Tallinn: monolingual from above and multilingual from below

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (228) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastassia Zabrodskaja
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
Official Policy ◽  
Linguistic Backgrounds

AbstractThis article presents a microanalysis of multilingual signs collected in Tallinn, a city composed of approximately 50% Estonian speakers and 50% Russian speakers. The data reveal that despite the official language policy promoting Estonian as the dominant language, “multilingualism from below” is widespread. The graphic representation of languages in multilingual texts sometimes involves creative forms constructed from the combination of the Estonian and Russian languages or the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets (“script-switching” or “script-mixing”). Caught between the requirements of a Language Act that promotes Estonian as the country's official language and the real-life multilingual situation, businesses try to balance the official policy and desire of Estonian-speakers with a wish to attract the attention of local Russians and tourists towards their services and goods. This ethnographic study of the Tallinn linguistic landscape is supplemented by qualitative data regarding the perceptions of Russian- and Estonian-speaking students. Individual interviews provided information about how speakers with different mother tongues and linguistic backgrounds perceive Estonian-Russian signs. Estonian students show rather negative reactions to the presence of multilingual signs and bilingual wordplay, whereas Russian-speaking students express mainly positive responses to the Russian-Estonian hybrid signs.

‘Official language for intercultural ties’

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-177
Author(s):  
Jason Litzenberg
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Cultural Ideologies

Abstract This study considers the parallel expression of language policy toward Kichwa in the linguistic landscape of Yachay, two administratively independent government-funded institutions in Ecuador. Although the institutions share a geographic location, name, and goal of becoming a sciences and technology hub for Latin America, they maintain distinct identities through their official signage, providing opportunity for consideration of how recent political and cultural ideologies toward Ecuador’s language policy have been realized in the linguistic landscape of parallel institutions. Kichwa, a constitutionally-recognized minority language of the region, is largely absent from the landscape, providing little more than a shared institutional nomenclature. Instead, the language and culture are used as a commodity for promoting pan-Ecuadorian interculturality and indigenous values, even if these values are not otherwise overtly supported. Kichwa thus represents the ‘traditional’ Ecuador, while at the same time serves as the backbone in the formation of a collective, future-oriented national identity.

Language policies, language planning and linguistic landscapes in Timor-Leste

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Macalister
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Official Policy ◽  
Timor Leste ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
Bahasa Indonesia

Timor-Leste is a nation where three exogenous languages (Portuguese, Bahasa Indonesia, English) and one of many endogenous languages (Tetun) compete to be heard in public spaces. The constitution names both Tetun and Portuguese as co-official languages, and English and Bahasa Indonesia as working languages in the civil service; but official and de facto language policy are not necessarily the same. One mechanism that can mediate between ideology and practice, both as a way of imposing and of resisting official policy, is language in the public space. This paper demonstrates the insights that examining language in the public space can provide on language policy debates. It reports on the investigation of a linguistic landscape in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, and finds considerable difference between official language policy and language practices.

scholarly journals Inconsistencies and Adjustments in Language Policy: Evidence from the Linguistic Landscape

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Selim Ben-Said
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
State Government ◽  
The State ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Official Policy ◽  
Attitudinal Data ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Emergent Language

Taking effect immediately following Tunisia’s independence, Arabization has achieved mixed results with Arabic institutionally empowered but still competing with French. In fact, when examining the linguistic landscape, this monolingual policy is flouted both in terms of the bilingual Arabic-French Street signage but also challenged by people’s preferences. This paper examines inconsistencies between Arabic as the ‘language of the state’ (government-decreed), and the omnipresence of other ‘languages in the state’ (observed in representation and practice) in Tunisia. Street signage artefacts and attitudinal data also illustrate how language policies are responded to and experienced by Tunisians. Data consists of different types of private inscriptions and public signs, governmental decrees, as well as attitudinal surveys and interviews. The juxtaposition of urban signs with the official policy on multilingualism provides an illustrative account of the complexities of the linguistic situation in Tunisia, which blends top-down advocacies of Arabization, ambivalent attitudes to Arabic-French Bilingualism, as well as a growing interest in English as the emergent language of globalization.

scholarly journals Intersections of official and family language policy in Quebec

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Ballinger ◽  
Melanie Brouillard ◽  
Alexa Ahooja ◽  
Ruth Kircher ◽  
Linda Polka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Institutional Support ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Family Language Policy ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Public Language ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Family Language

The current paper describes a study that sought to determine the beliefs, practices, and needs of parents living in Montreal, Quebec, who were raising their children bi/multilingually. The parents (N = 27) participated in a total of nine focus group and individual interviews in which they discussed their family language policies (language ideologies, practices, and actions taken to maintain a language). Through rounds of deductive and inductive coding and analysis, family language policies regarding English and/or French were compared with policies regarding heritage languages. The participants’ family language policies were further examined in light of Quebec’s official language policy of interculturalism. Findings indicate a complex co-existence of family and official language policy in which parents both support Quebec’s official language policy by converging towards French as a common public language and questioning the policy’s stance on official institutional support for heritage languages.

The Politics of Arabic in Israel

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camelia Suleiman
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Political Identities ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
The One

Arabic became a minority language in Israel in 1948, as a result of the Palestinian exodus from their land that year. Although it remains an official language, along with Hebrew, Israel has made continued attempts to marginalise Arabic on the one hand, and secutise it on the other. The book delves into these tensions and contradictions, exploring how language policy and language choice both reflect and challenge political identities of Arabs and Israelis. It combines qualitative methods not commonly used together in the study of Arabic in Israel, including ethnography, interviews with journalists and students, media discussions, and analysis of the production of knowledge on Arabic in Israeli academia.

Management strategies to improve French language service coordination and continuity for official language Francophone seniors in Canada

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 271-276
Author(s):  
Danielle de Moissac ◽  
Jacinthe Savard ◽  
Sébastien Savard ◽  
Florette Giasson ◽  
Lucy-Ann Kubina
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Access ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Language Barriers ◽  
French Language ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Resource Limitations ◽  
Official Language Minority ◽  
Canadian Provinces ◽  
Access And Quality

Evidence suggests that language barriers present obstacles to healthcare access and quality for Francophone seniors in official language minority communities across Canada. Addressing language barriers and providing continuity is challenging, as French language services (FLSs) rely heavily on bilingual providers and the practice of active offer by all staff. This qualitative research used semi-structured group and individual interviews to explore mechanisms supporting FLS coordination and continuity in two Canadian provinces. Identification of the language variable in health records, virtual healthcare, and FLS directories are conducive to FLS continuity, but financial and resource limitations present major obstacles. Management strategies to facilitate continuity of FLS across health organizations are discussed.

scholarly journals A process for the development of a psychosocial educational programme to facilitate the reintegration of incarcerated women who had dumped babies and / or committed infanticide in Namibia

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
Ndempavali Sumpi ◽  
Hans Justus Amukugo
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Phase 1 ◽  
Correctional Facility ◽  
Incarcerated Women ◽  
Educational Programme ◽  
Situational Analysis ◽  
Phase 3 ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Analysis Phase ◽  
Experiences Of Women

The aim of this paper is to describe the steps/process used to develop a psychosocial educational programme to facilitate the reintegration of incarcerated women who had dumped babies and / or committed infanticide in Namibia. This process was done in four phases namely Phase 1, was carried out to explore and describe the lived experiences of women who had dumped and / or committed infanticide. The researcher used in-depth unstructured individual interviews for data collection and data was analysed by using Tech’s method of qualitative data analysis. Phase 2, focuses on the conceptualisation framework guided the development of a psychosocial educational programme that facilitated the reintegration process of women who had dumped and / or committed infanticide. The educational programme included the activities suggested in the survey list of Dickoff et al. (1968); namely, agent, recipient, context, dynamics, procedures, and terminus. Phase 3, focused on the development of a psychosocial educational programme to facilitate the reintegration process of women who had dumped their babies and / or committed infanticide. The survey list of Dickoff et al. (1968) was adopted as a reasoning map in the construction of the development of a psychosocial educational programme, as well as the findings of the situational analysis of this study. And Phase 4, focused on the implementation and evaluation of the psychosocial educational programme that was developed to facilitate the reintegration of incarcerated women who had dumped babies and / or committed infanticide. A three-day training workshop was held at the Oluno Correctional Facility to conduct the educational programme. The educational programme was evaluated in order to validate whether the programme interventions were likely to bring about the desired change among the participants.A process for the development of a psychosocial educational programme to facilitate the reintegration of incarcerated women who had dumped babies and / or committed infanticide in Namibia

scholarly journals Overcoming Aggressive Monolingualism: Prejudices and Linguistic Diversity in Russian Megalopolises

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 672-689
Author(s):  
Vlada Baranova ◽  
Kapitolina Fedorova
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Labor Migrants ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
Multilingual Communication ◽  
The One ◽  
Everyday Reality

AbstractThe study deals with linguistic prejudices of citizens of the two main Russian cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, toward speakers of foreign languages. It aims to reveal possible recent changes in the language ideology dominating Russian society. Monolingual and linguistically normative orientations rooted in the Soviet ideological approach are being challenged nowadays by global processes of migration and cultural diversification, which influence the everyday reality of Russian megalopolises. The research is based on the analysis of two sets of data: (1) meta-discourse on language attitudes derived from interviews with labor migrants and native Russian speakers in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and posts and comments on issues of language, migration, and linguistic landscapes, collected from websites and social media and (2) linguistic landscape data collected in 2016–2019, mainly in St. Petersburg, which reflect recent changes in attitude toward linguistic diversity in public space. These data show, on the one hand, that most city dwellers still relate to monolingual speech norms and try to implement control over public space; on the other hand, that the tolerance toward multilingual communication has been increasing over the years. The study suggests that these “first cracks” in monolinguals facades of Russian cities could eventually lead to the establishing of a less rigid language regime.

Impacts and implications of English as the corporate official language policy: A case in Japan

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-129
Author(s):  
Saeko Ozawa Ujiie
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Foreign Market ◽  
Official Language ◽  
English Only ◽  
Common Solution ◽  
Corporate Official ◽  
Multilingual Learning ◽  
Japanese Employees ◽  
Japanese Speaker ◽  
Corporate Language

AbstractIncreasing numbers of corporations are now operating across national borders as a result of globalization. The “language barrier” is the first and foremost challenge they encounter when starting a business in a foreign market, and many companies are trying to solve the problem by adopting a common corporate language. Using English as an official corporate language is the most common solution for those corporations. The present study explored the impacts of English as a corporate official language policy implemented at a company, a rapidly developed high profile IT Company with 20,000 employees, in Japan, a country often perceived to be relatively monolingual and monocultural. When I started studying the company, I first found that the company’s motive to use English as the official corporate language was different from other instances of corporate language policy making I had come across. In previous studies (e.g., Feely & Harzing 2003; Marschan-Piekkari, Welch, & Welch 1999), the companies implemented common corporate language to solve problems caused by language barriers between employees with diverse linguistic backgrounds. However, the company in this study implemented the corporate language policy to prepare for globalization and recruit talents globally. When the company introduced the English-only language policy, most of the employees of the company were Japanese. Therefore, at the time of implementing the language policy, there was no compelling reason for them to use English. The language policy did not work effectively except for a few departments with non-Japanese employees who spoke different first languages. English functioned as a lingua franca in those departments with multinational employees. The findings indicate that for NNESs (non-native English speakers) to communicate with each other in English, the environment has to be more multilingual, less dominated by a single first language. Although almost all Japanese citizens are required to take intensive English courses in compulsory schoolings, the average level of English proficiency is considered to be relatively low in the advanced economies. The present study indicates that it is not for linguistic competence but a lack of interaction with other ELF speakers. Therefore, for learners of ELF in an intensely monolingual society such as Japan to become competent communicators in ELF, providing multilingual learning environments would be more effective than the prevailing teaching practices of classroom learning in L1 Japanese speaker only environments.

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