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Applied Sociolinguistics
Page 2
Language Policy
A course or principle of action
adopted or proposed by a
government regarding a given
language.
What do governments do with
languages either officially
through legislation or by court
decisions?
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Language Policy
o determine how languages are used
o develop language skills needed to meet
national priorities, or
o establish the rights of individuals or groups to
use and maintain languages
Page 4
Language Policy
Language policy is sometimes used as a
synonym for language planning. However,
more precisely, language policy refers to the
more general linguistic, political and social goals
underlying the actual language planning process.
Page 5
Language Policy
Language planning is actually part of a language
policy that a given government adopts regarding
one or more of the languages spoken in the
country.
e.g. Catalan forbidden during Franco's dictatorship 1937-
1976. Catalan not allowed in schools and no books or
newspapers could be published in that language - it was
considered of importance for the Catalan movement, which
was believed to threaten the union of Spain.
Page 6
What is Language Planning?
A deliberate effort to influence the function,
structure, or acquisition of a language or language
variety within a speech community.
In multilingual countries LP results from the need of
implementing a language policy regulating the
scope and use of the languages and/or language
varieties within their territories.
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Language Planning
A few decades ago, decisions concerning language
planning were characteristic of developing countries
which often needed to make decisions on whether
to use the former colonial language or other national
languages as a unifying code.
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Language Planning
More recently, LP has become an issue in western
societies - a social demand to preserve minority
languages or a political demand to expand the use
of international languages to promote intercultural
and supranational communication (e.g., the EU).
The factors affecting language planning (economic,
educational, historical, judicial, political, religious
and social) give an idea of its complexity.
Page 9
Factors motivating decision-making in language planning
Cobarrubias (1983)
Four typical ideologies
Language Planning
Linguistic Assimilation
Vernacularization Internationalism
Linguistic Pluralism
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Factors motivating decision-making in language planning
Linguistic Assimilation
The belief that everyone, regardless of origin,
should learn the dominant language of the society.
France applied this policy to various peoples within its borders.
The U.S. applied it both, internally with immigrants and externally (The Philippines and Puerto Rico)
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Factors motivating decision-making in language planning
This seems a reasonable decision for the
integration of minority groups, but it raises the
problem of conservation and respect for minority
group identities and cultural heritage, which are
often supposed to disappear under this motivation
for language planning.
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Factors motivating decision-making in language planning
Eg. The case of Russification in the former Soviet
Union where Soviet rulers tried to spread the
Russian language and culture throughout the
whore Soviet Union.
A different action could be simply lack of official
actions undertaken to preserve a language, which
can also lead to language assimilation.
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Factors motivating decision-making in language planning
In Australia, there were about 200 languages at the
time of the European conquest and only around 20
were still spoken by younger generations in the
1990s.
A major factor in Aboriginal language death in
Australia was the linguistic assimilation policy
undertaken up to the 1970s with their 'English only policy in schools.
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Factors motivating decision-making in language planning
Linguistic pluralism
The acceptance of various languages or varieties,
centered on individual or geographical criteria, i.e.,
an individual may be stimulated to maintain his/her
language in the case of a multilingual setting,
where his/her language represents a minority that
does not identify with a specific geographical area
(immigrants in a big city)
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Factors motivating decision-making in language planning
It can also be the case of a multilingual state that
adopts various official languages as they are
spoken in different geographical areas (e.g.,
French and English speaking Canada; French
and Dutch-speaking Belgium; and, English and
Afrikaans-speaking South Africa).
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Factors motivating decision-making in language planning
Vernacularization
Entails the reconstruction or renewal of an
indigenous language that is not used by a
wide group of speakers but after some
changes (the alphabet, pronunciation,
relexicalization, etc.) becomes widespread
and adopted as an official language
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Factors motivating decision-making in language planning
e.g., Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea,
Bahasa Indonesia in Indonesia, Tagalog
renamed Filipino in the Philippines and
Quechua in Peru.
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Factors motivating decision-making in language planning
Internationalism
It is reached when the motivation in language
planning is to adopt a non-vernacular language for
wider interethnic communication as a political
solution to an internal problem often arising from
equally powerful minorities, one of them aiming at
imposing their language as the official language,
or the language of education and trade, for all.
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Factors motivating decision-making in language planning
e.g. English in Singapore, India and the
Philippines.
English and French are the languages that have
been most internationalized.
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Factors affecting language planning
a) Socio-demographic factors
b) Linguistic factors
c) Socio-psychological factors
d) Political factors
e) Religious factors
Page 21
Aims of Language Planning
Eleven Language Planning Goals have been
recognized (Nahir 2003):
1. Language Purification
2. Language Revival
3. Language Reform
4. Language Standardization
5. Language Spread
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Aims of Language Planning
6. Lexical Modernization
7. Terminology Unification
8. Stylistic Simplification
9. Interlingual Communication
10.Language Maintenance
11.Auxiliary-Code Standardization
Page 23
Types of Language Planning
Heinz Kloss (1967), distinguished three basic
types of language planning:
Status planning - all efforts undertaken to change the use and function of a language or language variety within a given society.
Corpus planning - concerned with the internal structure of the language
Acquisition planning - aims to influence aspects of language, such as language status, distribution and literacy through
education.
Page 24
Status Planning
Refers to the allocation or relocation of new
functions to a language (such as using the
language as medium of instruction or as an
official language).
Status planning affects the role a language
plays within a given society.
Page 25
Status Planning
The decision to use Hebrew as a medium of
instruction in Jewish schools in Palestine from
the end of the nineteenth century is an example
of status planning.
Previously, classical Hebrew had not been used
in everyday communication, and its use had
been restricted to prayers and religious as well
as scholarly writings.
Page 26
Status Planning
Language-planners distinguish many possible
functions a language can occupy in society.
Official: the use of a language as legally appropriate language for all politically and
culturally representative purposes on a
nationwide basis. In many cases, the official
function of a language is specified
constitutionally. E.g. Irish and English have official status in Ireland.
Page 27
Status Planning
Provincial: the use of a language as a provincial or regional official language. In this
case, the official function of the language is not
nationwide, but is limited to a smaller
geographic area (Stewart 1968).
e.g In the Canadian province of Quebec,
French is the only official language (since
1974), while both English and French have
official status in the other provinces of Canada.
Page 28
Status Planning
Wider communication: the use of a language as a medium of communication across language boundaries within the nation (lingua
franca) (Stewart 1968).
e.g. Swahili in Kenya and Tanzania, Hindi and
English in India.
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Status Planning
International: the use of a language as a major medium of communication which is
international in scope, e.g. for diplomatic
relations, foreign trade, tourism, etc. (Stewart 1968).
e.g.: in medieval Europe, Latin was the major
medium of international communication. Today
it is English.
Page 30
Status Planning
Capital: the use of a language as a major medium of communication in the area of the
national capital. The function is especially
important in countries where political power,
social prestige, and economic activity is
centered in the capital (Stewart 1968).
e.g.: the provinces in Belgium have either Dutch
or French as a provincial official language. The
capital Brussels, however, is bilingual.
Page 31
Status Planning
Group: the use of a language primarily as the normal medium for communication among the
members of a single group, such as a tribe,
settled group of foreign immigrants, etc. (Stewart 1968).
e.g.: Jamaican Creole functions as a group
language among Afro-Caribean immigrants in
Britain.
Page 32
Status Planning
Educational: the use of a language as a medium of primary or secondary education,
either regionally or nationally (Stewart 1968).
e.g.: in Norway, the local dialects are widely
used in primary education.
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Status Planning
School subject: the language is commonly taught as a subject in secondary and/or higher
education (Stewart 1968).
e.g.: French is taught as a school subject in
most German high schools.
Page 34
Status Planning
Literary: The use of a language primarily for literary or scholarly purposes (Stewart 1968).
e.g.: Latin was used as the main language of
literary and particularly scientific writing in
Europe until the early eighteenth century.
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Status Planning
Religious: The use of a language primarily in connection with the ritual of a particular
religion (Stewart 1968).
e.g.: religions such as Islam and Judaism
require the use of a sacred language (Arabic
and Hebrew respectively) for the recitation of
religious texts and prayers.
Page 36
Status Planning
Language Status
A concept distinct from language prestige and
language function.
Language status is the position or standing of a
language vis-a-vis other languages
A language garners status according to the
fulfillment of four attributes (Heinz Kloss and William
Stewart)
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Status Planning
1. Language origin
2. Degree of standardization
3. Juridical status
4. Vitality
Page 38
Status Planning
1. Language origin whether a given language is indigenous or imported to the speech
community
2. Degree of standardization the extent of development of a formal set of norms that
define correct usage.
3. Juridical status
Page 39
Status Planning Juridical Status
a. Sole official language (e.g. French in France
and Turkish in Turkey)
b. Joint official language (e.g. English and
Afrikaans in South Africa; French, German,
Italian and Romansh in Switzerland)
c. Regional official language (e.g. Igbo in
Nigeria; Marathi in Maharastra, India)
Page 40
Status Planning Juridical Status
d) Promoted language lacks official status on a national or regional level but is promoted
and sometimes used by public authorities for
specific functions (e.g. Spanish in New
Mexico; West African Pidgin English in
Cameroon)
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Status Planning Juridical Status
e) Tolerated language neither promoted nor proscribed; acknowledged but ignored (e.g.
Native American languages in the United
States)
f) Proscribed language discouraged by official sanction or restriction (e.g. Galician, Basque
and Catalan during Francisco Francos regime in Spain; Macedonian in Greece)
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Status Planning Juridical Status
4. Vitality
The ratio, or percent, of users of a language to
another variable, like the total population.
Together, origin, degree of standardization,
juridical status, and vitality dictate a languages status.
Page 43
Corpus Planning
Refers to the strict intervention in the forms of a
language, planning decisions are made to engineer
changes in the structure of the language.
Corpus planning activities often arise as the result of
beliefs about the adequacy of the form of a
language to serve desired functions.
Page 44
Corpus Planning
Unlike status planning, which is primarily undertaken
by administrators and politicians, corpus planning
generally involves planners with greater linguistic
expertise.
Page 45
Corpus Planning
Haugen (1966, 1987) developed a useful framework
for the description of the process of language
planning which typically consists of four stages:
1. Selection
2. Codification
3. Implementation
4. Elaboration.
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Corpus Planning - Selection
The choice of a language or language variety to
fulfill certain functions in a given society: e.g. official
language, medium of instruction, religious language
and so on.
The most prestigious dialect or language is chosen,
e.g. French - based on the prestigious dialect
spoken in the region around Paris.
Page 47
Corpus Planning - Codification
Codification refers to the creation of a linguistic
standard or norm for a selected linguistic code and
is commonly divided into three stages:
a. graphization (developing a writing system),
b. grammatication (deciding on the rules/norms of
grammar) and
c. lexicalization (identifying the vocabulary)
(Haugen 1987)
Page 48
Corpus Planning - Implementation
Once a decision has been made, the chosen
language needs to be officially implemented and
used in all sorts of official settings: education,
parliament, media, etc.
This will raise its social consideration and it will
become a prestige language, probably used in
literary and academic circles.
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Corpus Planning - Implementation
As a result of continuous and prestigious use, it will
spread as the norm, and its presence in dictionaries,
grammars and literary works will consolidate its
status as the norm.
This includes the production of books, pamphlets,
newspapers and textbooks in the newly codified
standard as well as its introduction into new
domains, especially the education system.
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Corpus Planning - Elaboration
Elaboration or modernization
Technological and scientific developments probably
require modernization of specific vocabulary and
very often a decision needs to be made on whether
to adopt loan words or to coin new terms based on
indigenous roots.
Page 51
Corpus Planning - Elaboration
Thus it involves the terminological and stylistic
development of a codified language to meet the
continuing communicative demands of modern life
and technology.
Page 52
Acquisition Planning
A type of language planning in which a national,
state or local government aims to influence aspects
of language, such as language status, distribution
and literacy through education.
Acquisition planning can also be used by non-
governmental organizations, but it is more
commonly associated with government planning.
Page 53
Acquisition Planning
This implies a larger language planning process in
which the statuses of languages are evaluated,
corpuses are revised and the changes are finally
introduced to society on a national, state or local
level through education systems, ranging from
primary schools to universities
Page 54
Acquisition Planning
This process of change can entail modifications as
the following:
- alteration in student textbook formatting
- a change in methods of teaching an official
language
- the development of a bilingual language program.
Page 55
Acquisition Planning
If a government decides to raise the status level of a
given language or change its level of prestige, it can
establish a law that requires teachers to teach only
in this language or that textbooks are written using
only this languages script.
This, in turn, would support the elevation of the
languages status or could increase its prestige
Page 56
Acquisition Planning
Often used to promote language revitalization
(changing a languages status, reverse language shift, or promote linguistic purism)
The education ministry or education sector of
government is typically in charge of making national
language acquisition decisions based on state and
local evaluation reports.
.
Page 57
Acquisition Planning
The responsibilities of education sectors vary by
country. These are the sectors six principal goals:
1. To decide what languages should be taught within the curriculum.
2. To determine the amount and quality of teacher training.
3. To involve local communities.
4. To determine what materials will be used and how they will be
incorporated into syllabi.
5. To establish a local and state assessment system to monitor
progress.
6. To determine financial costs.
Page 58
Acquisition Planning - problems
Although acquisition planning can be useful to
governments, there are several problems that must
be considered.
Even with a solid evaluation and assessment
system, the effects of planning methods can never
be certain; governments must consider the effects
on other aspects of state planning, such as
economic and political planning.
Page 59
Acquisition Planning
Some proposed acquisition changes could also be
too drastic or instituted too suddenly without proper
planning and organization.
Acquisition planning can also be financially draining,
so adequate planning and awareness of financial
resources is essential. It is important therefore that
government goals be organized and planned
carefully.
Page 60
EU Language Planning and Policy
The need to convert the rich heritage of diverse
languages and cultures in Europe from a barrier to
communication into a source of mutual
understanding.
The aims
- to unify millions of speakers under a political and
economic administration
- to find a common ground for interaction without
losing either cultural or linguistic identity.
Page 61
EU Language Planning and Policy
The linguistic situation within the EU - 25 countries
with 22 different official languages (three working
languages: English, French and German)
All the countries include linguistic minorities, only
Portugal can be considered 'officially' monolingual
although it contains speech communities using a
dissimilar language from the official one.
Page 62
EU Language Planning and Policy
In all the other countries there are areas where a
different language is learned as a mother tongue
(the distinction between languages and dialects is
not always clear and is often determined by
sociopolitical matters).
This situation gives us a picture of the diversity of
the state of affairs in the EU.
Page 63
EU Language Planning and Policy
Policy makers established some guidelines to
promote the use of international languages for
intercultural communication,
They have also undertaken some actions regarding
the maintenance of minority languages.
So far, the following documents have been already
elaborated:
Page 64
EU Language Planning and Policy
a. The European Charter for Minority or Regional
Languages.
b. The CE Framework Convention for the Protection of
National Minorities.
c. The Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic
Rights of National Minorities within the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
d. The Hague Recommendations Regarding the Education
Rights of National Minorities.
Page 65
EU Language Planning and Policy
The EU has taken some action regarding the
second and foreign language teaching and learning
within the member states.
A document published in 1995 states as a general
objective that everyone, irrespective or his/her
academic training should gain proficiency in two
languages apart from their mother tongue so that
they can communicate in those languages.
Page 66
EU Language Planning and Policy
With this aim, the EU reached a strong consensus
on the fundamentals for foreign language teaching
and some programs were developed for the
exchange of students and teachers to favor the
learning of other EU languages, to aid teacher
training, to encourage awareness-raising, and to
promote the cultural exchange among different
educational systems.
Page 67
EU Language Planning and Policy
Some of these programs are Socrates (including
Erasmus, Lingua and Socrates), Leonardo
(exchange programs in the vocational field) and
Tempus (for the development of higher education
systems).
Page 68
EU Language Planning and Policy
The Common European Framework of Reference
for Languages is a document that provides a
practical tool for establishing certain standards at
successive stages of learning and evaluating
language knowledge.
Page 69
EU Language Planning and Policy
Aims of the Common European Framework of
Reference for Languages:
- To provide the basis for setting common standards
within the EU at an international level
- To provide the basis for the mutual recognition of
language qualifications within the EU, and
therefore facilitating educational and occupational
mobility.
Page 70
EU Language Planning and Policy
The Framework describes:
a) The competences necessary for communication;
b) The related knowledge and skills;
c) The situations and domains of communication.
Page 71
EU Language Planning and Policy
The framework paves the way for a comprehensive
definition of teaching and learning objectives and
methods, and is therefore, of special interest to
course designers, textbook writers, testers, teachers
and teacher trainers, and the whole academic
community as a whole.