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’.

Language Policy in the Republic of china

1981 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 33-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kwock-Ping Tse
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Past ◽  
Continuous Evolution ◽  
The Republic Of China ◽  
The Republic

This review has as its major scope language policy as it has been practied in the province of Taiwan of the Republic of China (ROC). Language policies of the nation from 1911 to 1949 (i.e., from the establishment of the republic in the Mainland to the time when the central goverment of the ROC moved to Taiwan) will also be reviewed as they bear significantly upon the current policies. The reason for this is quite obvious, since the current policies are the result of a continuous evolution of policies in the past. In the following sections three areas will be presented: 1) a brief sociolinguistic profile of the major and minority languages in the ROC; 2) the functional allocation of languages; 3) the language policies as actually practiced today.

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.

Language Policy and Ideology

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Special Administrative Region ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Economic Considerations ◽  
Modern Nation State

This chapter discusses language policies in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR since 1997) and Taiwan. The term “Greater China” refers to these three territories. Contemporary language policies in the region are driven by the need for, and play a vital role in, building a unified modern nation-state. The discussion notes that language policy is informed and shaped by language ideologies and attitudes, as well as by sociohistorical, geopolitical, and economic considerations. All three territories have witnessed drastic socioeconomic and political change since the last two decades of the twentieth century. Such transformations have undoubtedly left their impact on their languages and language policies.

The porous borders of language and nation

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren R. Zentz
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Linguistic Ideologies ◽  
Local Language ◽  
Central Java ◽  
Research Interviews

This analysis of language use and legislation in globalization highlights challenges to and crossings of the borders of Indonesian nationalist ideologies and local language ecologies. Through the specific workings of language and languaging in situ, here explored through three brief examples of language use and ideologies in Central Java, I analyze university English majors’ discussions of the local meaningfulness of English. The analysis demonstrates that institutional language policies are simultaneously subverted by and influential in local language hierarchies. The discussions analyzed come from the students’ written Sociolinguistics class assignments while I was their teacher and from research interviews that they participated in with me, both in which I ask participants about the borders of what can be defined as the English language, and the borders of linguistic ideologies and nationalism in contemporary Indonesia. With an intent stemming from the very origins of language policy research to generate ideas for how state apparatuses might better serve their constituents (Fishman, 1974), this information is essential for understanding the limitations and opportunities that states are instrumental in creating among their citizenries.

scholarly journals Remarks on the Diversity of Theoretical Perspectives in Language Policy Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leandro Rodrigues Alves Diniz ◽  
Elias Ribeiro da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives

ABSTRACT In this article, which opens the second issue of Volume 19 of Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada, we discuss some existing epistemological divergences in language policy research. In the first section, two lines of divergence will be outlined: (i) the focus on official versus de facto language policies; (ii) the conception of language policymakers versus subjects of language policies. In the second section, based on the analysis of titles of thematic issues, dossiers and books recently published in Brazil, we argue that this diversity of perspectives may be clearly noticed in the research carried out in the country. We finish our text highlighting some issues that have gained strength in the Brazilian research agenda.

scholarly journals The Ukrainian language in the polylingual space of Transcarpathia

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-19
Author(s):  
Halyna Shumytska ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
The State ◽  
Border Region ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
State Language

This article explores trends in language policies in the Transcarpathian region during 1991–2020 within the general Ukrainian sociopolitical context. It is argued that the status of the Ukrainian language as the state language in the region has become strengthened as evidenced by recent developments in language planning and language policy, including the adoption of the Law “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Lan-guage as the Official Language”. However, the manipulation of the language question in Ukraine, especially in the border regions, has taken on a political character, spreading beyond the borders of the state, threatening the constitutional order and the state sovereignty of Ukraine, in particu-lar in education, economics, and legal sphere. In Transcarpathia, a multi-ethnic border region in the extreme west of Ukraine, warrants attention of both scholars and politicians. This article looks into the changes in the Ukrainian language policies in the local state administration, and the importance of the Ukrainian president office in this regard. Specific features of the linguo-political situation in Transcarpathia, viewed at different periods of its development from the independence of Ukraine in 1991 on-ward, are presented. This study determines the role of the media in shaping a regional linguo-political situation, including the Internet media language space. The paper provides data of a comprehensive analy-sis of the results of the 2017–2019 external independent evaluation as an indicator of language competence of the participants of EIE, the results of research on the perception of educational language innovations in the region through a survey of different categories of respondents during 2018, the monitoring of experimental experience in implementing elements of multilingual edu-cation in educational institutions in Ukraine, particularly in Transcarpathia. The author outlines prospects for continued research in the framework of the project “Debat ing Linguistic Diversity: Managing National Minority Languages in Ukraine and Russia” (2020–2023). Keywords: language policy, language situation, state language, mother tongue, minority language, multilingual education, mass media.

scholarly journals Translinguistic apposition in a multilingual media blog in Rwanda: Towards an interpretive perspective in language policy research

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Gafaranga
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Single Source ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Third Way ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Interpretive Perspective

AbstractResearchers have called for studies that link the macro and the micro in language policy research. In turn, the notion of ‘micro’ has been theorised as referring either to the micro implementation of macro policies or to micro policies. In this article, a third way of thinking about the relationship between the macro and the micro in language policy—referred to as the interpretive perspective—is proposed. In this perspective, macro language policies and micro language choice practices are seen as interdependent, as shaping each other. The article substantiates this view drawing on a practice I call translinguistic apposition and that I have observed in a variety of ‘most highly regulated’ texts in Rwanda. However, for an in- depth understanding, the practice is described drawing on data from a single source, namely the Rwandan multilingual media blog www.igihe.com. The article demonstrates how this practice can be seen as shaped by the Rwandan macro language policy and, conversely, how the same macro policy can be seen as written into being through the same micro level practice. (Language policy, micro language policy, micro implementation of macro policy, translanguaging, translinguistic apposition, interpretive perspective)

scholarly journals Alcune considerazioni sulla situazione attuale della lingua svana

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessio Giordano
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Literary Language ◽  
Endangered Language ◽  
Bear Witness ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Linguistic Communities

This paper features the current situation of the Svan-speaking linguistic communities in Georgia, the Georgian language policies and the attempts made to make Svan a literary language. In 2013, Richard Bærug published Svan Youth Literature, a book containing short stories written by young Svans; this and other recent publications seem to bear witness to the vitality of this endangered language. Anyway, language policy in Georgia still looks far from accepting the Kartvelian languages different from Georgian as separate languages, although other minority languages are earning evident privileges. Recent studies have shed light on some of these problems, which however take on greater meaning when viewed from the diachronic perspective hereby presented.

No language policy without translation policy

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reine Meylaerts ◽  
Gabriel González Núñez
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Linguistic Minorities ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Linguistic Rights ◽  
Linguistic Integration ◽  
Similarities And Differences

Abstract A major challenge for authorities in the modern world is the linguistic integration of minorities. In this context, language policies play a key role as authorities are increasingly faced with the challenge of adjusting their language policies in order to secure the linguistic rights and thus the integration of their multilingual populations. In multilingual democracies, these language policies must include choices about the use or non-use of translation. These choices, when they are systematic, become policies of their own in terms of translation. Thus, translation policies arise in part as a consequence of language policies, and there can be no language policy without an attendant translation policy. This article sheds light on the role of translation policies as part of language policy. Specifically, it shows that translation policies can be a tool for integration and recognition or exclusion and neglect of speakers of minority languages and therefore deserve special attention. This is done by comparing the translation policies adopted in Flanders and Wales, both as applied to autochthonous linguistic minorities and allochthonous linguistic minorities. Lessons can be learned from the similarities and differences of translation policies in these two regions.

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.

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