Language policies and English worldwide

Abstract

This is a weighty volume, and one which provides a very useful addition to the Cambridge Handbook series, which previously has covered such topics as phonology, code-switching, child language, endangered languages, sociolinguistics and pragmatics. The volume comprises a total of 30 chapters, which in turn are grouped into five constituent parts. Part I sets out ‘Definition and principles’, Part II deals with ‘Language policy at the macrolevel’, Part III discusses language policies in ‘Non-governmental domains’, Part IV tackles ‘Globalization and modernization’, and, finally, Part V focuses on ‘Regional and thematic issues’. Bernard Spolsky's opening chapter on ‘What is language policy?’ clears the discursive and theoretical space for much that follows, with Spolsky cogently resolving the often confusing issue of where language ‘policy’ ends and ‘planning’ begins thus: I find it appropriate then to name the field as a whole ‘language policy’, and see it as made up of three inter-related but independent components [...] The first of these is the actual language practices of the members of the speech community […] The second component, formed in large measure by the first and confirming its influence, is made up of the values assigned by members of a speech community to each variety and variant and their beliefs about the importance of these values. […] The third component is what used to be called ‘planning’ and what I prefer to call ‘management’, efforts by some members of a speech community who have or believe they have authority over other members to modify their language practice, such as by forcing or encouraging them to use a different variety or even a different variant. (5)