scholarly journals Whose parallellingualism? Overt and covert ideologies in Danish university language policies

Multilingua ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Kristina Hultgren
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Supplementary Data ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Guiding Principle ◽  
Workplace Discourse ◽  
The University ◽  
Newspaper Articles

AbstractThis paper aims to contribute to the study of multilingualism in the workplace by analysing top-down language policies advocating parallellingualism at Denmark’s eight universities. Parallellingualism, a key concept in Nordic language policy, has been suggested as a way to ensure an equitable balance between English and the Nordic language(s) without the former encroaching on the latter. Drawing on theories which consider discourses about language to constitute positioning for or against a particular social, moral or political order (Cameron 2012), the paper contrasts state- and institution-authored university language policies. The overall aim is to understand what the different actors mean when they invoke ‘parallellingualism’. Supplementary data consist of a corpus of newspaper articles on the topic of the use of English and Danish at Danish universities published in the same period as the university language policies. It is argued that while both state and institution-authored policies overtly advocate ‘parallellingualism’ as a guiding principle for managing multilingualism at Danish universities, in the state-authored policies, this seems to mean ‘more Danish’, while in the institution-authored policies it seems to mean ‘more English’. Some underlying ideologies of each of these positions are proposed before the implications for workplace discourse are discussed.

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.

Language policies in the successor states of former Yugoslavia

2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ranko Bugarski
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Language Rights ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Paper Briefly ◽  
New States ◽  
Legal Equality ◽  
Linguistic Means

Former Yugoslavia followed an internationally acclaimed language policy of constitutional and legal equality of its numerous languages. Anticipating or accompanying the disintegration of this federation, the new states arising on its territory published their constitutions in the period 1990–1993. This paper briefly surveys the basic provisions concerning the official use of languages in each of them and attempts, on the basis of the often scant evidence available, to assess their actual implementation. It is concluded that, whereas language policy in former Yugoslavia was fairly consistent, its successor states display more variety. The inherited spirit of tolerance and language rights still survives in some respects, but there are also clear indications of favouring the linguistic means associated with the “state nation”, at the expense of old and new minorities. The administrative multiplication of the former federation’s largest language, Serbo-Croatian, is likewise noted, as is the general need to complement internal measures of language policy with external ones in preparation for life in tomorrow’s world.

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 Translating language policy into practice: Language and culture policy at a Dutch university

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Haines ◽  
Anje Dijk
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Dual Language ◽  
Complex Environment ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Intercultural Skills ◽  
Key Players ◽  
English Medium Instruction ◽  
The University

AbstractThe CEFR will only achieve its potential in higher education if it is embedded in a meaningful way in the wider processes of the university. One means of embedding the CEFR is through policy, and in this article we report the development of a language policy in the broader context of internationalization at a Dutch university. We describe some the challenges involved in developing and extending this policy to stakeholders across the complex environment of a modern university, particularly from the perspective of one of the key players in this process, the university Language Centre. A growth of English-medium instruction (EMI) programmes has coincided with a greater emphasis on internationalization in the university’s strategy, and this has resulted in the establishment of an International Classroom (IC) project and a supporting Language and Culture (L&C) policy. The L&C policy aims to be both top down and bottom up, with a dual language focus on English and Dutch, while also recognizing the inter-relation between linguistic and intercultural skills. We believe that the growth of EMI programmes has acted as a catalyst for the extension of the L&C policy beyond the EMI setting to the university as a whole, and that the CEFR can play a role in providing a bridge from an EMI-focused perspective on internationalization to a discussion of language policy as it affects the entire university community.

scholarly journals Postsocialism or when ‘Having’ is another Way of ‘Being’. The Reconfiguring of Identity through Land Restitution and the Narratives of the Past

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-56
Author(s):  
Elena Chiorean
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Official Discourse ◽  
The Past ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
Land Restitution

Abstract In this paper I examine the consequences of the 1989 political overturn in Romania on the selfhood. To this purpose, I initiate a twofold analysis: the official discourse of both socio-political systems, socialism and liberalism, and the individual’s quotidian discourse. The first one will enable a comparative view, over the ’bottom-up’ constructed realities, and the second will account for the degree of pervasiveness and naturalization of ideological views and, in this way, of a “top-down” identity construction and its configurations. One of the most apprehensible provisions through which liberalism endeavoured to institutionalize its own way of setting out reality is land restitution. Thereafter, I will discuss the way re-appropriation was experienced and its various subjectivization trajectories, but also the wider frame of the postsocialist economic transformations: rethinking work, money, the state and the interrelations between them. This particular angle of sight will disclose the mechanisms through which liberalism has deconstructed the system of socialist meaning and representation, at the same time replacing it with a socio-political order which reconfigured these meanings.

Demolitions and Dread, 1961–1964

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Demshuk
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Top Down ◽  
The Public ◽  
Party Line ◽  
Architectural Competitions ◽  
The University

Having learned its lessons in 1960, the State pursued demolitions through the following years without serious architectural competitions or involving the public. Each time the wrecking ball danced through another monument protest letters increased in number and severity, until at last the surprise 1963 toppling of the Baroque Johannis tower, directly east of the University Church, was seen by many to anticipate the destruction of the University Church as foretold in 1960. Extreme letter exchanges unleashed the regime’s open hatred for citizens who failed to correspond to its imagined majority of supporters, and the inconceivable defection of leading authorities from the party line prompted a tightening of top-down control. Although the scale of protest frightened the regime into delaying its plans for some years, engaged citizens rejoiced but were circumspect. For by now they hardly believed anything promised from above, and the regime gave no promises in 1964, only silence.

Language policy mechanisms and social practices in multilingual Luxembourg

2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristine Horner
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
The State ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
National Languages ◽  
Global And Local ◽  
Policy Mechanisms ◽  
Local Levels

Taking fluctuations in Luxembourgish language policy as a springboard for discussion, this paper is informed by two interrelated theoretical points that have been flagged in recent language policy scholarship. The first is the move to view language policy as encompassing much more than documents declaring “official” and “national” languages, which is connected to the assertion that language policy is never absent and that it is necessary for scholars to grapple with both explicit and implicit dimensions of policy. Second, a case is made for exploring the dynamics of language policy in a wide range of settings, considering both “top-down” implementations and acts “from below” ranging from compliance to resistance. A close look at the interrelationship between language policy mechanisms and social practices shows that events unfolding at the global and local levels need to be taken into account in addition to those at the level of the state.

Post-war Kosovo landscapes in Pristina: discrepancies between language policy and urban reality

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 804-825 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uranela Demaj ◽  
Mieke Vandenbroucke
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Dynamic Nature ◽  
The Public ◽  
State Constitution ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Post War

This paper focuses on the complex nature of post-war multilingual landscapes in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, as shaped by the country's political shift after independence in 2008. We aim to contribute to this sociolinguistically underexplored territory through an examination of the relative predominance and visibility of the capital's most dominant languages: Albanian, Serbian, and English. Our central aim is to empirically problematize the shared co-officialdom of the Albanian and Serb languages, as put forward in the “Ahtisaari Plan” in 2007 and subsequently adopted in the State Constitution in 2008 and Language Laws in 2006 and 2008. We posit that the multilingual language policies which paint an inclusive, multi-ethnic picture of Pristina do not coincide with its monolingual Albanian reality. In addition to these empirical findings, our second aim is to contribute to the theorization of authorship in the public sphere. With reference to the Pristina context, we problematize the analytical categorization conventionally made between top-down and bottom-up agency and distinguish a third category of semi-official authorship. This third category enables us to examine the dynamic nature of the discrepancy between Kosovo's language policy and Pristina's urban linguistic reality in more detail.

scholarly journals Plurilingualism in Morocco: Issues and Challenges to Language Policy

2020 ◽  
pp. 6-13
Author(s):  
Asma Nifaoui
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
The State ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Cultural And Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Educational Language Policy ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
The Face

The purpose of this article is to analyze the multilingual situation in Morocco in the face of the challenges encountered by language policies undertaken by the state since independence in 1956. The Moroccan society is characterized by ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity. This multidimensional richness has created competition amongst the linguistic varieties in the country, which has prompted the state to undertake several reforms and language policies including Arabization and the development of the National Charter in 1999, with a view to managing linguistic diversity in the country. Before tackling all these issues, a presentation of the linguistic landscape in Morocco is provided. Then, drawing upon the work of researchers specializing in the field, this review addresses the obstacles that have hindered the success and effectiveness of the enacted policies thus far. A sociological approach is also privileged in this study by referencing the work of the sociologist Bourdieu and emphasizing the importance of identity, cultural, and social considerations in developing an effective educational language policy that is capable nurturing citizens with adequate proficiency in national, local, and foreign languages.

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