Contesting the monolingual mindset

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
July De Wilde ◽  
Ellen Van Praet ◽  
Pascal Rillof
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
National Language ◽  
Service Encounters ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Immigrant Mothers ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork

This paper focuses on the day-to-day practices of service providers working with multilingual immigrants. It reports on 74 video recorded conversations between service providers and immigrant mothers, drawing on ethnographic fieldwork at Kind en Gezin, the organization that monitors childcare for the Flemish authorities in Belgium. In discussing the findings, we focus on two principal themes: First, we demonstrate what the language requirements enshrined in Belgium’s language policies entail for the day-to-day practices of service providers working with multilingual clients. Secondly, we argue that, in superdiverse contexts, the growing need is towards delegitimizing language policy makers’ protectionist claim that the national language should be the only language used in public service encounters.

Language policies for Hong Kong schools since 1997

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Kan ◽  
Bob Adamson
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
International Communication ◽  
National Language ◽  
Medium Of Instruction ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Mother Tongue Education ◽  
Important Means

Francis of Education (print)/1474-8479 (online) Article 2010 Language in education debates in Hong Kong focus on the role and status of English (as the former colonial language and an important means for international communication); Cantonese, the mother tongue of the majority of the population; and Putonghua, the national language of China. This paper examines the language policy formulated in 1997–1998, and finds that it radically departed from previous policies by mandating the use of Cantonese as the medium of instruction in secondary schools. The paper then analyses two subsequent policy revisions and concludes that, while the tonal emphasis on mother-tongue education has remained, the policy revisions have reversed the language policy to previous practices that emphasised the importance of English.

scholarly journals Parents as stakeholders: Language management in urban Galician homes

Multilingua ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anik Nandi
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Language Management ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
Language Revitalisation

AbstractMacro-level policy makers, perceived as stakeholders of language management, employ a range of language policy strategies to legitimise hegemonic control over meso- (i.e. family) and micro- (i.e. individual) level language ideologies (Cassels-Johnson 2013). However, language policies of an individual are often difficult to detect because they are implicit, subtle, informal, and often hidden from the public eye, and therefore frequently overlooked by language policy researchers and policy makers. The primary focus of this study is to investigate how individual, as well as collective linguistic practices of Galician parents act as language governmentality (Foucault 1991) measures influencing their children’s language learning. Drawing from multiple ethnographic research tools, including observations, in-depth fieldwork interviews and focus group discussions with parents, this paper demonstrates that in Galicia’s language shift-induced shrinking Galician-speaker pool, pro-Galician parents can play an important role in the language revitalisation process. The goal is also to ascertain whether these parents’ grassroots level interrogation of the dominant Castilian discourse takes the form of bottom-up language policies.

University language policies and language choice among Ph.D. graduates in Estonia: The (unbalanced) interplay between English and Estonian

Multilingua ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Josep Soler-Carbonell
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
National Language ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Discussion Section ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Global Language ◽  
A Site

AbstractThe role of English as a global language and its consequences for the internationalization of higher education are matters that have increasingly drawn the attention of researchers from different fields of language and communication. In this paper, an overview of the situation in Estonia is presented. The Estonian context has not previously been analyzed along these lines. The author suggests looking at Ph.D. dissertations as a site of tension between the need to effectively incorporate English as an academic language and the need to maintain Estonian as the national language. The article views this question in the context of some relevant language policy documents and other macro indicators. It then focuses on the number of Ph.D. dissertations defended at four main public universities in the last few years and the languages they have been written in. It appears that, although the language policy documents seem to correctly capture this tension between English and Estonian, the language most commonly used when writing dissertations is overwhelmingly English, with only the humanities providing some counterbalance to that trend. The current situation is different from that of past decades, when English was absent from Estonia’s scientific production and Estonian was significantly employed in that context, alongside Russian. In the discussion section, some lines for further inquiry are presented, together with a proposal for integrating complexity theory in such analyses.

Language Policy in South Asia

1981 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 60-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Braj B. Kachru
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
National Language ◽  
Basic Knowledge ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
The Political ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
The Status ◽  
Regional Languages

In the political divisions within South Asia there has traditionally been no organized effort for language policies.1 Language was essentially related to one's caste, village, district, and state. Beyond this, one identified with languages associated with religion (Sanskrit or Arabic), or learned and literary texts (mainly Sanskrit and Persian). At the time of Indian independence (1947), one task of the new government was to unravel the status and position of almost 560 sovereign states which were ruled by an array of mahārājās, nawābs, and lesser luminaries, depending on the size and the revenue of each state and subdivision. Each state state was a kindgom unto itself, and such political divisions did not foster a national language policy. In India, the largest country in South Asia, four languages were used for wider communication as bazār languages or languages of literature and intranational communication: Hindi (and its varieties, Hindustani and Urdu), Sanskrit, Persian, and later, English (cf., for Sanskrit, Kachru and Sridhar 1978; Sharma 1976; for English, Kachru 1969; 1982a). The Hindus tended to send their children to a pāṭhśālā (traditional Hindu school mainly for scriptural education) for the study of the scriptures and some basic knowledge of the śāastras (Sanskrit instructional texts, treatise), and the Muslims tended to send their children to a maktab (traditional school for Koranic instruction). The denominational schools (vidyāZaya) provided liberal arts instruction in Sanskrit, Persian, Hindi, Arabic, or in the regional languages.

scholarly journals THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE POLICY IN INDONESIA

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahmi Rahmi
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
National Language ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
International Language ◽  
Development Of Language ◽  
Domestic Level

Indonesia has successfully implemented language policy by choosing Malay language as its national language which enables to unite ethnics from a variety of vernaculars’ background. However, Indonesia is not considered successful enough in preserving indigenous languages and promoting English as a crucial international language. In comparison with Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines faced some challenges when applying a language of majority as national language. Yet, both countries have more focuses to develop English in domestic level for global purposes. There are some sociolinguistic challenges for Indonesian policy makers in terms of local, national and international languages.

Macro-Level policy and Micro-Level planning

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 3.1-3.18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Barkhuizen ◽  
Ute Knoch
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
South African ◽  
National Language ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Linguistic Context ◽  
Language Practices ◽  
Micro Level

This article reports on a study which investigated the language lives of Afrikaans-speaking South African immigrants in New Zealand. Particularly, it focuses on their awareness of and attitudes to language policy in both South Africa and New Zealand, and how these influence their own and their family’s language practices. Narrative interviews with 28 participants living in towns and cities across New Zealand reveal that while living in South Africa they were generally aware of macro-level language policies in the country, and were able to articulate how these policies influenced language practices at work and within their families. The absence of an explicit national language policy in New Zealand means that these immigrants, on arrival in New Zealand, base their understanding of the linguistic context in the country on the language practices that they observe in their day-to-day lives. It is these observations which guide their decision-making with regard to their own and their family’s language practices.

scholarly journals Perceptions of invisible Zhuang minority language in Linguistic Landscapes of the People’s Republic of China and implications for language policy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Grey
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Zhuang Language ◽  
Socially Situated

Abstract The article presents data from a 2013–2019 ethnography of Zhuang language policy to support an analysis of implications for language policy research and scholarship of findings about the (in)visibility of publicly displayed Zhuang. The analysis challenges core assumptions of language policy-making, advocacy and scholarship and explicates the general implications of this challenge beyond China, particularly for minority languages. The most important assumption that this article interrogates is that a written language on display will be recognised as that language by its speakers. Further, it argues that literacy, script, and other language policies impact on display policies and must work together; they do not in the Zhuang case. In making a case for language policy informed by ethnographic research, this article reviews the foundations of socially-situated analyses of Linguistic Landscapes. To galvanise further such research and articulate it to policy-makers, the article employs the term ‘lived landscape approach’.

PELAKSANAAN KEBIJAKAN BAHASA DI PULAU BURU (Implementation of Language Policy In Buru Island)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
HARZIKO
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Research Method ◽  
National Language ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Large Influence ◽  
District Government ◽  
Joint Study ◽  
Regional Languages

Politically, in Indonesia there are three languages, namely the national language, regional languages, and foreign languages. Long before the language policy was adopted to determine the function of the three languages, the leaders of the Indonesian struggle were based on the fact that Malay had been widely used as a lingua franca throughout the archipelago throughout the archipelago and that the system was quite simple, had established and adopted the Malay language. became the unifying language for all of Indonesia and gave it the name of Indonesian. This study aims to describe the Indonesian language policy carried out by the district government in hurry. the benefits of the research are expected to be a joint study and understanding to uncover the picture of language policies that have been carried out by the district government in preserving language. the research method is descriptive qualitative. the data in this study are all the rules made by the district government in implementing language policies. the results of the study showed that the language policy in the hurry was still very minimal due to the still large influence of the Malay language that happened in the community.Keywords. Languange, Indonesian Buru. Maluku

scholarly journals Language policy and linguistic landscaping in a contemporary blue-collar workplace in the Dutch–German borderland

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daan Hovens
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Blue Collar ◽  
Walking Distance ◽  
Construction Process ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Policy Mechanisms ◽  
Full Consideration ◽  
Over Time

AbstractThis article argues that an expanded view of linguistic landscapes provides a useful metaphor for exploring language policies. Following this view, “language policy” is defined as “linguistic landscaping” (i.e., placing language policy mechanisms which, together with already placed mechanisms, construct a metaphorical landscape). The application of this landscaping metaphor has several advantages, as it provides a way to imagine language policy as a continuously ongoing construction process, and as it provides a way to imagine the historical layers of a landscape, the overlap and connections between different landscapes, and the complex hierarchical positions within a landscape. The article is based on linguistic-ethnographic fieldwork in a metal foundry in the Dutch province of Limburg, within walking distance from the Dutch–German border. Specifically, it discusses why a group of senior production workers from Limburg were dissatisfied with the linguistically diverse landscape that had emerged in the foundry over time, even though the foundry’s management tried to place Dutch-speaking workers in the company’s sociolinguistic norm centre. Confirming the usefulness of the landscaping metaphor, the article shows that a full consideration of diverse historical and contemporary acts of both linguistic and semiotic landscaping helps explain why these workers experienced that their position in the foundry had become peripheralised over time. In conclusion, the article calls for more attention to the complex human experience, rather than just the detection, of sociolinguistic inequalities.

scholarly journals The complexity of family language policy decisions: The case of Cantonese and other regional Chinese varieties

2019 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 63-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Yaling ◽  
Li Danli ◽  
Gao Xuesong
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
National Language ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Chinese Parents ◽  
Family Language ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
Method Approach ◽  
Official Recognition

This paper explores the beliefs, attitudes, and efforts of parents with regard to the use and preservation of regional Chinese varieties including Cantonese in the region of Guangzhou, China. The study relied on a sequential mixed method approach, involving 771 parents who completed a parental questionnaire in an online survey on Chinese parents’ language ideology, practice, and management in the home domain, followed by semi-structured interviews of 10 of the surveyed participants to gather detailed data related to the questionnaire results. The study identified inconsistencies in the participants’ beliefs and actual language practice in the survey, revealing mediation by sociolinguistic complexities, national language policies, and socioeconomic conditions on family language decisions and practices. These remind us that the survival of regional Chinese varieties or linguistic varieties without official recognition requires conducive socio-political conditions, including relevant national language policies. The results also suggest that researchers should be particularly concerned by the decline of regional Chinese varieties other than Cantonese, which are not backed up by the national language policy but enjoy a similarly prestigious status to Cantonese in the region.

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