Linguistic Diversity in India’s Polity and Economy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Selma K. Sonntag
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Economic Liberalization ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Market Forces ◽  
Electoral Participation ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Linguistic Dimension ◽  
Regional Languages

This chapter examines the linguistic dimension of the tension between India’s democratic politics and its liberalized economy. I argue that there is a divergence between languages used in the polity and languages used in the economy. In the polity, characterized by a semblance of empowerment through the electoral participation of the weaker sections of society, vernacular languages predominate. In contrast, the language of the economy in India, particularly since economic liberalization in 1991, tends to be English. It is in the economy that India’s class and caste chasm manifests itself linguistically: between the English-speaking elite and the vernacular-speaking masses. While the noted Indian economist, Deepak Nayyar, warns of an impending clash between the democratically empowered masses and the economically privileged elite, I suggest that in terms of language use India’s robust democracy may well trump market forces. And while linguists have warned that English as the language of the globalized marketplace can have dire consequences for linguistic diversity, I argue that India’s linguistic diversity, at least in terms of its major regional languages, remains impressive. In the case of India, I conclude, the spread of the language of globalization, English, as the language of the economy, is mediated by the languages used in India’s vibrant democracy.

American Speech-Language Pathologists' Training and Legislative Knowledge When Working With Immigrant and Refugee Populations: A Qualitative Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 1148-1161
Author(s):  
Camilo Maldonado ◽  
Alejandro Ashe ◽  
Kerri Bubar ◽  
Jessica Chapman
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Limited English Proficiency ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Federal Mandates ◽  
Refugee Families ◽  
Provision Of Services ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Immigrant And Refugee

Background American educational legislation suggests culturally competent speech and language services should be provided in a child's native language, but the number of multilingual speech-language pathologists (SLPs) is negligible. Consequently, many monolingual English-speaking practitioners are being tasked with providing services to these populations. This requires that SLPs are educated about cultural and linguistic diversity as well as the legislation that concerns service provision to non-English or limited English proficiency speakers. Purpose This qualitative study explored the experiences of monolingual, American, English-speaking SLPs and clinical fellows who have worked with immigrant and refugee families within a preschool context. It investigated what training SLPs received to serve this population and what knowledge these SLPs possessed with regard to federal legislation governing the provision of services to culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) communities. Method Ten American clinicians with experience treating CLD children of refugee and immigrant families in the context of preschool service provision participated in the study. Semistructured interviews were utilized to better understand the type of training clinicians received prior to and during their service delivery for CLD populations. Additionally, questions were asked to explore the degree to which practitioners understood federal mandates for ethical and effective service provision. The data collected from these interviews were coded and analyzed using the principles of grounded theory. Findings The results of this study revealed that there was a general sense of unpreparedness when working with CLD clients. This lack of training also attributed to a deficiency of knowledge surrounding legislation governing service provision to CLD populations.

Perceptions of Palestine: The View from Large Linguistic Datasets

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-54
Author(s):  
Terry Regier
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Cultural Perceptions ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Cultural Shift ◽  
General Theme ◽  
English Usage ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World

Cultural norms and trends are often reflected in patterns of language use. This article explores cultural perceptions of Palestine and Palestinians in the English-speaking world, through two analyses of large linguistic datasets. The first analysis seeks to uncover current conceptions of participants in the Israel-Palestine conflict, by identifying words that are distinctively associated with those participants in modern English usage. The second analysis asks what historical-cultural changes led to these current conceptions. A general theme that emerges from these analyses is that a cultural shift appears to have occurred recently in the English-speaking world, marked by greater awareness of Palestinian perspectives on the conflict. Possible causes for such a cultural shift are also explored.

First grammar books in the Habsburg Monarchy: individual initiative and regulatory interference by the state (1760s–1770s)

2020 ◽  
Vol 2019 (2 (11)) ◽  
pp. 137-157
Author(s):  
Olga V. Khavanova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
German Language ◽  
Habsburg Monarchy ◽  
Private Initiative ◽  
The One

The second half of the eighteenth century in the lands under the sceptre of the House of Austria was a period of development of a language policy addressing the ethno-linguistic diversity of the monarchy’s subjects. On the one hand, the sphere of use of the German language was becoming wider, embracing more and more segments of administration, education, and culture. On the other hand, the authorities were perfectly aware of the fact that communication in the languages and vernaculars of the nationalities living in the Austrian Monarchy was one of the principal instruments of spreading decrees and announcements from the central and local authorities to the less-educated strata of the population. Consequently, a large-scale reform of primary education was launched, aimed at making the whole population literate, regardless of social status, nationality (mother tongue), or confession. In parallel with the centrally coordinated state policy of education and language-use, subjects-both language experts and amateur polyglots-joined the process of writing grammar books, which were intended to ease communication between the different nationalities of the Habsburg lands. This article considers some examples of such editions with primary attention given to the correlation between private initiative and governmental policies, mechanisms of verifying the textbooks to be published, their content, and their potential readers. This paper demonstrates that for grammar-book authors, it was very important to be integrated into the patronage networks at the court and in administrative bodies and stresses that the Vienna court controlled the process of selection and financing of grammar books to be published depending on their quality and ability to satisfy the aims and goals of state policy.

scholarly journals FROM INLAND TO OUTLAND: EXPERIENCES OF NON-NATIVE EXPATRIATE TEACHERS TEACHING IN A FOREIGN CONTEXT

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-37
Author(s):  
Remart Padua Dumlao ◽  
Trixia Mengorio
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
English Language ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Future Research ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking

The numbers of English language learners and limited domestic English language teachers have grown exponentially in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as to the ASEAN region over the past decades due to the demand of globalization. Given the huge cultural and linguistic diversity among learners, educating these populations of English language learners can be a challenging but also beneficial for foreign language teachers. This study aimed to analyse the experiences of fifteen Non-native English Speaking Foreign Teachers (NNESFT) teaching in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. The results of this study suggested that although teachers’ reasons in teaching English language in a foreign classroom were more extrinsic reasons rather that intrinsic and altruistic. NNESFT recognized benefits of teaching in foreign classroom, namely, financial aspects, personal development, and building cultural awareness. Meanwhile, challenges were reported include as a non-native English speaking teachers in a foreign classroom, on the part of textbooks and curriculum, and cultural differences in the classroom. Implications were discussed in light of the findings and recommendations formulated for future research directions.

Language Education Policy and Sociolinguistics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Jaspers
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Language Education Policy ◽  
Reform Initiatives ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Nation States

Language education policies are pivotal in nation-states’ negotiation of a globalizing economy and a diversifying population. But certainly in urban, non-elite schools, where pupils’ linguistic diversity is pronounced, the fixation on language separation and multi-monolingualism produces salient sites of linguistic friction. Much scholarly work has successfully problematized this friction, producing an avalanche of criticism and ample calls for changes in schools’ approach to pupils’ primary linguistic skills and mixed language use. This chapter argues that while such calls are pedagogically exciting and justified on principle, a significant number of them reproduce some of the main assumptions behind the policies that they denounce, or invite problems of their own. Consequently, many calls for change may underestimate the difficulties of policy implementation, exaggerate their own effects, and overstate their critical character. This necessitates a reconsideration of the received relation between sociolinguistics and language education policy, and a revision of reform initiatives.

THE ROLE OF REGIONAL MEDIA IN THE PROMOTION OF REGIONAL LANGUAGES IN THE CONTEXT OF LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nailya Nurutdinova ◽  
Jamila Mustafina ◽  
Alina Ibragimova ◽  
Camila Gataullina
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Regional Languages

Silence and the Image of Helplessness: The Challenge of Tozen Union

2019 ◽  
pp. 53-78
Author(s):  
Reiko Shindo
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
National Union ◽  
English Speaking

This chapter focuses on the Nambu Foreign Workers Caucus (FWC), the migrant workers' branch of the trade union, National Union of General Workers Tokyo Nambu (hereafter referred to as Nambu), and largely led by English-speaking migrants. It traces the events where the FWC split from Nambu, a trade union largely composed of Japanese-speaking members, to form a new union called Tozen. At the heart of the split was the question of silence. Many Nambu FWC members were troubled not only because they had been silenced by Japanese union members for their inability to speak Japanese, but also because their silence was linked to a sign of powerlessness. They were regarded as helpless victims, unable to act and speak on their own. By looking at Tozen's activities, the chapter also investigates how the union, driven by the need to make noncitizens audible, handles linguistic diversity among its members.

Regional languages on Twitter

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lysbeth Jongbloed-Faber ◽  
Jolie van Loo ◽  
Leonie Cornips
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Technical Equipment ◽  
Use Patterns ◽  
Internet Connection ◽  
Quantitative Studies ◽  
Regional Language ◽  
Regional Languages ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract This paper addressed the question how the use of Dutch and the regional languages Frisian or Limburgish differ on Twitter and which patterns in language choice can be identified. Previous quantitative studies (Jongbloed-Faber, Van de Velde, Van der Meer & Klinkenberg, 2016; Nguyen, Trieschnigg & Cornips, 2015; Trieschnigg, 2015) have already shown that people in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Limburg tweet in Frisian or Limburgish respectively, but most often in Dutch interspersed with some English. In this qualitative study, we compared the tweets from twenty twitterers in Friesland and Limburg who use both Dutch and Frisian or Limburgish regularly in order to get insight into their language use patterns. The following patterns in language use were identified: when a twitterer aims to maximise his/her audience, Dutch is regularly employed. However, as soon as an interpersonal, addressed tweet is formulated, Frisian or Limburgish is often used. General tweets in Dutch may therefore very well get a Frisian or Limburgish continuation. Another mechanism frequently found in responding tweets is following the language used in the original tweet, notwithstanding such a tweet was in Dutch or in a regional language. Finally, the data show that, although Twitter is a global medium which can be accessed at any time and any place provided that one has access to the needed technical equipment and Internet connection, twitterers sometimes construct localness i.e. what is perceived as local culture through using Frisian or Limburgish exclusively.

scholarly journals The unlikely revival of private renting in Amsterdam: Re-regulating a regulated housing market

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (8) ◽  
pp. 1622-1642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cody Hochstenbach ◽  
Richard Ronald
Keyword(s):  
Housing Market ◽  
Social Housing ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
Urban Housing ◽  
Market Forces ◽  
Private Renting ◽  
New Construction ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Existing Housing

Over the last decade, private rental sectors have been in rapid ascendance across developed societies, especially in economically liberal, English-speaking contexts. The Netherlands, and Amsterdam in particular, has also more recently experienced the reversal of a century-long decline in private renting. More unusually, the expansion of private renting in Amsterdam has been explicitly promoted by the municipal and national government, and in cooperation with social housing providers, in response to decreasing accessibility to, and affordability of, social rental and owner-occupied housing. This paper explores how and why this state-initiated revival has come about, highlighting how new growth in rent-liberalized private renting is a partial outcome of the restructuring of the urban housing market around owner occupation since the 1990s. More critically, our analysis asserts that restructuring of Amsterdam’s housing stock can be conceptualized as regulated marketization. Market forces are not being simply unleashed, but given more leeway in some regards and matched by new regulations. We also demonstrate various tensions present in this process of regulated marketization; between national and local politics, between existing housing and new construction, and between policies implemented in different time periods.

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