Language Policy Processes Research Articles

Developing Cogent Strategies for the Lexical Development of Non-Dominant Languages: Empowering Linguistic have-Nots and Maximizing Linguistic Performance

We begin this paper by emphasizing the importance of language policy and language planning processes, and investigate its history in different contexts. We also draw reference to our previously published paper on the empowerment of linguistic have nots, and attempt to present and propose classificatory mechanisms of languages from the aforesaid perspective. We also then review the concepts of pedagogy, verbal intelligence, linguistic enculturation, linguistic ethnography, the Sapir Whorf hypothesis, linguistic workarounds and econolexia, and review and study patterns of lexical development among individuals in different contexts, and in different parts of the world. We interface these observations with first and second language acquisition patterns and theories as well. We then end this paper by debating and proposing various strategies for the lexical development of languages, particularly strategies for the lexical development of less dominant and future-ready languages. We do this by studying different case studies and experiences drawn from real-time studies carried out and conducted in different parts of the world, particularly experiences from developing countries, and then drawing inferences and generalizations there from. We anticipate that this would constitute an extremely important component of our globalization of science movement by boosting linguistic and economic performance of people in different cultures and different parts of the world, particularly those who lag behind or are otherwise underrepresented in science and economic development.

Evaluation of changes in the lingual situation in the Kazakhstan lingual policy

Relevance. Language policy and societal language processes are crucial in forming nation-states with distinct linguistic and cultural identities, particularly in post-Soviet countries like Kazakhstan. Purpose. This purpose of the study is to analyze language changes in Kazakhstan since independence and evaluate current language policies and their future prospects. Methodology. The research employs comparative, statistical, analytical-synthetic, and graphic methods to examine language modernization parameters and policy perspectives in Kazakhstan. Results. The study analyzed population census data from 1999, 2009, and 2021, presenting statistical information through diagrams and tables. It compared different stages of Kazakh language identity formation from the early 20th century to the present. The research focused on the educational system parameters and the implementation of the trinity of languages concept in secondary and higher education. Conclusions. The study highlights that Kazakhstan�s language policy emphasizes the trilingual concept, promoting Kazakh, Russian, and English to foster national identity and international competitiveness. The research underscores the significant progress in increasing Kazakh language usage and proficiency, alongside the need to further integrate the language into various societal sectors such as science, business, and technology to enhance its functionality and influence. Keywords: language modernization; trinity concept; national linguistic identity; multilingual education; sociolinguistics

‘Difficulties when learning, easiness when fighting’: Why do families in Latvia choose (pre)schools with a language of instruction other than their L1?

Aims and objectives: Language debates in Latvia often focus on the role of Latvian as official and main societal language. Yet, Latvian society is highly multilingual, and families with home languages other than Latvian have to choose between different educational trajectories for their children. In this context, this paper discusses the results of two studies which addressed the question of why families with Russian as a home language choose (pre)schools with languages other than Russian as medium of instruction (MOI). The first study analyses family narratives which provide insight into attitudes and practices which lead to the decision to send children to Latvian-MOI institutions. The second study investigates language attitudes and practices by families in the international community of Riga German School. Methodology: The paper discusses data gathered during two studies: for the first, semi-structed interviews were conducted with Russian-speaking families who choose Latvian-medium schools for their children. For the second study, a survey was carried out in the community of an international school in Riga, sided by ethnographic observations and interviews with teachers and the school leadership. Data and analysis: Interviews and ethnographic observations were subjected to a discourse analysis with a focus on critical events and structures of life trajectory narratives. Survey data were processed following simple statistical analysis and qualitative content analysis. Findings/conclusions: Our data reveal that families highly embrace multilingualism and see the development of individual plurilingualism as important for integration into Latvian society as well as for educational and professional opportunities in the multilingual societies of Latvia and Europe. At the same time, multilingualism and multiculturalism, including Russian, are seen as a value in itself. In addition, our studies reflect the bidirectionality of family language policies in interplay with practices ineducational institutions: family decisions influence children’s language acquisition at school, but the school also has an impact on the families’ language practices at home. In sum, we argue that educational policies should therefore pay justice to the wishes of families in Latvia to incorporate different language aspects into individual educational trajectories. Originality: Language policy is a frequent topic of investigation in the Baltic states. However, there has been a lack in research on family language policy and school choices. In this vein, our paper adds to the understanding of educational choices and language policy processes among Russian-speaking families and the international community in Latvia.

Linguagem e Internacionalização no Ensino Superior Brasileiro: Da política à prática

ABSTRACT: Internationalization (in general) and Englishization (in particular) are processes currently at work in a number of Brazilian universities. This article provides an account of ethnographic research into language policy processes unfolding in one federal university. Firstly, an analysis of the university’s internationalization plan is presented. This documentary analysis is then accompanied by an interpretation of the perspectives of key social actors on how the policy has been implemented in their context. I conclude by highlighting the need for there to be wider engagement between senior management teams and university personnel on different scales relating to the development and implementation of internationalization plans.

A quantitative analysis of the language policy processes in early childhood professionals’ advice on multilingual parenting

ABSTRACT Whereas early childhood professionals can play a pivotal role in fostering young children’s home language development, little is known about what determines the kind of multilingual parenting advice they offer families. The objective of this study was to deconstruct the processes culminating in two types of such recommendations: advice highlighting the usage of the home language in the family domain versus advice to include the dominant language. Different theories, including Spolsky’s insights on language policy and Ricento and Hornberger’s Onion model, were used to investigate several aspects influencing professionals’ interpersonal language policy. Logistic regression analyses were performed on a sample of 305 professionals employed at Flemish infant welfare clinics in Belgium. Our findings indicate that advice highlighting the home language is connected to manifold variables on the national, institutional, and interpersonal language policy levels. However, only few variables at the interpersonal and institutional level were associated with advice to include the dominant language. Hence, future research could further investigate the hitherto unidentified mechanisms underlying this type of advice. Overall, our results show the complex and nuanced ways in which the national, institutional, and interpersonal levels intersect in shaping different types of multilingual advice.

Language policy and governmentality: Chanting the Chinese Classics

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the strategies of governance in the language policy ‘Chanting the Chinese Classics’ (CCC) as deployed by State authorities, schools, and local communities. It highlights the strategy of ‘viewing’ as a nexus between language policy processes and traditional Chinese governing philosophy. To examine the connections between macro-level language policy and local educational and communicative processes, an ethnography of language policy was conducted at a weekend community school. We argue that language policy governance in Chinese language policy implementation mirrors Confucian philosophy. To further this strategy, State authorities organize nationally televised events at which school children compete in chanting competitions, which serve as exemplars for educators, parents, and students, who are encouraged to memorize vast quantities of classic Chinese literature. Results reveal that the appropriation of the CCC policy by teachers and parents encourages self-government and aligns with language policy ideology. While the CCC policy effectively encourages thousands of children to memorize Chinese Classics, it simultaneously promotes cultural confidence and nationalism.

Новые рубежи исследований этносоциальных процессов в российских регионах

The article highlights the results of the work of the 5th All-Russian scientific and practical conference “Positive experience in the regulation of ethno-social and ethno-cultural processes in the regions of the Russian Federation”, held on April 28–29, 2022 in Kazan. The main thematic areas of the forum focus on identities (all-Russian, regional, local, ethnic), their influence on the socio-psychological attitudes of the Russians and on interethnic relations; language policy and language processes in Russian regions; migration; theory and practice of post-secular society. The appeal of the conference participants to a wider range of topics is pointed out, taking into account the tasks facing the modern Russian society. They include the consequences of Covid-19 and intangible resources for the development of Russia and its subjects in the context of the formation of the new world order.

From discourses about language-in-education policy to language practices in the classroom\u2014a linguistic ethnographic study of a multi-scalar nature in Timor-Leste

This article makes the case for conducting ethnographic research of a multi-scalar nature that links language policy processes and ideologies of language with everyday practices, on the ground, in local schools and classrooms. As with other researchers engaged in the ethnography of language policy (e.g. McCarty, 2011; Johnson, 2013), my concern is with the ways in which language policies in multilingual countries are translated into classroom practice, the ways teachers and school administrators understand and respond to policy changes and the ways in which communication between teachers and learners is shaped by the introduction of a new medium of instruction. The research presented here focuses on language policy and classroom practice in Timor-Leste. On Independence in 2002, Tetum and Portuguese were chosen to be the two official languages of the country and the main languages of teaching and learning in the school system. My main research sites have been primary schools and classrooms in Timor-Leste and I have adopted a linguistic ethnographic approach, combining ethnography with close analysis of classroom discourse and with discourse analysis of policy documents and interviews. I have used the concept of language ideology as an analytical lens in examining the language policy discourses of policymakers and teachers. Teachers in Timor-Leste are regarded by policymakers as the mere facilitators of the process of implementing Tetum and Portuguese language-in-education policy within the education system. Through the analysis of interview data presented here, I show that teachers assumed this role and shared the belief that Tetum and Portuguese were legitimate official languages of Timor-Leste. Then, through analysis of codeswitching in classroom interaction, in one Year 6 classroom, I show how values around Tetum and Portuguese were being discursively constructed by the teacher, particularly in talk around monolingual texts in Portuguese.

Language policy, ideological clarification and theory of mind

This interdisciplinary paper shows that investigating community language beliefs, as a pillar of language policy research, can be enriched by the principles of theory of mind. The case study is Malaysia where ethnonationalist law and policy elevates the language and culture of the Muslim Malay majority above those of citizens of Chinese and Indian ethnicity, but where a seismic political shift is underway. The re-election of Dr Mahathir Mohammad as prime minister in May 2018, but now standing for Pakatan Harapan, broke decades of rule by the traditionalist United Malays National Organisation. Promises are being made to bring an end to Malaysia’s race-based politics and foster equality. The situation is ripe for producing contentious and politically-embedded talk in the community about Malaysia’s linguistic diversity and ethnonationalist language policy. In that context, this paper analyses how youths from different ethnic groups feel about Malaysia’s societal multilingualism. However, the innovation is in then soliciting and analysing the hypotheses of these same youths about how their own heritage languages, as well as societal multilingualism and language policy, are perceived by the other ethnic groups. As Malaysia embarks on political change, exploring beliefs in these interethnic multidirectional terms reveals fissures and alignments between beliefs that are articulated by different youths and the beliefs that are attributed to them. This methodological approach can support language policy processes and research by more richly investigating language beliefs and ideological positioning from multidirectional vantage points.

Politics and Power in Southern Ethiopia: Imposing, Opposing and Calling for Linguistic Unity

In 2018 there were demands for the creation of new regional states in Ethiopia by ethnolinguistic groups seeking greater self-determination. Two examples of this were the Sidama and Wolaita, with some members of the latter advocating for the creation of an “Omotic Peoples” regional state. The idea of Omotic unification is not new to southern Ethiopia. When the amalgamated language of Wogagoda was introduced in the 1990s, the peoples of the region rallied in opposition against government. This article explores the intersection of language, politics and power during that period, which resulted in the withdrawal of a language policy and the creation of new, disintegrated administrative structures. Drawing upon historical experiences, this article reflects on the role of ethno-linguistic identities and their implications for contemporary decision making about languages of instruction and administrative boundaries. The results provide insight into situational contexts that may enable or constrain bottom-up and top-down language policy processes.

Engaging pre-service English teachers with language policy

Teachers have the potential to be active agents in language policy and planning (LPP) processes when designing lessons or managing linguistic resources in their classrooms. A key consideration, then, is to guide pre-service educators towards an understanding of LPP principles and how they can be applied in practice. The present study documents an interactive LPP roleplay project that was designed to raise awareness among pre-service teachers about how they can engage with policy interpretation and negotiation. The project took place in the context of a sociolinguistics course within an English teacher education programme. Following the roleplay, pre-service teachers wrote reflective journals which were analysed inductively in order to investigate how they experienced the roleplay with respect to professional development. The findings show that roleplay helped these teachers see the relevance of policy to educational practice and also provided hands-on experience with the challenges and benefits of negotiating policy interpretations with colleagues.

Traces of old and new center-periphery dynamics in language-in-education policy and practice

AbstractThis article reveals how center-periphery relations have unfolded, over time, in language policy processes in one nation – Timor-Leste – on the global periphery. We take alongue duréeperspective on the language policy processes at work in this historical context, showing how different regimes of language were imposed, in the past, by colonisers from distant centers – in Portugal and then in Java, Indonesia. Then, turning to the post-independence period, we show how a new order of indexicality, forged within the Resistance to the Indonesian occupation, formed the basis for current language policy in Timor-Leste, with Portuguese and Tetum as co-official languages. We also demonstrate that this agentive policy move, from the global periphery, oriented Timor-Leste to new and more complex center-periphery relations, to a ‘lusophone’ world, with Portugal and Brazil as key players. Our account of contemporary policy discourses in Timor-Leste, and of the consequences for language policy implementation, on different scales (national and local), draws on recent research of an ethnographic and multi-scalar nature conducted in Timor-Leste (Da Costa Cabral, 2015).

The power of folk linguistic knowledge in language policy

Just as an expanded view of language policy now affords agency to many more actors across society than authorities and linguists alone, it also accepts that the dispositions these agents bring to language affairs influence language policy processes and outcomes. However, this paper makes the case that language policy may also be guided, to some degree, by what these societal agents of language policy claim to know as facts in linguistics, regardless of the empirical accuracy of their knowledge. Drawing on an analysis of qualitative data from folk linguistic research on Māori language revitalisation, the paper discusses instances of the policy ideas and discourses of a cohort of young New Zealanders relying on what they claimed as facts about revitalisation. By bringing a folk linguistic perspective to language policy theory, the paper argues that space should be made to accommodate the power of folk linguistic knowledge in language policy theory.

Language in epistemic access: mobilising multilingualism and literacy development for more equitable education in South Africa

This article is the guest editors’ introduction to the special issue ‘Language in Epistemic Access: Mobilising Multilingualism and Literacy Development for More Equitable Education in South Africa’. The issue offers complementary perspectives on improving epistemic access for all learners but especially those whose home language does not match the language of learning. Plüddemann examines the complex configurations of ideological and structural factors in South African language policy processes and the diverse positions taken up by teachers in response. Makalela argues that a methodology that encourages translanguaging can overcome historical separations between groups and promote transformative pedagogies. Probyn points to the importance of principled ‘pedagogical translanguaging’ in the mediation of secondary school science knowledge. Kerfoot and Van Heerden illustrate the substantial benefits of Systemic Functional Linguistic genre-based pedagogies for second or additional language writing in the middle years. White, Mammone and Caldwell in Australia offer evidence that similar benefits were maintained over six years for learners who faced both socio-economic and linguistic disadvantage in schools. Finally, Cummins and Heugh offer expansive perspectives on the issue. The editors argue that dynamic plurilingual pedagogies can be allied with the explicit scaffolding of genre-based pedagogies to help redress asymmetries in epistemic access.

Power and agency in language policy appropriation

In this article we proffer a theoretical model for analyzing power in language policy processes and incorporate ethnographic data to illustrate the usefulness of the model. Grounded in an ethnographic project in the US state of Washington, we examine how nominally identical school district-level programs, which are funded under the same state-level language policy, end up being different in practice. While language policy is often portrayed as multiply layered, or taking place across multiple levels of policy activity, we argue that language policy arbiters wield a disproportionate amount of power relative to other individuals in a particular level or layer. Our analysis focuses on how beliefs about language, language education, and educational research impact the decision-making of individuals we identify as language policy arbiters. We argue that the proposed model usefully highlights how language policy arbiters open and close spaces for additive bilingual education.

Language Ideologies of Arizona Voters, Language Managers, and Teachers

Arizona is the site of many explicit language policies as well as ongoing scholarly discussions of related language ideologies—beliefs about the role of language in society. This study adds a critical piece to the investigation of the role of ideologies in language policy processes by thoroughly documenting language ideologies expressed by a large sample of influential policy stakeholders (politically active voters, language managers, and teachers [N = 1,294]) while such policy processes were ongoing. The study uses survey methodology and statistical analysis, and for each language ideology identified, comparisons among levels of 10 demographic variables (e.g., party membership, age group, and years teaching) are reported. The findings include five language ideologies accounting for 53% of the total variance as well as significant differences related to several demographic variables. In particular, a dominant pro-monolingualism ideology and a complementary pro-multilingualism language ideology are confirmed.

Family Language Policy of the English Speaking Immigrant Community in Israel: Families with Young Children and Their FLP Planning, Management, and Outcomes

This study explores Family Language Policy (FLP) processes of the English speaking families with young children in Israel. This paper is the first in series aimed at describing and exploring the FLP processes and outcomes of this community in detail. FLP includes ideologies and beliefs, planning and management, as well as the linguistic outcomes of those practices. In the current paper we describe our participants' language use and dominance and explore the degree to which planning occurred and through which means. We also look at the FLP outcomes as exhibited through children’s language choice and use.

Language policy and planning in urban professional settings: bilingualism in Cardiff businesses

This paper examines overt and covert Welsh-language policy and planning processes in private businesses in Cardiff. As part of an ongoing broader critical discourse-analytical study on the discursive construction of the promotion of Welsh in the private sector in Wales, a critical examination of language policy, ideology and perceived practices in Cardiff firms was performed. The study is based on qualitative interviews with business stakeholders in Cardiff and a set of language-policy documents. Analysis of the participants' perceptions indicates a range of factors that are in play when businesses engage with language-policy issues. It also provides a vital glimpse into how key business stakeholders perceive the sense of worth, or otherwise, of using the Welsh language and how top-down language-policy processes are mediated at the micro-level. The study identifies an overall positive trend in the levels of support for Welsh in business, with recurring favourable attitudes towards Welsh as a resource and a desirable, non-essential skill. Nonetheless, challenges remain, particularly with respect to the top-down planning agenda, which often diverges from the scenarios encountered in urban business settings.

Critical discourse analysis and the ethnography of language policy

This article explores the compatibility of ethnography and critical discourse analysis (CDA) for the study of language policy. A perennial challenge facing the field of language policy is how to make connections between the macro and micro, and between macro-level policy texts and discourses and micro-level language use. Hornberger and Johnson [(2007). Slicing the onion ethnographically: Layers and spaces in multilingual language education policy and practice. TESOL Quarterly, 41(3), 509–532] propose the ethnography of language policy as a method for examining the language policy processes within and across the multiple layers of policy creation, interpretation, and appropriation. This paper further explores how CDA can be integrated into ethnographic studies of language policy and proposes that the combination of CDA and ethnography is particularly useful for revealing the connections between the multiple layers of policy activity. Based on a 3-year ethnographic study of bilingual education policy and practice in the School District of Philadelphia, this paper examines the intertextual and interdiscursive links between policy texts and discourses to uncover how the recontextualization of macro-level language policy impacts bilingual education.

Implementational and ideological spaces in bilingual education language policy

This paper presents results from an ethnography of language policy which examined language policy appropriation for bilingual learners in a large urban US school district. The purpose of this article is to explore the space left by current US language policy for developmental bilingual education and, specifically, the focus is on how a group of educators appropriate top-down language policies while engaging in their own local language policy creation. The process of creating the policy illustrates how spaces for bilingual education are pried open by a community of educators who fostered an ideological space which supported multilingualism as a resource for all students. A strong characteristic of this ideological space is the empowerment of bilingual teachers to take ownership of language policy processes and appropriate language policy in a way that benefits bilingual learners.