in these processes. Information about language use processes in childhood and adulthood is presented. The Graded Intergeneration Disruption Stages scale, proposed by Joshua Fishman is tested against the information gathered on the three communities and found to be a useful heuristic device. The results of the research show that while processes of language maintenance and shift occur in all three communities, these processes take very different forms in each community, move at different speeds and. to date, have had very different outcomes. The reasons for the differences between the communities in these respects are examined in some detail. Finally, on the basis of the evidence provided by the research, language policy proposals are presented supporting the provision of government services in minority immigrant languages and indicating the advantages of state support for language maintenance education.</p>


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