Towards a fuller understanding of language use in Wales

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lowri Angharad Hughes Ahronson
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Language Policy And Planning ◽  
Planning Activity ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Policy And Planning

This article considers the importance of developing a holistic understanding of the factors that influence language choice and examines two periods of intense language policy and planning activity in Wales. Part 1 looks at the historical context of the interaction between Welsh and English, focusing on the pivotal years 1880–1920. Part 2 turns to the present day and to measures put in place to influence the use of Welsh. In both periods, language policy and planning has operated across many spheres with the aim of either maintaining the use of Welsh or triggering a switch to using Welsh. In light of these discussions, Part 3 considers the kind of research needed to further develop the field and suggests that long-term micro-level study of an individual’s language choice may help us better understand the nuances of this issue and thus better shape policies and initiatives that respond to these complexities.

Dilemmatic aspects of language policies in a trilingual preschool group

Multilingua ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tünde Puskás ◽  
Polly Björk-Willén
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Free Play ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Preschool Curriculum ◽  
Societal Level ◽  
Micro Level

AbstractThis article explores dilemmatic aspects of language policies in a preschool group in which three languages (Swedish, Romani and Arabic) are spoken on an everyday basis. The article highlights the interplay between policy decisions on the societal level, the teachers’ interpretations of these policies, as well as language practices on the micro level. The preschool group is seen as a complex context for negotiating language policies and expectations regarding language use. The theoretical framework builds on Billig’s work on ideological and everyday dilemmas that we argue are detectable at both levels of the analysis. The analysis of the ethnographic material shows that the explicit language policy formulated in the Swedish preschool curriculum leads, in practice, to ideological, pedagogical and everyday dilemmas. Moreover, an unwillingness to set rules for children’s language choice combined with the central position of free play in Swedish preschool practice has led to a situation in which children fall short of their potential to develop bilingual competence.

A sociocultural framework for language policy and planning

2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell Cross
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Sociocultural Theory ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Policy And Planning ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Policy And Planning

Since the early 1990s, language policy and planning (LPP) has undergone significant theoretical shifts in how it understands policy, concurrent with corresponding shifts in understandings of language, and particularly language use, more broadly. This paper draws on recent developments within linguistics that understand language from the perspective of Vygotskian sociocultural theory, and the role of language and other sociocultural artefacts in the mediation of human activity and social practice. The purpose of this discussion is to consider the potential of sociocultural theory as the basis for a broader meta-theoretical framework to understand the interrelationship between macro and micro analyses of policy and practice within LPP. The paper concludes with a consideration of the issues this raises for methodology in the study of LPP, as well as the implications for the practice of LPP itself.

Loving but not living the vernacular

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-170
Author(s):  
Seyyed-Abdolhamid Mirhosseini
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
National Language ◽  
Language Policy And Planning ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Northern Iran ◽  
Policy And Planning ◽  
Professional Contexts

Traditional top-down conceptions of language policy and planning have been questioned by recent perspectives that advocate more localized accounts of language policy concerns in real-life social contexts. Schiffman’s (1996) conception of linguistic culture is one of these bottom-up approaches, which focuses on covert language policies. This study investigates some aspects of such covert orientations of speakers of the Mazandarani language towards their local vernacular in the bilingual Mazandarani–Farsi context of northern Iran. It specifically attempts to explore the current linguistic culture atmosphere in terms of assumptions, prejudices, attitudes, and stereotypes with regard to Mazandarani. These aspects of public belief are particularly investigated as referring to language use in ‘social situations’, ‘professional contexts’, ‘education’, and ‘media’. A group of 106 participants responded to a questionnaire that was aimed at eliciting their views on these linguistic culture domains as well as their ‘attitude’ towards Mazandarani. The study indicates that although the participants show very positive emotional attitudes towards their local language, their actual linguistic culture appears to be strongly in favor of the official national language, i.e. Farsi. Some concerns are raised as to the implications of such a loving-but-not-living linguistic culture for a more realistic understanding of language policy and planning.

Language policy and language planning in mainland Southeast Asia: Myanmar and Lisu

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
National Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Policy And Planning ◽  
Educational Strategies ◽  
Policy And Planning ◽  
Mainland Southeast Asia

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.

Language Policy and Planning in Independent Namibia

1994 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 240-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilfrid Haacke
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Language Policy And Planning ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Policy Document ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Policy And Planning ◽  
Local Languages

An advantage of Namibia's late attainment of independence is that it can benefit from the experience of other African countries that achieved independence some thirty years earlier. Hence Namibia is unique in that it is the only country in sub-Saharan Africa that at the time of attaining independence already provided for constitutional rights for its local languages. The major policy document of the then liberation movement SWAPO, Toward a language policy for an independent Namibia (United Nations Institute for Namibia 1981), which was published in Lusaka by the institute (UNIN) as proceedings of a seminar held in 1980, essentially set the trend for the policies pursued since independence in 1990.

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