Official Language Policy Research Articles

The Balochi Language and Languages in Iranian Balochistan

This article offers a broad introduction to the Balochi language and its dialects, as well as current trends in the official language policy both in Iran and in Pakistan. Other languages spoken in Iranian Balochistan are also presented, and the problems of and prospects for the continuing use of the Balochi language in Iran are discussed. From a historical point of view, Balochi is classified as a Northwestern Iranian language closely related to Kurdish, although it is spoken in the southeastern corner of the Iranian linguistic area. It is difficult to estimate the total number of Balochi speakers, but 10 million may serve as an approximation. The main dialect split is between Western, Southern, and Eastern Balochi. The fact that the Balochi speakers are separated into several countries with various official languages is another cause of dialect differentiation. Along with modernization came a secular education system and a nationalist discourse, first in British India and later in Iran. There is, however, no official use of Balochi as a language of administration or education. This poses a serious threat to the survival of the language beyond one or two more generations. Such a threat is, of course, even more imminent for the languages spoken by smaller communities in southeastern Iran, such as Jadgali, Brahui, Bashkardi, and Koroshi.

Interventions

In spite of the challenges involved in the comparison of policies and practices for multi/plurilingualism in different national or contexts, the comparative data presented in this study provide a rich source of cross-national insights.1 Leaving aside the degree of recognition of multi/plurilingualism, there are multi/plurilingual policies and practices in all 24 countries/regions surveyed, with many EU and CoE recommendations being followed. On the basis of both the comparative cross-national findings presented here, and the contextual detail provided by our researchers in the country profiles, we hope that policy-makers, practitioners and specialists working in the field will be able to identify good practice, which can subsequently serve as a basis for development and knowledge exchange. Below, we summarise the key findings for each of the language domains surveyed.Languages in official documents and databasesLegislation on national and R/M languages is provided in almost all countries/ regions, on foreign languages in 14 countries/regions, and on immigrant languages in only six countries/regions.Official language policy documents on the promotion of national and foreign languages are available in almost all countries/regions, on R/M languages in 18 countries/regions and on immigrant languages in only four countries/regions.The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) has been ratified by Parliament in 11 out of the 18 countries surveyed, and signed by governments in France and Italy. It has been neither signed nor ratified by Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania and Portugal.The largest numbers of officially offered R/M languages in education emerge in South-Eastern and Central European countries. In Western Europe, Italy and France are the clearest exceptions to this general rule, as they offer a wide variety of languages. The concepts of regional or minority languages are not specified in the ECRML but immigrant languages are explicitly excluded from it. In Western European countries, immigrant languages often have a more prominent appearance than R/M languages but enjoy less recognition, protection and/or promotion.Most countries/regions are familiar with official language data collection mechanisms and most of them address three types of languages: national languages, R/M languages and immigrant languages. Only four out of 24 countries/regions have no language data mechanisms at all: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Greece and the Netherlands. Portugal only collects data on the national language.There is also variation in the major language question(s) asked in official nation/region-wide language data collection mechanisms. Over half of the countries/regions surveyed ask a home-language question, while others ask about the main language and/or the mother tongue.Languages in pre-primary educationMany EU and CoE documents underline the importance of early language learning. At pre-primary level, 14 of the 24 countries/regions surveyed provide additional support in the national language for all children funded by the state. The Netherlands and Ukraine devote the most time to this.Foreign-language provision at this level is offered by nine countries/regions: Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Basque Country, Bulgaria, Catalonia, Estonia, Spain and Ukraine, although it may be partly or fully funded by parents/ guardians. English, French and German are the most common languages offered.R/M languages are offered by 17 countries/regions, and are mainly funded by the state/region. In some countries there are minimum group size requirements to form a group. The widest variety of languages is offered in Austria, Hungary, Italy, Romania and Ukraine.Provision in immigrant languages in pre-primary education is not yet very common. However, in spite of the difficulties involved in identifying appropriate teachers and learning materials, three countries (Denmark, Spain and Switzerland) do offer support to very young children for the maintenance and development of their languages and cultures of origin. …

Reviews/Critiques d’ouvrages

John Biles, Meyer Burstein, James Frideres, Erin Tolley, and Robert Vineberg (eds.), Integration and Inclusion of Newcomers and Minorities across Canada, reviewed by Joseph Mensah James E. Coté and Anton L. Allahar, Lowering Higher Education: The Rise of Corporate Universities and the Fall of Liberal Education, reviewed by Gary Boire Jack Jedwab and Rodrigue Landry (eds.), Life After Forty: Official Languages Policy in Canada, reviewed by Rachelle Vessey Pieter Vanhuysse and Achim Goerres (eds.), Ageing Populations in Post-industrial Democracies: Comparative Studies of Policies and Politics, reviewed by Roderic Beaujot

Creating official language policy from local practice: the example of the Native American Languages Act 1990/1992

This research explores the development of landmark federal language policy in the United States: the Native American Languages Act of 1990/1992 (NALA). Overturning more than two centuries of United States American Indian policy, NALA established the federal role in preserving and protecting Native American languages. Indigenous languages in the United States are currently experiencing unprecedented language shift and NALA is a primary federal resource for Native American language programs. This research examines the local and national contexts and interests in which NALA developed from a grass-roots Native American language movement in the 1980s. The story of NALA stands as a powerful example of traditonally disenfranchised peoples transforming power relationships and creating language policy to support their language educaton practices and goals.

Language policies, language planning and linguistic landscapes in Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste is a nation where three exogenous languages (Portuguese, Bahasa Indonesia, English) and one of many endogenous languages (Tetun) compete to be heard in public spaces. The constitution names both Tetun and Portuguese as co-official languages, and English and Bahasa Indonesia as working languages in the civil service; but official and de facto language policy are not necessarily the same. One mechanism that can mediate between ideology and practice, both as a way of imposing and of resisting official policy, is language in the public space. This paper demonstrates the insights that examining language in the public space can provide on language policy debates. It reports on the investigation of a linguistic landscape in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, and finds considerable difference between official language policy and language practices.

Multiple Minorities or Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Plurilingual Learners? Re-envisioning Allophone Immigrant Children and Their Inclusion in French-Language Schools in Ontario

Abstract:Four out of five immigrants to Canada speak a language other than English or French as a first language. Immigration is increasingly transforming francophone minority communities. Allophone children acquire minority status on multiple levels within French-language schools, where they can become both a linguistic minority and a cultural minority within an official francophone minority in Canada. This article examines how culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) allophones have been constructed historically through official language and multiculturalism policies in Canada and how this political framing limits language rights and schooling for allophone immigrant children. By examining recent language policies, this article argues that the ways in which policy makers, educators, and researchers conceptualize CLD children shape their integration into Canada. This article draws upon a case study of teachers’ practices with allophone learners in one French-language school to highlight the potential for transformative third-space practices to support CLD children in French-language schools.

Utilising the linguistic knowledge of the speech community

Threatened language groups worldwide have experienced language loss due to official language policies of the state, including forced assimilation. A number of these populations are attempting to aid the revitalisation efforts of their traditional languages by implementing mother-tongue medium education revitalisation programmes within the framework of the formal education system. This research examines the use of intergenerational language transfer as an instructional tool within the formal education language revitalisation programmes of Aotearoa New Zealand. Compelling the researcher to pursue this topic is the apparent lack of cross-generational interaction in schools (grandparents/community members involved in the learning process) regardless of the population served, combined with need for fluent speakers of threatened languages to aid in further language revitalisation. Through a predominantly qualitative research approach this research investigates how many language revitalisation programmes within formal education classrooms in Aotearoa/ New Zealand utilise the linguistic knowledge held by the native speaker community, in particular members of the grandparent generation to impart their knowledge and work with the students. It examines how this method is utilised, or if it is not utilised, why this is the case. In addition to the collection of preliminary pedagogical demographic data from schools, interviews with Kaumatua and classroom teachers, and case study observation of classrooms, provide further depth to this research.

Life After Forty: Official Languages Policy in Canada (review)

Life After Forty: Official Languages Policy in Canada (review)

The sociolinguistics of nationalism in the Sudan: the politicisation of Arabic and the Arabicisation of politics

This monograph describes the historiography of language ideologies that led to the politicisation of Arabic and the Arabicisation of politics in the Sudan, starting from British colonial rule until the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that was a precursor to the separation of the South as an independent state. The monograph shows that the politicisation of Arabic in the Sudan is largely a product of British colonial language planning practices that essentially amalgamated Arabic, Islam and a pigmented, spatialised identity, constituting in the process ‘northern Sudan’ vis-à-vis its southern counterpart. The widely celebrated South–North multilingualism is largely a product of colonial linguistic intervention, which has been sustained by postcolonial rules. The postcolonial sociolinguistic order, which is a result of power holders' competing agendas, has reproduced this colonial narrative as the legitimate base of its official (northern) language policy, leading to the Arabicisation of politics. The monograph analyses these different historical trajectories in order to establish how they have intertextually played themselves out in the recent language policies of the South–North peace agreements. Although the ‘New Sudan’ project, promulgated by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, was intended to de-politicise Arabic and de-Arabicise politics by advocating a political programme aimed at deconstructing the South–North polarisation, the South–North semiotically invented cartography is re-entextualised in the very ‘libratory’ postcolonial discourse of the CPA.

Common Tongue: The Impact of Language on Economic Performance

This paper investigates the impact of official language policies on education using state formation in India. Colonial provinces consisted of some districts where the official language matched the district's language and some where it did not. Linguistically mismatched districts have 18.8% lower literacy rates and 27.6% lower college graduation rates, driven by difficulty in acquiring education due to a different medium of instruction in schools. Educational achievement caught up in mismatched districts after the 1956 reorganization of Indian states on linguistic lines, suggesting that political reorganization can mitigate the impact of mismatched language policies.

Linguistic Landscapes as Public Communication: A Study of Public Signage in Gaborone Botswana

The study of public signage is termed linguistic landscape (LL). Landry & Bourhis (1997) define the notion as “the language of public road signs, advertising billboards, street names, place names, commercial shop signs, and public signs on government buildings combines to form the linguistic landscape of a given territory, region, or urban agglomeration” (p.25). The present study intends to contribute to this development in Gaborone the capital city of Botswana. The aim of this study is to show that LL can provide valuable insight into the linguistic situation of Gaborone Botswana, including common patterns of language usage, official language policies, prevalent language attitudes, and the long-term consequences of language contact, among others. This was be done by analyzing the data collected from specific public domains such as street signs, advertising signs, building names, warning notices and prohibitions, billboards, shop signs, informative signs (directions, hours of opening), etc. in Gaborone.

The functions of classroom code-switching in the Siyanda District of the Northern Cape

This paper reports on the findings of a study conducted in four secondary schools in the Siyanda District of the Northern Cape province of South Africa, with the aim of identifying the functions of code-switching in classroom interactions. Code-switching in these classrooms involves English, Afrikaans, Setswana, and isiXhosa, and goes against official school language policy in most cases. Instances of code-switching are categorised according to Myers-Scotton's (1993, 1998) markedness model, and the functions of the switches are identified. Code-switching is found to fulfil both academic and social functions. Specifically, code-switching is used (i) in explaining and clarifying subject content; (ii) in assisting learners in understanding and interpreting material; (iii) as a tool of teaching in confirming understanding and encouraging participation; (iv) in classroom management, such as maintaining learners’ attention and reprimanding disruptive behaviour; and (v) for social functions, such as humour and as a marker of bilingual identity. The paper concludes that code-switching may be usefully employed as a classroom strategy.

Feminist language planning in Sweden

The international literature has often described linguistic authorities as being opposed to the idea of changing language in the name of feminism. However, in Sweden, many linguistic authorities have been active agents in adopting feminist language reforms. This is probably due to Sweden's long tradition of political feminist efforts and to the fact that Sweden is one of the world's most gender-equal countries, which makes feminist language planning in Sweden an interesting case to study. The article describes two types of feminist language reform. The first is a reform rooted in the political feminist movement, where the change – often the introduction of a newly coined word – serves the purpose of conveying a feminist message. The other is rooted in the official language-planning bodies and is integrated in the broader aim of making language as a whole a democratic tool for official communication. One example of the first type is the introduction of the word snippa, a colloquial word for the female genitalia. Snippa was promoted by both feminist organizations and linguistic authorities and is now included in well-reputed dictionaries and children's books. Another example is the newly coined gender-neutral generic pronoun hen, which is used among LGBT people and in feminist communities. A third example is a new Swedish word for ‘hymen’. The Swedish Association for Sexuality Education has proposed that the traditional word mödomshinna (literally ‘membrane of virginity’) should be replaced by slidkrans (‘vaginal corona’), which lacks connotations associated with the ideology of virginity and honour. The interest in feminist language planning among official language-planning bodies has also intensified in the last few years. The Language Council of Sweden prepared a new official language policy for the country, which included the goal to minimize sexist tendencies in official Swedish. The Council also helped produce a guide to gender-neutral language. The article ends with a discussion of what these language-planning projects demonstrate about the function of feminist language planning in the ongoing feminist project in Sweden as well as around the world.

Urban plurilingualism: Language practices, policies, and ideologies in Chicago

Plurilingual language practices in Chicago are examined using the notions of linguistic markets and language ideologies. Plurilingualism encompasses bi/multilingualism and bidialectalism, or both, in dynamic use. Chicago always was and is plurilingual; traders speaking Haitian Creole, French, and English confronted speakers of indigenous Checagou languages in the late 18th century, and the enormous 19th century migration brought German and other European languages. 20th century migration brought Asian and other world languages and, notably, Spanish. Ethnographic research in homes, workplaces, schools, and religious organizations illustrates vibrant contemporary plurilingualism. Both historical and contemporary plurilingualism are embedded in a larger context of competing language ideologies that explain the persistence of plurilingual practices and the ambivalent history of official language policy in Illinois. Although dominant ideologies valorize a monoglot standard English, plurilingual practices evidence a persistent valuing of non-(standard) English language. For example, the official language policy of the Chicago Public Schools promotes (standard) English at the expense of students’ community languages, whereas the grass-roots Multilingual Chicago Initiative promotes Chicago's plurilingualism. Dominant ideologies that link a codified “standard” with modernity, clarity and rationality and vernacular varieties with lack of education and irrationality explain the former, whereas local linguistic markets explain the latter.

Language politics in postcolonial Africa revisited: Minority agency and language imposition

This article returns to the knotty question of minority language maintenance in the face of impositions of hegemonic national language(s) in postcolonial Africa. Drawing on postcolonial resistance theories, empirical data on the language ecology of Zimbabwe and case studies from other multilingual African contexts, the article is a rethink of the agency of minority ethnolinguistic groups to the declining use of their languages. The article confronts an issue that has so far not been addressed directly by research scholarship on African sociolinguistics – the role of minorities in the marginalisation of their own languages. The premise is that the imposition of hegemonic languages is not always achieved without any form of resistance and/or consent from speakers of dominated languages. It is concluded that in spite of the existence of official language policies, there is still room for ‘unplanned’ language planning activities to be used in resisting hegemonic language ideologies.

LANGUAGE POLICY, ‘ASIA'S WORLD CITY’ AND ANGLOPHONE HONG KONG WRITING

Hong Kong's official language policy of ‘biliteracy’ (Chinese and English) and ‘trilingualism’ (Cantonese, Putonghua, English), announced after the reversion to China in 1997, claims to address actualities of language use in the territory, remove inequities between English and Chinese, and consolidate the linguistic platform to launch Hong Kong as ‘Asia's World City’. Public discussion of and controversy over this policy immediately followed, and have continued in the past decade. But they have tended to focus on the implementation of the policy in education, specifically the medium of instruction in schools, to the exclusion of most other areas of language use. Drawing on recent examples of translingual practice in literary writing, this essay argues first that such actually existing practices are far more verbally nuanced, self-knowing and self-reflexive than the official policy would allow, and second, that they instantiate Hong Kong's identity as ‘Asian’, which challenges both the official and public focus on Chinese and English. The ‘world’ and ‘world city’ that emerge from such writing are historically located in the transition before and after 1997, when the writers acquired their languages in schools. They are also provisional, generated by a poeisis of experimentation that attends to cultural change as language change in – and as – everyday life.

Language use and linguistic nationalism in the Faroe Islands

Using data from the work of a Language Commission set by the Faroese Government in 2005 to formulate a proposal for an official Faroese language policy and findings from my own study on language use among young Faroe Islanders, this paper questions whether the present language policy in the Faroes is an effective strategy to maintain and protect a demographically small language – like Faroese – as a viable language. The findings of this study indicate a conflict between a purist movement that wants to police the Faroese language and actual language use. The findings also suggest that even if one lives in a linguistically fairly homogenous situation, in remote areas, multilingualism is a necessity.

Language policy and the drawing of social boundaries

Educational institutions developed in Tucson, Arizona in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, during a critical time in cultural and political shifts of power between Anglo and Mexican elites in Southwestern United States. My qualitative analysis reconstructs language policies in the incipient educational system in Territorial Tucson. This article examines official and unofficial language policies in both public and private schools in Tucson that reflected this accommodation of power and the negotiation of a new racial hierarchy in the context of westward expansion. I argue that the private schools Mexican elites founded in this period maintained bilingual instruction and promoted biliteracy as a means of racially and linguistically distancing themselves from Anglos, Indians and Mexicans from lower socioeconomic classes in public schools.

Conscious and subconscious attitudes towards English influence in the Nordic countries: evidence for two levels of language ideology

The article reports on how the present-day influence from English is perceived and assessed in seven Nordic communities. The focus is on comparison, between the seven communities, and between two data sets obtained under different conditions of consciousness. The comparisons show that the populations reproduce the “purism level” of their own community's official language policy in their consciously offered responses to questions in a telephone survey, while the purism–laissez-faire ranking of the communities is turned upside down in a subconsciously offered data set obtained in a speaker evaluation experiment based on the matched-guise technique. In the same way, analyses of how the evaluative reactions correlate with social-group divisions show reproduction and non-reproduction of the stereotypically expected correlations, in the conscious and subconscious conditions respectively.

The Politics of Language in Eritrea: Equality of Languages Vs. Bilingual Official Language Policy

The article analyzes the discourse of politics of language in Eritrea. It argues that the language debate in Eritrea over equality of languages and bilingual official langauge policy is more about ...