Abstract
Recent global trends in migration, trade and overall mobility have continued to transform our objective realities and subjective experiences around linguistic diversity. More broadly, in many countries, the politics of multilingualism seem to have changed the old links between language and nation-state. In this context, Scotland is studied in this article as a case study as it acts to dispel the myth of a ‘monolingual country.’ Its recent language policy, the “1+2 Language Approach” (Scottish Government, 2012b), including regional languages, modern foreign languages and heritage languages of migrants have created opportunities as well as imbalances and issues of equity in the Scottish language habitus. Drawing on Kraus’s work (2018), this article demonstrates how the policy creates language as ‘options’ and as ‘ligatures.’ However, these ‘options’ and ‘ligatures’ are not salient and straightforward. The policy is explored on three different levels: (1) on its potential for allowing the development of multilingual communication strategies such as intercomprehension, code-switching and mixing, (2) on its commitment to linguistic justice avoiding language hierarchies and (3) on its links with dominating, neoliberal approaches to education and the economy. The article finally concludes that options and ligatures visible in language policy impose some semantic order on the confusion of layered co-occurrences of various hegemonies, or the general strain between macro and micro distinction.
Highlights
Recent global trends in migration, trade and overall mobility have continued to transform our realities and subjective experiences around linguistic diversity
In many countries, the politics of multilingualism seem to have changed the old links between language and the nation-state
This article takes Scotland as a case study, and reports while it acts to dispel the myth that it is a ‘monolingual country.’
Summary
Recent global trends in migration, trade and overall mobility have continued to transform our realities and subjective experiences around linguistic diversity. It starts with information about the “1+2 Language Approach” in Scotland and presents its theoretical underpinnings It continues with the exploration of three different levels of the policy: the development of multilingual communication strategies, linguistic justice and neoliberal approaches to education. The report centred on language learning, with 35 recommendations (Scottish Government, 2012a) It was, in its own frame of reference, concerned with education, it turned out to have a wider focus, dealing with language matters on a broad social level, rather than a school-based one. Partial acceptance in the response document (Scottish Government, 2012b) allowed schools to decide the best approach to implementing Content and Language Integrated Learning in secondary schools. It would consider the specific recruitment of linguists as part of a national recruitment strategy, a step which broke the policy’s link between primary schools and secondary language teaching departments and sectionalised interests in the teaching of MFL
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