Author: Gillian Lane-Mercier
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773555889
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 361
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Book Description
In a context where linguistic and cultural diversity is characterized by ever-increasing complexity, adopting official multilingual policies to correct a country's ethno-linguistic, socio-economic, and symbolic imbalances presents many obstacles, but the greatest challenge is implementing them effectively. To what degree and in what ways have official multilingualism and multiculturalism policies actually succeeded in attaining their goals? Questioning and challenging foundational concepts, Minority Languages, National Languages, and Official Language Policies highlights the extent to which governments and international bodies are unable to manage complex linguistic and cultural diversity on an effective and sustained basis. This volume examines the principles, theory, intentions, and outcomes of official policies of multilingualism at the city, regional, and national levels through a series of international case studies. The eleven chapters – most focusing on lesser-known geopolitical contexts and languages – bring to the fore the many paradoxes that underlie the concept of diversity, lived experiences of and attitudes toward linguistic and cultural diversity, and the official multilingual policies designed to legally enhance, protect, or constrain otherness. An authoritative source of new and updated information, offering fresh interpretations and analyses of evolving sociolinguistic and political phenomena in today's global world, Minority Languages, National Languages, and Official Language Policies demonstrates how language policies often fail to deal appropriately or adequately with the issues they are designed to solve.
Author: William Eggington
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027221634
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 199
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Book Description
This work on language policy covers such topics as: language policy agendas; language policy-making in Britain in the 1990s; language policy in the USA; the case of Australia; developments in Canada; and social justice in the work of ESL teachers.
Author: Bernard Spolsky
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 768
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Book Description
This is the first Handbook to deal with language policy as a whole and is a complete 'state-of-the-field' survey, covering language practices, beliefs about language varieties, and methods and agencies for language management. It will be welcomed by students, researchers and language professionals in linguistics, education and politics.
Author: Ron Schmidt
Publisher: Temple University Press
ISBN: 9781566397544
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296
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Book Description
Well over thirty million people in the United States speak a primary language other than English. Nearly twenty million of them speak Spanish. And these numbers are growing. Critics of immigration and multiculturalism argue that recent government language policies such as bilingual education, non-English election materials, and social service and workplace "language rights" threaten the national character of the United States. Proponents of bilingualism, on the other hand, maintain that, far from being a threat, these language policies and programs provide an opportunity to right old wrongs and make the United States a more democratic society. This book lays out the two approaches to language policy -- linguistic assimilation and linguistic pluralism -- in clear and accessible terms. Filled with examples and narratives, it provides a readable overview of the U.S. "culture wars" and explains why the conflict has just now emerged as a major issue in the United States. Professor Schmidt examines bilingual education in the public schools, "linguistic access" rights to public services, and the designation of English as the United States' "official" language. He illuminates the conflict by describing the comparative, theoretical, and social contexts for the debate. The source of the disagreement, he maintains, is not a disagreement over language per se but over identity and the consequences of identity for individuals, ethnic groups, and the country as a whole. Who are "the American people"? Are we one national group into which newcomers must assimilate? Or are we composed of many cultural communities, each of which is a unique but integral part of the national fabric? This fundamental point is what underlies the specific disputes over language policy. This way of looking at identity politics, as Professor Schmidt shows, calls into question the dichotomy between "material interest" politics and "symbolic" politics in relation to group identities. Not limited to describing the nature and context of the language debate, Language Policy and Identity Politics in the United States reaches the conclusion that a policy of linguistic pluralism, coupled with an immigrant settlement policy and egalitarian economic reforms, will best meet the aims of justice and the common good. Only by attacking both the symbolic and material effects of racialization will the United States be able to attain the goals of social equality and national harmony.
Author: Thom Huebner
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027241238
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 390
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Book Description
In the third part some practical issues are raised by looking into the role of language and culture in teaching reading, foreign language policy in higher education, Hawaiian language regenesis, and gender neutralization in American English."--BOOK JACKET.
Author: Catrin Norrby
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
ISBN: 1847694489
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 293
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Book Description
This book brings together current research by leading international scholars on the often contentious nature of language policies and their practical outcomes in North America, Australia and Europe. It presents a range of perspectives from which to engage with a variety of pressing issues raised by multilingualism, multiculturalism, immigration, exclusion, and identity. A recurrent theme is that of tension and conflict: between uniformity and diversity, between official policies and real day-to-day life experiences, but also between policies in schools and the corporate world and their implementation. Several chapters present research about language policy issues that has previously not been fully or easily available to an English-language audience. Many of the chapters also provide up-to-date analyses of language policy issues in particular regions or countries, focusing on recent developments.
Author: Patricia Gándara
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 9780807750469
Category : Education, Bilingual
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Pulling together the most up-to-date research on the effects of restrictive language policies, this timely volume focuses on what we know about the actual outcomes for students and teachers in California, Arizona, and Massachusetts—states where these policies have been adopted. Prominent legal experts in bilingual education analyze these policies and specifically consider whether the new data undermine their legal viability. Other prominent contributors examine alternative policies and how these have fared. Finally, Patricia Gándara, Daniel Losen, and Gary Orfield suggest how better policies, which rely on empirical research, might be constructed. This timely volume: Features contributions from well-known educators and scholars in the instruction of English learners. Includes an overview of English learners in the United States and a brief history of the policies that have guided their instruction. Analyzes the current research on teaching English learners in order to determine the most effective instructional strategies.
Author: Peter K. Austin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 113950083X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 581
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Book Description
It is generally agreed that about 7,000 languages are spoken across the world today and at least half may no longer be spoken by the end of this century. This state-of-the-art Handbook examines the reasons behind this dramatic loss of linguistic diversity, why it matters, and what can be done to document and support endangered languages. The volume is relevant not only to researchers in language endangerment, language shift and language death, but to anyone interested in the languages and cultures of the world. It is accessible both to specialists and non-specialists: researchers will find cutting-edge contributions from acknowledged experts in their fields, while students, activists and other interested readers will find a wealth of readable yet thorough and up-to-date information.
Author: Elana Shohamy
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134333528
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 200
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Book Description
A critical look at language policies, how they are implemented and the hidden agendas which often lie behind them, drawing on examples from the US and UK and showing what the consequences are for the people involved.
Author: Michael Edward Brown
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262523332
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 502
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Book Description
A study of the impact of language policies on ethnic relations in fifteen Asian and Pacific countries.
