Onderwijsbeleid en Praktijk in de Meertalige Samenleving

2005 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 103-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludovic Beheydt

The multilingual society is a fact, both in Belgium and in the Netherlands. Minority languages like Arab, Turkish or Hindi have a strong position, even though they are not officially supported. English and the major European languages, on the other hand, have a protected status in education. The European modern languages are being promoted by the official European language policy. The minority languages, however, do not have an official status in education in Flanders and the Netherlands. The academic world asks for more official recognition of the minority languages and resists the idea that all efforts should go into majority standard language education. The official policy, on the other hand, gives absolute priority to the learning of the majority Dutch standard language, as a means to integration of minority groups. Officially, multilingualism is fostered only in so far as the modern European languages are concerned. In Belgium the multilingual language policy is hampered by the existence of a series of language laws that complicate multilingual education.

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Folkert Kuiken ◽  
Elisabeth van der Linden

The European Union encourages all its citizens to be able to speak two languages in addition to their mother tongue. However, since the content of educational systems is the responsibility of individual member states, promoting multilingualism depends on the language policy of each member state. Still, countries may learn from practices and experiences in other countries. The similarities and differences between two case studies may be instructive from that point of view. In this paper, language policy and language education in two EU member states are compared with each other: the Netherlands on the one hand and Romania on the other. Questions that will be raised are: what are the linguistic rights of the minority groups, which languages are taught to whom, and to which degree is multilingualism an issue in both countries? Despite differences between the two countries, some striking similarities are observed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lubei Zhang ◽  
Linda Tsung ◽  
Zhuoma

This paper explores sustainable multilingual education policy for minority languages in one of the higher education institutions (HEI) in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) in China. Following Spolsky’s theory of language policy ecology, this study conducted a survey of 276 students, examining the language education policy implemented inside and outside the classroom in their campus lives. The data were analyzed from the perspective of policy orientation, management issues and actual linguistic practice. The results showed that Chinese, Tibetan and English were all valued and respected in the current policy; however, the academic function of language was mainly undertaken by Chinese, while the social function was equally shouldered by Chinese and Tibetan. The findings gave us an insight into the present status of language education in this specific HEI in Tibet, and further offered valuable information for the design of sustainable multilingual policies for minority education at the higher education level in China.


Multilingua ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tove Bull ◽  
Leena Huss ◽  
Anna-Riitta Lindgren

Abstract The research question of the present paper is the following: to what degree (if any) is gender relevant as an explanatory factor in, firstly, the process of assimilation and later, the process of (re)vitalisation of indigenous and minority languages in northern Fenno-Scandia (the North Calotte)? The assimilation of the ethnic groups in question was a process initiated and lead by the authorities in the three different countries. Finland, Sweden and Norway. Nevertheless, members of the indigenous and minority groups also took part in practicing, though, not necessarily promoting, the official assimilation politics, for different reasons. (Re)vitalisation, on the other hand, was initially – and still is – mostly a process stemming from the minority groups themselves, though the authorities to a certain extent have embraced it. The paper thus addresses the question of whether gender played a role in the two different processes, assimilation and (re)vitalisation, and if that was the case, how and why.


1988 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 93-104
Author(s):  
Hendrik Boeschoten

The diversity of finite tense/aspect/modality markers in Turkish means, firstly, that the functional load for each of them is more restricted than in western European languages, and secondly that for certain discourse types specific forms are usually selected. Thus these forms may constitute rather transparant morphological indicators for the semantics of separate utterances. A case in point are descriptions of scenes (such as picture descriptions) which are based on a simple binary tense/aspect-opposition (pres.tense +Iyor for action): (perfect +mIş for states). Stones about happenings in the past on the other hand tend to centre around the opposition (neutral +DI):(imperfective [durative +Iyordu]: [iterative +()rdI]). In the paper the patterns of acquisition of these oppositions in the speech of children growing up in the Netherlands is analyzed on the basis of picture descriptions and interviews. In the picture descriptions it was found that the 4-year-old kinder-garteners frequently used +DI where one would expect + mIs in adult language. This form has almost completely disappeared in the descrip-tions by the 5-year-old children. Frequent marking with +DI reappears in the descriptions by the 7-year-olds; with them, however, the use of the +DI-forms are not a sign for the lack of differentiation from +mIs but rather reflect the fact that the pictures offered for descrip-tion were sequences: by this age the children are aware that the pictures in fact are not merely separate scenes so that they connect them with +DI-forms, mostly together with the conjunction (ondan) sonra "and then". The same acquisitional pattern is reflected in the data from two control groups of children growing up in Turkey. This is interpreted as resulting from the lack of morpho-syntactic difficulties involved: the acquisitional pattern quite directly reflects the development of cognitive skills.


2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-575
Author(s):  
Nikolaos Lavidas

Abstract We analyze the rise and loss of isoglosses in two Indo-European languages, early Greek and early English, which, however, show considerable distance between their structures in many other domains. We follow Keidan’s approach (2013), that has drawn the attention on the fact that the study of isoglosses (i.e., linguistic features common to two or more languages) is connected with common innovations of particular languages after the split into sub-groups of Indo-European: this type of approach aims at collecting isoglosses that appear across the branches of Indo-European. We examine the rise of the isogloss of labile verbs and the loss of the isogloss of the two classes of aspectual verbs in early Greek and early English. Our study shows that the rise of labile verbs in both languages is related to the innovative use of intransitives in causative constructions. On the other hand, the innovations in voice morphology follow different directions in Greek and English and are unrelated to the rise of labile verbs. In contrast to labile verbs, which are still predominant for causative-anticausative constructions in both languages, the two classes of aspectual verbs are lost in the later stages of Greek but are predominant even in Present-day English. Again, a “prerequisite” change for the isogloss can be easily located in a structural ambiguity that is relevant for aspectual verbs in early Greek and early English. However, another independent development, the changes in verbal complementation (the development of infinitival and participial complements) in Greek and English, determined the loss of this isogloss.


2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-127
Author(s):  
Rossella Maraffino

Abstract In this paper, I will deal with the diffusion pattern of the progressive periphrases (PROGPER) attested in the minority languages that are present in the areas of Swiss Grisons, Trentino-Alto Adige and Friulian Carnia. I will individualize on the one hand the vectors of diffusion between the standard languages and the minority varieties; on the other hand, I will explain the mechanism of adaptation or re-elaboration of the borrowed structure in the replica language. Finally, I will pinpoint which of this structure replication seems to be the result of an internal development witnessed in the Alpine area.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Bradley

AbstractMost nations in mainland Southeast Asia and elsewhere have one national language as a focus of national identity and unity, supported by a language policy which promotes and develops this language. Indigenous and immigrant minority groups within each nation may be marginalized; their languages may become endangered. Some of the official national language policies and ethnic policies of mainland Southeast Asian nations aim to support both a national language and indigenous minority languages, but usually the real policy is less positive. It is possible to use sociolinguistic and educational strategies to maintain the linguistic heritage and diversity of a nation, develop bilingual skills among minority groups, and integrate minorities successfully into the nations where they live, but this requires commitment and effort from the minorities themselves and from government and other authorities. The main focus of this paper is two case studies: one of language policy and planning in Myanmar, whose language policy and planning has rarely been discussed before. The other is on the Lisu, a minority group in Myanmar and surrounding countries, who have been relatively successful in maintaining their language.


Multilingua ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-168
Author(s):  
Juan Jiménez-Salcedo

Abstract This article analyzes the legislation of the two territories that have the most advanced legal framework regarding language policies towards Catalan: Andorra and Catalonia. The study of the legislation in relation to contexts of social and institutional use shows how this legal framework is not sufficient to change Catalan from being a minoritized language, since the phenomenon of minoritization is innate to the ecosystem in which languages develop. This ecosystem is conditioned by the presence of Castilian as a lingua franca on both sides of the border between Andorra and Catalonia. In the case of Andorra, its status as a cross-border microstate makes it a plurilingual space with Castilian as a socially cross-cutting language; moreover, the fact that until recently there was no network of state schools hindered Catalan language normalisation efforts. Catalonia, on the other hand, is an even more complex example on account of how the implementation of llengua pròpia policy contradicts the constitutional control the Spanish state exercises on this.


2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-155
Author(s):  
Joan F. Chevalier

Subtractive bilingualism is widespread throughout Siberia, with indigenous youth often more proficient in Russian than in their non-Russian local languages. Siberia’s national schools, which are secondary schools offering instruction in local languages of Russia, provide critical institutional support for minority languages. The goal of this interdisciplinary regional study is to present an overview of national schools’ development in two neighboring southern Siberian republics, Altai and Tyva, up to the present, and to evaluate the role of national schools’ local language programs in promoting language vitality. The study examines a shift in priorities and challenges in local language education since 1991, the factors contributing to the shift, particularly federally-enacted educational reforms, and what has been done in these regions to meet these challenges.


Via Latgalica ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Sanita Lazdiņa

<p><em>The aim of this article is to identify links observable in social practice between the process of multilingualism and the teaching of language and other subjects in school, as well as associated opportunities and models which are supported by the strengthening of interdisciplinary aspects.</em></p><p><em>The article consists of five sections: the first two mainly theoretical, the last three – supported by empirical evidence. The first section is devoted to a theoretical explanation of the basic elements of language policy referenced by the title (language practices, ideology, and language management). Two approaches in modern education – the so-called monoglossic and heteroglossic approach – which reflect certain ideology about language teaching methods, are described in the second section. The third section provides insight into Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)</em> <em>and the realization of this method in Latvia, while the fourth details the planning and practice of “Regional Studies” as a subject of study from the perspective of the heteroglossic approach. The fifth chapter outlines the experience of multilingual education in the European context, analyzing language education policies in the province of Friesland.</em></p><p><em>The questions raised in the article have been evaluated in practice by: 1) preparing a publication on the CLIL approach internationally and in Latvia, and cooperating with teachers in all Latvian regions who utilize this approach in their schools; 2) leading teacher training courses on the use of digital tools in the teaching of Regional Studies and other subjects (conducted in Rēzekne in March and April of 2015); 3) collecting evidence from trilingual schools in the Dutch province of Friesland (lessons in six schools were observed in October 2015; additionally, interviews were conducted with teachers, schoolchildren and principals).</em></p><em>In Latvian schools, both the monoglossic and heteroglossic approaches are observable. However, these different approaches are not mutually exclusive; rather, they exist on a continuum. It is recommended that schools in Latvia be given greater autonomy to choose their own language policies, in a similar fashion to the Frisian schools previously described in the ethnographic observations; this is not to speak against state language policy, but merely to highlight a need for school language policy to reflect regional specifics and context. </em>


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