Language PolicyLanguage policy is an issue of critical importance in the world today. In this introduction, Bernard Spolsky explores many debates at the forefront of language policy: ideas of correctness and bad language; bilingualism and multilingualism; language death and efforts to preserve endangered languages; language choice as a human and civil right; and language education policy. Through looking at the language practices, beliefs and management of social groups from families to supra-national organizations, he develops a theory of modern national language policy and the major forces controlling it, such as the demands for efficient communication, the pressure for national identity, the attractions of (and resistance to) English as a global language, and the growing concern for human and civil rights as they impinge on language. Two central questions asked in this wide-ranging survey are of how to recognize language policies, and whether or not language can be managed at all. |
Contents
Driving out the | |
Pursuing the good and dealing with the | |
The nature of language policy and its domains | |
Two monolingual polities Iceland and France | |
How English spread | |
Does the US have a language policy or just civil rights? | |
Language rights | |
Monolingual polities under pressure | |
Monolingual polities with recognized linguistic minorities | |
Partitioning language space two three many | |
Resisting language shift | |
Conclusions | |
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activities Africa Arabic associated Basque beliefs bilingual education Bilingual Education Act Catalan central Civil Rights colonial language complex Constitution continued countries cultural developed dialects diglossia dominant economic efforts elite endangered languages established Estonia ethnic European Fishman France French language German groups Hebrew Hindi human rights ideology immigrants implementation independence India indigenous languages individual Irish language management language planning language policy language practices language rights Latvia lingua franca linguistic diversity linguistic imperialism linguistic minorities linguistic rights literacy major Māori Māori Language medium of instruction minority languages monolingual mother tongue multilingualism national language National Minorities Navajo official language percent Phillipson political population proficiency programs Quechua recognition recognized regional languages religious Republic reversing language shift Russian schools social sociolinguistic Sociology of Language Soviet Spanish speak speakers spelling spoken Spolsky spread of English standard language status teaching United varieties vernacular writing system Yiddish