language policy – Educational Sociolinguistics

Language Policy and Planning: Words and Actions

Martina Boi

Some time ago I found myself typing on the Google search bar “Italian language policy”, but I noticed that the results that I could find were very very few. I opened every single page, I changed the key words, I tried different word (and languages!) combinations many times, but it didn’t help. I could have kept trying as much as I wanted but the reality (which I only discovered later) was simply that an Italian language policy doesn’t exist – the only case dates back to the Fascist era, after which there was no longer a real interest in issues related to the Italian linguistic heritage. Apparently, dealing with linguistic issues is not among the State’s priorities, which is the reason why the fate of Italian and the other languages and dialects spoken in Italy are in the hands of the single regions and of the European Union.

In fact, the Council of Europe has been quite active for what concerns the interventions for the protection and promotion of European minority languages. In 1992, an international treaty was concluded in Strasburg – the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The Charter aims to promote the use of minority languages, in order to safeguard European cultural heritage, identities and traditions, as well as the respect of the will of individuals to be able to use these languages in their daily public and private activities. In June 2000 Italy signed the Charter BUT, more than twenty years later, the country has not ratified the Charter yet. The States that have signed and ratified the Charter committed to, among other things, adopt efficient solutions to promote their minority languages, to foster and encourage their (written and spoken) use in the public and private life and to make available adequate forms and means of education at all levels. Apparently, Italy has never been ready to or interested in working in this direction, which is the reason why in 2014 the State received a formal sanction from the Council of Europe, which sent a document with which they severely condemned the Italian immobilism (Corongiu, 2014).

What are the reasons for this non-fulfilment? The Parliament continues not to express its view on the issue, and in the meanwhile languages and identities die. Perhaps it is, like always, a matter of power whereby the strongest wins while the rest is forgotten. After all, with the spending review of Monti government a distinction was made between languages protected by international agreements and considered “national minorities” and languages “without a State”. The first ones are languages spoken by communities that can be associated with actual States: in North Italy languages like German, Slovenian and French are spoken alongside Italian, and in these cases language retention is supported by factors such as institutional support and the power and prestige of the languages in question (Van Herk, 2018). On the other hand, other languages are simply recognized as “minority languages” (and thus are given less attention) because they cannot be associated with any sovereign State (Sardinia is an example). Of course, such a differentiated treatment expressed by this spending review has had consequences for education. Education is one of the main means through which promoting and valuing the use of a certain language, but when the resources to do so are limited, the possibility for that language to keep thriving are constrained as well.

What we can see here is that while many interesting projects have been made and signed (on paper), actual interventions and actions are rarely concretely realized. When minority languages do not have the support of a State apparatus, it must be the speakers of those languages themselves the ones who assert their desire to make their voice heard, it must be them the first ones who strongly believe in the value of their language and identity by working for a change that takes form in their everyday lives action after action, word after word. It is here that we see the importance of family language policies, and of the consequent linguistic behaviors that could arise from these policies (Fogle & King, 2013). As we see from Van Herk (2018), the status and shape of a language can be affected not only by governments and big institutions, but also by education (when the possibility is given to it) and by single individuals. And, importantly, language planning effectively works only if a plan is actually implemented with concrete interventions after a theoretical elaboration has been developed (Van Herk, 2018).

While all these points seem to make sense, I wonder: can the desires and actions of single individuals promote a real change when it comes to language use and revitalization or are these actions effective only when appropriately supported by governments and institutions? There’s a lot to think about.

References
Corongiu, G. (2014, February 23). La mancata ratifica della Carta rivela le “scorrettezze” del Belpaese L’Europa e il sardo: cartellino giallo per l’Italia. Forma Paris. https://web.archive.org/web/20140302071825/http:/www.formaparis.com/blog/la-mancata-ratifica-della-carta-rivela-le-%E2%80%9Cscorrettezze%E2%80%9D-del-belpaese-leuropa-e-il-sardo-cartel

Chart of signatures and ratifications of Treaty 148. Council of Europe. https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list?module=signatures-by-treaty&treatynum=148

Fogle, L. W., & King, K. (2013). Child agency and language policy in transnational families. Issues in Applied Linguistics, 19(0), 1–26.

Text of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Council of Europe. https://www.coe.int/en/web/european-charter-regional-or-minority-languages/text-of-the-charter

Van Herk, G. (2018). Language as a Social Entity. In Van Herk, G. (Ed.), What is sociolinguistics? (pp. 187-202). 2e Chichester, West Sussex, UK:Wiley-Blackwell.

Multilingual South Africa and ESL

Di Niu

“Permeable walls” are installed in the classroom (Pennycook, 2021). Permeability can be seen in the transmission of information between classrooms and the outside world. What is transmissible is not only information but also the consequences of these interconnections between inside and outside classrooms, particularly from the perspective of educational sociolinguistics. As a result, language policies and their implementations should be linked between the scenarios of permeable classrooms and the world outside. This “from the top down”—or, more precisely, local classroom-based vision—helps to establish effective language policy (Pennycook, 2021).

South Africa, with its multilingualism, can serve as an example. Historically speaking, Afrikaans, like English, is an imposed language spoken by millions of South Africans, and its influence can be seen in daily life. In this case, bilingualism may not be sufficient to depict the linguistic environment in South Africa because other local languages exist. That is why multilingualism helps to explain the South African language environment.

In order to gain a better understanding of South Africa’s multilingual context, it is necessary to put Afrikaans and English in a sociocultural context. There could be a special platform of daily life that reflects interactions between English and other languages (Kamwangamalu, 2007). When deciding whether to use English or Afrikaans, this model can be helpful. Local language policy, it could be argued, is also attempting to strike a delicate balance between the two, and a number of policies correspond with South Africa’s cultural background.

Classrooms, according to Pennycook (2021), are “dynamic spaces” that are linked to what happens in the outside world. From this perspective, South Africa’s social transformation resonates with the “Afrikaans-ESL” context. It means that the importance of English has been emphasized since the country’s globalization. Young people, in particular, may have discovered a new balance in South Africa’s multilingual context. Meanwhile, economic development promotes the use of English on a regular basis. As a result, there is a generation gap in the way Afrikaans and English are used. This phenomenon is miraculous because there is such harmony in the coexistence of English and its multilingual setting. The challenge for teachers, however, is to convey to students the message of “Afrikaans-ESL balance.” This task is not easy, and it is accompanied by multiple answers as well as student feedback. How can local governments in South Africa identify the key points in conflicts between English and other languages and then design a language policy to address these issues?

Furthermore, we must also mention South Africa’s ongoing racial and ethnic conflicts. Similarly, Pennycook has interpreted Canagarajah’s context in Sri Lanka to mean that classrooms should have “relative autonomy.” Despite social instability, classrooms continue to provide students with educational opportunities. This context also creates a new platform for local language policymakers to rethink how to improve existing language policies. If the language policy is successful in assisting people in finding a balance between English and other languages, it will also contribute to social and economic stability. Language is mobile, so it can integrate at different levels of society, effectively addressing language issues. Hence, I believe that South Africa is an excellent case study for studying the interactions between English and the multilingual environment. It may not be easy to address all of these issues at first, but it must eventually find a viable solution in the face of these conflicts.

In conclusion, the example of ESL and multilingual South Africa provides a new platform for rethinking the issue of English and the local multilingual context. Conflicts and beneficial interactions will continue. However, it is through this investigation that local language policymakers should be able to find better solutions, with a particular emphasis on this “from top to bottom” model—or, more precisely, this local sociolinguistics-based insight (Pennycook, 2021). The classroom is not an isolated place, but sufficiently permeable to absorb interactions from the world outside.

Question:
Can you think of any other examples similar to “multilingual South Africa and ESL”?

Reference

Barkhuizen, G. P., & Gough, D. (1996). Language curriculum development in South Africa: What place for English?. TESOL quarterly, 30(3), 453-471.

Kamwangamalu, N. M. (2007). One language, multi‐layered identities: English in a society in transition, South Africa. World Englishes, 26(3), 263-275.

Pennycook, A. (2021). The politics of language pedagogy (Chapter 6). In A. Pennycook (author). Critical Applied Linguistics: A Critical Re-introduction. Routledge.

The Imagination of a Language

Kunyao Kuang

In the last class, I leant a lot about the Quebec language policy on Dawn Allen’s (2006) article Who’s in and who’s out? Language and the integration of new immigrant youth in Quebec. I found that the language policy could be interestingly linked to theories from imagined community: Reflection on Origin and Spread of Nationalism (1991) written by Benedict Anderson. Although I am an outsider of the French language policy of Quebec, either a stakeholder or a “victim”, I would like to share my thoughts on the language policy, based on the power of “imagination” that Benedict mentioned in his book.

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Factors That Influence Language Acquisition

By Jia Pu

Inspired by one of the class discussions, I’d like to share my first post with you about the factors that influence my acquisition of a foreign language. Before that, I’ll briefly introduce my language biography.

I was born in southeast China, with Mandarin my first language. As the official language, Mandarin is taught by teachers since I entered kindergarten. But in fact, I speak Chengdu dialect more often, especially in my daily life because both my parents are local Chengdunese and they have a deep affection for our dialect. Then later, when I was in elementary school, English became a compulsory course from grade 3. Ever since then, English has always been an important part in my life because under the influence of globalization, Chinese government is making increasingly more efforts to popularize English nationwide.

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