Testing for linguistic injustice: territoriality and pluralism

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 1034-1052 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helder De Schutter
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Language Group ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Language Recognition ◽  
Linguistic Justice ◽  
Policy Measures

This article develops a linguistic injustice test. Language policy measures passing the test conflict with the normative ideal of equal language recognition. The first part of the test checks for external restrictions - language policies that grant more recognition to one language group than to another. The second part of the test checks for internal restrictions - language policies that grant more recognition to some members of a language group than to other members of the same group. The article then applies the linguistic injustice test to two models of linguistic justice: linguistic territoriality and linguistic pluralism. It is argued that real-life cases of linguistic territoriality tend to pass the test. It is argued that instantiations of linguistic pluralism tend to fail the test.

Tolerance and Control. Developing a language policy for an EMI university in Uzbekistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-237
Author(s):  
Andrew Linn ◽  
Anastasiya Bezborodova ◽  
Saida Radjabzade
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
The Other ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Language Ecology ◽  
English Only ◽  
English Medium Instruction ◽  
The One ◽  
And Control

AbstractThis article presents a practical project to develop a language policy for an English-Medium-Instruction university in Uzbekistan. Although the university is de facto English-only, it presents a complex language ecology, which in turn has led to confusion and disagreement about language use on campus. The project team investigated the experience, views and attitudes of over a thousand people, including faculty, students, administrative and maintenance staff, in order to arrive at a proposed policy which would serve the whole community, based on the principle of tolerance and pragmatism. After outlining the relevant language and educational context and setting out the methods and approach of the underpinning research project, the article goes on to present the key findings. One of the striking findings was an appetite for control and regulation of language behaviours. Language policies in Higher Education invariably fall down at the implementation stage because of a lack of will to follow through on their principles and their specific guidelines. Language policy in international business on the other hand is characterised by a control stage invariably lacking in language planning in education. Uzbekistan is a polity used to control measures following from policy implementation. The article concludes by suggesting that Higher Education in Central Asia may stand a better chance of seeing through language policies around English-Medium Instruction than, for example, in northern Europe, based on the tension between tolerance on the one hand and control on the other.

scholarly journals An Analysis of an EFL Teachers' Guide: A Case Study

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Nazari
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Classroom Activities ◽  
Teaching Objectives ◽  
Efl Teachers

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.

A minoritized language on both sides of the border: legal framework and language policy of Catalan in Andorra and Catalonia

Multilingua ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-168
Author(s):  
Juan Jiménez-Salcedo
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
The Other ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
State Schools

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.

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 An Economics Approach to Language Policy and Linguistic Justice

2018 ◽  
pp. 3-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bengt-Arne Wickström ◽  
Torsten Templin ◽  
Michele Gazzola
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Linguistic Justice

Language Policy Execution

2020 ◽  
pp. 579-614
Author(s):  
Paul Hendry Nkuna
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
South African ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Public Institution ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
South African Universities ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
The Republic

South Africa is a multilingual country with 11 official languages. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, provides that every learner may use the official language of his or her choice in any public institution of the country. The Language Policy for Higher Education (Ministry of Education, 2002) requires all South African universities to develop and execute language policies. This chapter focuses on language policy execution by South African universities. The emphasis is on the execution of language policy in relation to the promotion and development of the nine official indigenous languages, namely isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda and Xitsonga.

scholarly journals Language Policy and Planning: An Analysis of the Themes Present in Research in Brazil

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Socorro Cláudia Tavares de Sousa ◽  
Cynthia Israelly Barbalho Dionísio
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Language Policy And Planning ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Academic Journals ◽  
Languages In Contact ◽  
International Trends ◽  
The One ◽  
Policy And Planning

ABSTRACT The aim of this work is to present an overview of the themes discussed in the field of Language Policy and Planning over the last twenty-one years (1990-2010) in Brazil, comparing the alignment of Brazilian research with the international scenario. To that end, expanded notions of language policy were adopted (COOPER, 1989; SHIFFMAN, 1996, 2006; SPOLSKY, 2004, 2009, 2012) and a survey was carried out in order to find the number of articles in the field in a sample of abstracts from Brazilian academic journals of Linguistics and Literature. The main themes identified in this study were: educational language policies, language planning, languages in contact, diffusion of the Portuguese language, and (meta)linguistic knowledge and language policies. On the one hand, these themes show a convergence between Brazilian and international trends; however, on the other, they show a specific thematic trend in the former, that is, the interest in the constitution of (meta)linguistic knowledge in relation to language policy.

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.

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