This article takes as its starting point the fact that the majority of universities in which English is the medium of instruction perceive themselves to be deeply international. Firstly, the article ...considers the implications of being ‘international’ for academic language policies and practices, but observes that despite the diverse international composition of university student (and to a lesser extent, staff) populations, university language policies and practices are still grounded in largely national (British and North American) English norms. The article goes on to explore the relevance of the findings of research into English as a(n academic) lingua franca for multilingual academic communities, as well as for international academic journals. Finally, it considers the implications of ELF research for native English academics, and argues that as ELF gains acceptance, particularly among younger multilingual speakers, and as multilingualism becomes the global academic norm, native English speakers, especially the monolingual majority, are at risk of becoming disadvantaged when communicating in international settings.
Agency in language planning and policy Liddicoat, Anthony J.; Taylor-Leech, Kerry
Current issues in language planning,
03/2021, Volume:
ahead-of-print, Issue:
ahead-of-print
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The role of agency in language planning and policy (LPP) is a recent focus of scholarship. Interest in agency has seen new issues and contexts being given prominence in LPP research. In this ...introduction, we present an overview of theoretical definitions of agency and the ways it has emerged as a concept in LPP scholarship. We consider how developments in methods and approaches to LPP research have led to a greater focus on social actors and their agency in LPP decision-making. We also consider how agency can be conceptualised within the field of language planning, how it may be exercised and who may exercise agency.
Israel's Education Ministry invited proposals for the development of a new multilingual policy for the country's education system. We submitted a proposal for an ‘engaged language policy’ approach, ...which helps schools to conceptualize and develop a policy that best fits them ideologically and demographically. This study aimed to map teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward various principles and practices of multilingual education in order to gather baseline data for the policy. It consisted of a mixed method design that included 2,157 Jewish and Arab teachers and students. Results showed a positive stance toward a multilingual policy and general readiness to implement it. There was overall support for expanding the range of languages offered and for strengthening immigrants’ languages, beside positive attitudes toward Arabic and Hebrew instruction for Jews and Arabs, respectively, together with various reservations, especially about translanguaging and accommodations for immigrants. Several differences emerged between Jews and Arabs, reflecting essential gaps between them regarding language and identity in Israel. The findings provide a basis for developing the new policy on more stable ground, adjusting its central principles to different contexts and implementing it gradually, enabling each school to design its own language policy based on its own ideology and demography.
This article responds to recent calls to investigate the role of agents and the connections between layers of agency in the development and implementation of language policy and planning (LPP). Using ...a corpus linguistic and discursive approach to language policy, we identify interventions made in plenary sessions by Secretary-Generals and Member States at the United Nations when discussing language issues over 46 years (1970-2016). The article identifies which individuals prioritise language issues and the change agents and/or (un)successful brokers in matters of LPP. Analysis reveals that language issues were discussed infrequently, suggesting benign neglect in matters of multilingualism: the silent majority were agentive in largely maintaining the status quo. However, in exploring power in discourse and power over discourse we were able to determine which interventions resulted in minor changes to policy and who were the powerful agents. The study points to the importance of using corpus-assisted methods in diachronic and synchronic studies of agency in LPP. Future research should explore networks of agents, using CL to investigate longitudinal trajectories of decision-making and policy change over time. Moreover, CL can usefully complement other approaches, (e.g. interviews and ethnography), to further explore the dialectic relationship between agency and structure.
In post-Bologna Europe, there has been a noticeable increase in English-medium instruction. In this article we take the case of Sweden as an illustrative example of the wider disciplinary issues ...involved in changing the teaching language in this way. By 2008 the use of English in Swedish higher education had risen to such an extent that it had to be regulated at the governmental level and through university language policies. Such policies have attempted to provide generalised pragmatic guidelines for language use across educational programmes. In this paper we argue that such general policies fail to take into consideration fundamental disciplinary differences and their potential impact on language use. We present a theoretical argument about the knowledge structures of disciplines, relating these to the disciplinary literacy goals of educational programmes. We then illustrate our argument using data from an extensive survey carried out at a major Swedish university. We conclude that the disciplinary variation in the use of English can be seen as a product of different knowledge-making practices and educational goals. This conclusion problematises "one-size-fits-all" language policies which only deal with general features of language use and do not allow for discipline-specific adjustments.(HRK / Abstract übernommen).
Within the framework of the French Office for Immigration and Integration (henceforth OFII), civic and language training courses are presented as prerequisites and necessary levers for integration ...under the contrat d'intégration républicaine (henceforth CIR) for adult signatories designated as "extra-European". Faced with this close link between migration and language policies, many studies criticise a standardised, asymmetrical training approach, with integration designed "for" rather than "with" (FLIC, 2011, Vadot, 2023). However, as far as we are aware, there is little research into what 'the' digital environment (Cappellini, 2021) would be in the context of the CIR. Based on the observation that the projects and contexts of students enrolled in language didactic training courses are changing, this exploratory research proposes to examine the transfer of the notion of education for digital citizenship to the field of language teaching and learning, and more particularly in the context of training aimed at an adult public and linked to migration policy issues. The study explores this particular use of 'citizenship', 'digital' and 'language', terms associated with a potentially reductive logic in relation to diverse, complex and dynamic practices. This contribution invites us to consider the political connotations of the polysemous term citizenship in the digital age and the limits of transferring digital citizenship education to the field of language teaching and learning, and more specifically to the specific framework of the CIR.
Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions:
In this article we draw upon the ethnography of language planning and policy (LPP) to examine the complexities of how young Latino children with a ...recently deported parent engage with family language policies within their routine interactions. We explore the following questions. (1) How do US elementary school-aged children engage with, resist, and refashion family language and literacy policies alongside their parents in the face of parental deportations to Mexico? (2) How do children’s and parents’ experiences with monoglossic ideologies of schooling in the USA and Mexico shape family LPP and migratory decisions?
Design/methodology/approach:
The data come from a three-year ethnography on Mexican immigrant fathers and their elementary school-aged children conducted within the context of heightened deportations.
Data and analysis:
We focus on the case of eight-year-old Princess following her father’s deportation to examine how she articulated awareness of their counterpoint lives as she engaged in LPP alongside her mother.
Findings/conclusions:
Our findings reveal the unintended language education consequences of immigration policy as well as the complex ways that children discursively contribute to family LPP and migration decisions.
Originality:
This article uniquely highlights the complex interplay between immigration policy and LPP in the daily lives of mixed status Mexican immigrant families and the active roles that children play in shaping family language policy and migratory decisions.
Significance/implications:
We illustrate how children orient to monoglossic schooling ideologies as they prepare for and contest the possibilities of transnational schooling in Mexico and how limited opportunities to develop dynamic bilingualism or biliteracy in US schools shape families’ decisions. We argue that educational policy and classroom practices that open up ideological and implementational spaces to dynamically develop both languages are needed to better prepare children—especially those from undocumented families within a context of unprecedented deportations—for educational success on both sides of the border.
Studies on Brunei Malay have made inconsistent findings: while some have asserted that this variety is thriving and is in no way endangered, others have found that its use is now waning. As the ...dynamics of family speech can inform what is happening linguistically at the community level, this study seeks to investigate the family language policies of the Brunei Malays by assessing parents' language ideologies, practices and management strategies. This is done via a survey involving 178 ethnically Malay parents. The overall results paint an unpromising picture of the future of Brunei Malay, shaped by the parents' weak beliefs on this Malay variety, and defined further by their home language practices and management strategies. The majority of the Brunei Malay families are bilingual, but English features prominently in most investigated items. The findings reveal that the parents are motivated to maintain Brunei Malay but have little confidence in their abilities to pass down the home language to their children. That a majority agrees for the introduction of lessons on Brunei Malay in schools is an indicator that the home domain is no longer adequate for the maintenance of this Malay variety.
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