Language planning and information and communication technologies

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have had a considerable impact on language use in recent decades. The development of new technologies has often been undertaken without consideration of language issues, and this has meant that language-planning work has been needed to integrate new technologies into existing language ecologies. At the same time, technology developers, especially software developers, have become aware of some of the language issues relevant to the uptake and use of their products. ICTs have also been seen as a way of democratising communication, and this has afforded many language communities new ways to develop, promote and use their languages in the public domain. Modern information technologies are characterised by rapid change involving a continuous cycle of innovation, replacement and obsolescence of technologies which further complicates language planning work. These developments have required responses from government and from various institutions to respond to the issues to which the development of new technologies have given rise. This volume seeks to canvass the range of ICT-related issues which confront contemporary language planners and to profile work in this field. The papers in the volume address this theme in three main ways. This first theme involves the impact of ICTS on language ecologies and how this can create problems which language planning needs to address. The second theme is the impact that technologies have had on language varieties and the implications this has for language planning work. The final theme focuses on the ways in which ICTS can be used to achieve language planning goals in particular context.