Implementation Of Language Policy Research Articles

Analyzing Language Policy and Social Identification Across Heterogeneous Scales

ABSTRACTAttempts to improve education often change how language is used in schools. Many such efforts aim to include minoritized students by more fully including their languages. These are often met with resistance not so much about language but more about identity. Thus processes of social identification are implicated in efforts to change language in education. If we are to understand how identity and language policy interconnect, we must analyze how stability and change are produced in each. This requires attention to macro-level patterns and to micro-level practices. But a two-scale account—micro instantiation of macro categories and micro changes shaping macro structures—does not adequately explain identity and language policy. This article focuses on educational language policy implementation, how language use and social identification change in an evolving policy context. We argue that change and stability in language policy implementation must be explained with reference to heterogeneous resources from multiple timescales—beyond micro and macro—as these resources establish and change social identities. We review recent research using multiple timescales to understand social processes like identification and policy implementation, and we illustrate the use of such a scalar account to describe the social identification of one student in a sixth grade classroom in Paraguay in the midst of a major national educational language policy change. We show how a person's identification as a new kind of minority language speaker involved heterogeneous resources from various spatiotemporal scales. We argue that analysis of the heterogeneous resources involved in social identification is essential to understanding the role that these processes play in cultural, pedagogical, and language change.

English

Technical and vocational graduates in Ghana are often ill-equipped to become self-reliant or well-fitted into the demands of the job market. This pattern can be examined in terms of the educational language policy implementation that disregards regional linguistic needs. This seems to arise as a result of the medium of instruction that is implemented in wholesale. This paper illustrates the need for the adoption of predominant regional Ghanaian languages to be used as medium of instruction in our various technical and vocational institutions in Ghana to enable learners grasp the desired skills and concepts that are relevant to preparing graduates of technical and vocational institutions for the job market. Such changes would better facilitate the technological and national advancement that we need. Key words: Language policy, medium of instruction, technical and vocational education and training, desirable skills, workforce development, economic development.

‘Meaningful engagement’: Towards a language rights paradigm for effective language policy implementation

This article aims to develop the concept of ‘meaningful engagement’ in terms of the contemporary language policy implementation framework in South Africa. By exploring the current language policies, implementation and the current lack of effectiveness, the authors offer a new implementation focus drawn from the legal concept of ‘meaningful engagement’. ‘Meaningful engagement’ is a concept within the socio-economic rights sphere. This article expands and advances the concept within a language policy framework. Against the enabling legislative environment created by the Use of Official Languages Act 12 of 2012 and the overarching Constitutional framework which embeds the rights of all official languages, ‘meaningful engagement’ is developed and applied to selected language policies and practices. The authors propose the application of ‘meaningful engagement’ as a viable and more coherent tool for enhancing the effectiveness of language policy implementation and advancing language practices within relevant domains across the socio-economic landscape in South Africa.

Negotiating ironies and paradoxes of mother-tongue education: An introspective and retrospective reflection

In this article an introspective and retrospective overview of mother-tongue education in South Africa during the Bantu Education era (1955–c1990) is presented within the context of the discourse of learning and teaching language policies of the pre- and post-apartheid era (c1990–2014), with specific reference to literary studies in indigenous languages. It is postulated that language studies during the Bantu Education era were enhanced by extra-curricula media, particularly radio. The article addresses the ironies and paradoxes concomitant to the Bantu Education Act of 1953, postulating that it inadvertently, and by serendipity, advanced the development of indigenous languages to an extent that exceeds implementation of language policies which have been introduced since the advent of a democratic South Africa in 1994. The author's rationale for adopting an introspective study is based on the dearth of I-narrator and narrator-protagonist ecriture on language learning experiences of that past era, in the midst of a proliferation of empirical works available in this regard. It is also the author's thesis that the Bantu Education Act was ironically a precursor of language policies adopted by the African post-colonial agenda.

Implementing Indonesia’s English language teaching policy in primary schools: The role of teachers’ knowledge and beliefs

AbstractMany studies have been conducted to investigate teachers’ knowledge and beliefs and they confirmed that knowledge and beliefs are an influential factor in teachers’ decision making in the classroom. However, little research has been undertaken to investigate how teachers’ knowledge and beliefs in influence the implementation of language policy. This study aims at investigating primary school teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about the English program in primary schools in Indonesia, focusing on their pedagogical knowledge and how it influences the way they teach English when English is positioned as a local content subject in the curriculum The study reveals that in the absence of official curriculum teachers are required to draw on their existing knowledge and beliefs but the existing knowledge and beliefs of teachers in Indonesia are often not well developed. With no curriculum to guide their teaching, teachers’ rely on textbooks. They consider that the textbook can be regarded as a substitute for...

The impact of the ‘Teaching English through English’ policy on teachers and teaching in South Korea

In recent years, Asian countries including South Korea have been trying to redefine the role of English in response to globalisation. The impact of this on English language teaching and on Korean society more generally has been well documented; however, the impact of this change on individual teachers and their teaching calls for further attention. This article investigates the impact of an in-service teacher certification scheme which promotes English as the medium of instruction (MOI) for teaching English in the South Korean context, and examines the factors which shaped this impact. Drawing on interviews with stakeholders and insights from a larger case study of which these interviews form a part, this article provides important insights into the implementation and impact of language planning and policy (LPP). It examines the ways in which particular elements of the design of LPP, their implementation and the context interact to affect teachers and their adoption of English as the MOI. It also draws attention to unplanned impacts of LPP including significant shifts in teachers' identity. It concludes with wider implications for future LPP which aims to change the relative importance and roles of a foreign language.

Post-kommunistliku Eesti vabariigi rändepoliitika rahvuskujunduse komponendina [Abstract: The migration policy of the post-communist Republic of Estonia as a component of nation-building

This article examines the practices of Estonian migration policies based on the concept of nation-building. The latter is a relatively common architectural metaphor used predominantly to describe social, political and economic integration processes taking place within modern nation-state formations. More precisely, this term denotes activities which aim to increase homogeneity in societies which are often ethnically fragmented. As a rule, the implemented language, education, citizenship, migration and ohter policies are not ethno-culturally neutral and seek to preserve or promote a particular national identity. In many post-imperial contexts, efforts to change country’s ethno-demographic structure in particular have formed a cornerstone of a nationalizing state. This paper argues that Estonian policymakers utilized migration policies as a means of nation-building. They became one of the most important tools in seeking to ‘compensate’ for the large demographic shifts the country witnessed under Soviet occupation. During this time, the non-Estonian population grew rapidly – from 3% in 1945 to 38.5% in 1989. As such, the immigration policy of re-independent Estonia has been quite controlling in nature. With the complicated ethno-demographic situation in mind, Estonian central authorities introduced restricted annual quotas on migration (with the limit being set at 1000 on average) and a stringent system of work permits in the early 1990s. These quotas did not apply to permanent residents and from autumn 1997, citizens of the European Union or Scandinavian countries. In addition, for the selection of labour originating outside of the EU, minimum wages were established. Those seeking asylum in Estonia – of which, on a global scale, there have been very few – have been discouraged by the high number of applications refused. Until 2012 Estonia did not offer the adaptation programs for the newcomers either. On the other hand, the republic pursued an ethnically differentiated exit policy. To this end, the voluntary emigration of foreign minorities was financed from the state budget, particularly in the case of Russophones, while ethnic Estonians and Estonian citizens received monetary support to return to the country. The system was launched in May 1993 under the aegis of Estonian Migration Foundation, which had been instituted the year before. In the early 1990s some earmarked financial aid was also received from the European Union and other Western countries. Regarding the withdrawal of former Soviet troops from Estonia, the United States was particularly helpful. In order to foster the repatriation of Russian military retirees, it instigated a bilateral resettlement programme with the Russian Federation in July 1994. Although this agreement provided every retired officer who pledged to leave Estonia with a housing voucher valued at US$ 25,000, the project in general was not very successful. The article also explores the legal framework within which migration policies were implemented. It implies that the behind-the-scenes logic of other Estonian legislation with an ethno-political bent (e.g. Aliens or Citizenship Acts) could also be seen to have contributed to the voluntary re-migration of non-citizens. Hopes were nurtured that the exclusive provisions of the law would to a large extent force the poorly integrated and ‘disloyal’ contingent out of the country. In this way it was also hoped that social integration and transition processes would be simplified, ethnic tension within Estonia would be assuaged, potential conflict would be prevented and that the task of further nation-building would be a little easier. Today there are few members of titular nation living in the former factory and military towns like Narva, Kohtla-Jarve, Sillamae and Paldiski. Therefore, to a lesser extent, the state also attempted to regulate internel migration. The central authority sought to boost the presence of the state sector in russified regions, for instance in north-eastern Estonia, as a form of ‘demographic exporting’ of the majority culture, creating jobs there for Estonian-speaking specialists, compensating the cost of relocation and paying them higher than ordinary bonuses. The article concludes that settlement policies oriented towards the demographic ‘Estonianization’ of the state have not functioned well due to nation’s smallness, the negative rate of natural increase, the high level of emigration and socio-economic factors. The spatial location of the dominant linguistic groups remains segregated and return migration of peole with ‘Estonian roots’ has been modest. In the early years following the restoration of independence some of those least connected to Estonia (for complex reasons) left the country. Their numbers – almost a quarter of all non-Estonians living in a state at the time – were relatively large given the modest size of the overall population, but it cannot be claimed that the structure of the populace changed significantly as a result. KEYWORDS: nation-building, demography, migration policy, Estonia, postcommunism

Beliefs in Context

Drawing on institutional theory, this study describes how cognitive, normative, and regulative mechanisms shape bilingual teachers’ language policy implementation in both English-only and bilingual contexts. Aligned with prior educational language policy research, findings indicate the important role that teachers’ beliefs play in the policy implementation process. However, findings also reveal several other dimensions of the policymaking process that contribute to the coupling of language policy and classroom practice, including district-level policy, administrative oversight, and teacher training policies. This study thus offers an institutional view of language policy implementation that accounts for teachers’ beliefs in a more nuanced and realistic way. Results from the study suggest the need to respond to both individual- and systems-level policy mechanisms—and the interplay between them—when designing school systems that address the educational needs of English language learners, whose presence is increasing in districts and schools across the United States.

The Impact of Language Policy on the Development of Bilingual Education for Minorities in China

This article talks about the development of language policies that were established since the foundation of People’s Republic of China in 1949. We consider that the language policy as the implementation of governing party’s linguistic sovereignty, which is related to political, educational, economic and social construction. As one of a number of multi-ethnic countries in the world, China has to face the problems of improving the quality and effectiveness of bilingual education for minorities. Compared with mass education, the bilingual education has specific purpose not only basically to transmit universal knowledge and educate its youth, but also to make a contribution for a harmoniously multicultural society via the benefit of maintenance of language diversity, language practice and language planning. According to the different languages used in bilingual education, normally bilingual education is distinguished into two categories in China, bilingual education for minorities and bilingual education for foreign languages. Hereby we are going to discuss the bilingual of minority language and Mandarin. Specifically, we take the development of bilingual education of Tibetan areas in west of Sichuan Province as a case study, analysing the connection between the main four phases of bilingual education for Tibetan and the implementation of language policy in past sixty years. Obviously, the national policy has an important effect on the use of minority languages for their education and family life. Although the bilingual education cannot be improved only by legislation, still the complete laws allow the educational activities for minorities’ languages and culture to obtain more public recognition to retain it. The implementation of national bilingual education should have specific national goals, educational purpose and language achievement, therefore giving it clear direction for a successful outcome.

From silent to talking film: Implementation of language policy in Soviet film

Dès après la révolution de 1917, le cinéma a été un outil de communication privilégié par les autorités. Selon les responsables de l’éducation et de la propagande d’Union soviétique, il permettait, grâce aux images qui constituaient un film, de transmettre les messages politiques du parti communiste à une population majoritairement analphabète et surtout fortement diversifiée sur le plan linguistique. Cette croyance dans le caractère internationaliste du cinéma allait très vite se heurter à différentes considérations pratiques : muet, le cinéma était composé de cartons écrits dans une langue précise ; sonore et donc parlant, le cinéma perdait de son internationalité. Cet article rend compte des difficultés économiques, politiques et organisationnelles avec lesquelles le pouvoir soviétique fut en prise pour répondre à l’exigence d’un cinéma accessible à tous. Il décrit les incohérences du système soviétique des années 1920 et 1930 quant à la politique des nationalités et le développement de l’industrie cinématographique.

Research in Language Education in South Africa: Problems & Prospects

Language in education plays a key role in effective teaching and learning worldwide and learner proficiency in medium of instruction largely determines academic success. Sound research in language in education is crucial to inform language policy and practice which promotes social justice and learning for all. This is pertinent to South Africa, a linguistically diverse country whose history of language in education has been shaped by political interests as well as pedagogical considerations. This paper presents a review of key research in language in education conducted in South Africa over the last four decades with a view to distinguishing trends. The first section deals with major research in language education conducted during the apartheid period. The latter was characterised by a turbulent socio-political landscape and pressing educational dilemmas created by the apartheid government which enforced English (and, in certain instances, Afrikaans) as medium instruction in black education in a racially segregated and unequal schooling system. The second section concerns critiques of the implementation of transformative language policy and legislation introduced post-1994 and designed to promote multilingualism in a unitary desegregated schooling system. The final section highlights four large-scale research projects designed to assess post-apartheid language in education practice in South African schooling. It is concluded that forty years of research in language in education shows little variance in the challenges that affect learners and teachers in South African schools despite sweeping changes in language in education policy. Recommendations are suggested that could improve practice. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n8p251

Negotiating Language Policy and Practice

Arizona language policy now requires English learners (ELs) to enroll in English language development (ELD) classrooms for 4 hr of skill-based, English-only instruction. In this article, I describe Arizona teachers’ interpretation and negotiation of language policy and practice during this time of change to more restrictive mandates. I conducted this qualitative case study with a teacher study group comprised of six ELD teachers and one instructional coach from an urban elementary school during the first semester of language policy implementation. Using discourse analysis of individual interviews, study group dialogue, and institutional documentation, I investigated teachers’ talk as they grappled with restrictive policy mandates and effective classroom practice. Findings indicated that teachers negotiated the cultural models inherent in the institutional policy in the study group setting. In the contemporary context of restrictive educational policies, implications for stakeholders center on professional and collaborative support for educators.

Multilingual education in South African universities: A possibility or delusion?

After the demise of apartheid it was hoped that a radical shift would give impetus to multilingual education in universities in South Africa. This is predicated on the vigour that South Africa exuded in its endeavour to promote eleven languages to national official status for the country. The question is, will universities ever be able to create a rich tapestry of a genuine all-inclusive multi-lingual language policy that elevates the status and use of indigenous languages in universities? In this regard, the article highlights what transpires with regard to language policy implementation in universities. It also presents the views of lecturers and students of content subjects concerning the promotion of multilingualism in universities. For this research a questionnaire was administered to university lecturers of content subjects whose views the researcher claims to have hitherto been untapped. The article also proposes certain strategies to be implemented so that universities can promote multilingual education in tandem with national endeavours.

LANGUAGE POLICY DIMENSIONS FOR SOCIAL COHESION IN MOLDOVA: THE CASE OF GAGAUZ AUTONOMY

The purpose of our research was to study the new pattern of minority-majority relationship in the post-Soviet political and social configuration from the perspective of the language policy implementation and its implications for the social cohesion, particularly focusing on the Gagauz minority. The study introduces the results of a wider research covering the use of languages in the Republic of Moldova and the effectiveness of the language education, focusing on the Gagauz minority. The authors made an effort to reach a better understanding of language use and language education in the Gagauz Autonomy as well as of the linguistic choices the speakers make and their perception of the interaction with the Moldovan majority. The major questions that the authors aim to analyse are as follows: has the language policy reinforced the ties between the ethnic majority and the Gagauz minority; has it contributed to social cohesion and the principle of unity through diversity? Through the research the authors attempted to answer these questions, examining the effectiveness of language policy application in line with the established objectives. The study has revealed the complexity of Moldovan sociolinguistic landscape where functional distributions and choices among Gagauzi, Russian and Moldovan/Romanian languages in Gagauz Autonomy still remain problematic. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7220/2335-2027.4.2

Whatever the law says: language policy implementation and early-grade literacy achievement in Kenya

Language policy is generally seen as a national-level decision regarding which languages the state will support, and in which public domains. However, the reality is that language policy plays out at regional and local levels as well. In fact, it could be argued that the most important instantiations of language policy are those which directly determine local-language behaviors in institutions such as schools, government and civil society. Using data drawn from Kenya, this article examines the formulation and implementation of language policy as it plays out in the primary classroom environment. The relationships between language policy implementation at the classroom level and students' early literacy outcomes are explored, giving insight into how the degree of adherence to language policy in the classroom intersects with student achievement. The article presents findings using language use as a predictor, school and student-level economic status as control variables and student achievement as the outcomes. The country-level differences in language policy implementation between Kenya and Uganda, and the impact of those differences on student achievement in the two countries, are also examined. The article has implications for the establishment of a learning environment in the multi-language primary classroom, and demonstrates the extent to which choices about language policy implementation can present a serious challenge to effective education.

Language mapping for education policy realisation from below

In 2006 the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) initialised the Language Transformation Plan (LTP) as a strategy to implement the longstanding national Language in Education Policy (DOE 1997). If serious efforts were to be made to expand the transformation plan to all schools across the province, detailed language related information was needed, on various levels of the institution. There is an established use of geographic information systems (GIS) for planning and policy making in fields more traditionally viewed as geographical. Increased accessibility to computer hardware and on-going efforts to create user-friendly software have paved the way for GIS to enter into disciplines such as sociolinguistics in ways that extend beyond simply mapping the distributions of languages in space. This article explores how mapping language-related variables at school level, using GIS, can support language planning and policy implementation from below, by drawing on concepts such as ‘public participation GIS’ (NCGIA 1996) and ‘counter-mapping’ (Peluso 1995).

Implementation of the Hong Kong language policy in pre-school settings

In the past, the Curriculum Development Council in Hong Kong [Curriculum Development Council (CDC). (1996). Guide to the pre-primary curriculum. Hong Kong: Government Printer; CDC. (2000). Consultation document: Learning to learn: The way forward in curriculum development. Hong Kong: Government Printer; CDC. (2001). The way forward in curriculum development – Learning to learn: Life-long learning and whole-person development. Hong Kong: Government Printer; CDC. (2006). Guide to the pre-primary curriculum. Hong Kong: Government Printer], has issued a number of consultation documents regarding the overall aims of the twenty-first century and its implementation, particularly in pre-primary education. These documents provide the backdrop for our research on the implementation of language policies in Hong Kong kindergartens. Data were collected via questionnaires, focus group interviews, and classroom observations in pre-school settings. This paper discusses the provision of bilingualism in Hong Kong pre-schools, especially the teaching and learning of English.

The Status of Implementation of Minority Language Policy and the Problems in China

The Status of Implementation of Minority Language Policy and the Problems in China

Language policy and teacher preparation: The implications of a restrictive language policy on teacher preparation

AbstractApplied linguistics, with its sub-domains of language planning and policy can make significant contributions to language teaching. In order to explore this issue, the authors focus on the contested arena of language minority instruction in the United States. Attention is given specifically to the state of Arizona, where, recently, its educational policies have captured national and even international attention. Of particular concern is Arizona's implementation of a restrictive language policy for the instruction of English Language Learners (ELLs). The authors present a framework for reviewing the relationship between language policies and teacher preparation. Applying this framework to Arizona's teacher preparation for ELLs, we find that the state sanctioned curriculum transmitted a deficit view of students who speak a language other than English and provided prospective teachers with few alternative approaches for their instruction. In response this outcome, the authors recommend that applied linguistics content needs to be embedded within teacher preparation.

Linguistic reception of Latin American students in Catalonia and their responses to educational language policies

This study explores the connections between language policy implementation in three Barcelona-area secondary schools and the language attitudes and behaviors of Spanish-speaking Latin American newcomers. Data were collected through interviews and ethnographic participant observation document indexes of different forms of language socialization processes and highlight the role of teachers and of ‘Reception Classes’ (RCs) in which students receive Catalan language support. Different RC models and placements of the RC in the school have effects on those processes and the students' attitudes toward Catalan and schooling. Deficient models result from lack of institutional support and unfavorable conditions of the RC in the school. Positive models result from individual teacher initiative and commitment to move beyond basic language teaching and include broader social and academic objectives for newcomers. We conclude that language policy meeting goals requires consistent commitment at all levels from policy-makers to individual teachers.