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Session Information
[SYMP35] Family as a language policy regime: Agency, practices and negotiation
20230719T150020230719T1800Europe/Amsterdam[SYMP56] OPEN CALL - Minority languages
[SYMP35] Family as a language policy regime: Agency, practices and negotiationHybrid Session (onsite/online)AILA 2023 - 20th Anniversary Congress Lyon Editioncellule.congres@ens-lyon.fr
Language Maintenance of a Minority Language in Singapore
Oral Presentation[SYMP56] OPEN CALL - Minority languages03:00 PM - 03:30 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/19 13:00:00 UTC - 2024/07/19 13:30:00 UTC
This paper presents a chronological study of the changing status of Malayalam in Singapore across three different periods over the last century, identified on the basis of significant migration trends: (1)1900 - 1960s, a period predominantly oriented toward language maintenance; (2) 1970 - 1990s, a period of language shift; and (3) 2000 - the present, a period of revitalization. It examines how these processes of language maintenance, language shift and language revitalization during each of these periods are linked to two key factors that have impacted the status of Malayalam in Singapore: changes in the degree of its ethnolinguistic vitality brought about by demographic changes, on the one hand, and Singapore’s language-in-education policy, on the other. In doing this, it utilizes an autobiographic narrative approach to analyze interviews conducted with representatives of the Malayalee community as corroborative evidence of language shift and language maintenance of Malayalam language in Singapore over the century.
This paper presents a chronological study of the changing status of Malayalam in Singapore across three different periods over the last century, identified on the basis of significant migration trends: (1)1900 - 1960s, a period predominantly oriented toward language maintenance; (2) 1970 - 1990s, a period of language shift; and (3) 2000 - the present, a period of revitalization. It examines how these processes of language maintenance, language shift and language revitalization during each of these periods are linked to two key factors that have impacted the status of Malayalam in Singapore: changes in the degree of its ethnolinguistic vitality brought about by demographic changes, on the one hand, and Singapore's language-in-education policy, on the other. In doing this, it utilizes an autobiographic narrative approach to analyze interviews conducted with representatives of the Malayalee community as corroborative evidence of language shift and language maintenance of Malayalam language in Singapore over the century.
Dr Anitha Devi Pillai Senior Lecturer, NIE (NTU) & President, Singapore Association For Applied Linguistics, National Institute Of Education, Nanyang Technological University
Brazilian Current Language Policy: Excluding Brazilian Minorities Languages
Oral Presentation[SYMP56] OPEN CALL - Minority languages03:30 PM - 04:00 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/19 13:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/19 14:00:00 UTC
The Brazilian linguistic landscape is highly complex. In addition to Portuguese, which is the official language of the country, around 180 indigenous languages and at least 45 immigration languages – i.e., languages that were brought to the country after 1880 by immigrants from Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, etc. - are currently spoken in Brazilian territory (Cavalcanti & Maher, 2018; Diniz & Ribeiro da Silva, 2020). In recent years, the country has been receiving new waves of migration from countries such as Haiti, Venezuela, Syria, etc., what has strengthened its linguistic heterogeneity. Moreover, given that Brazil shares borders with 10 countries, several languages are present at the frontier, including Spanish, Aymara, Guarani, Jopara, Quechua, French, and English. Taking this linguistic complexity into consideration, the Brazilian Educational Law passed in 1996 established that local communities could chose the "second language" to be included in their schools' curriculum as a "foreign language class". A community of German descent, for instance, could include German as a "foreign language" in their schools to keep its heritage. And a city located on the Brazilian border with Argentina, for example, could include Spanish in its schools. Thus, it would be possible to state that the Brazilian language policy established in 1996 created legal conditions for minority language communities to cultivate their heritage languages and/or the language of their international neighbors. However, this law was modified in 2017 with the rise to power of a right-wing conservative party. The new version of this law made the teaching of English mandatory in the Junior High and High School. Other language can only be included in the curriculum as an elective class in the first year of Hight School. Thus, it can be said that the current Brazilian language policy favors English and creates difficulties for the cultivation of heritage and/or border languages. This new language policy may jeopardize the survival of languages spoken by existing minority linguistic communities in Brazil. Although little time has passed since the implementation of this new policy, there is already evidence that it is threatening the survival of Spanish in Brazilian schools' curricula. Initial data from the State of Minas Gerais, for example, indicate that the number of Spanish classes in public schools decreased significantly after 2017. The same trend is being observed regarding the number of new enrollments in Spanish Teachers Training Programs. Obviously, this is a trend that may or may not be confirmed by detailed research. At this point, it may be assumed that, due to its power as a language policy instrument (Shohamy, 2006), Brazilian Educational Law is sending a clear message to Brazilian society about which languages matter and, therefore, it may put many minorities language at risk. References Cavalcanti, M. C. & Maher, T. M. (Ed.) (2018). Multilingual Brazil. Routledge. Diniz, L. R. A. & Ribeiro Da Silva, E. (2020). Brazil's linguistic landscape. EAL Journal (NALDIC), Edimburgh, p. 16-16, 31 out. 2020. Shohamy, E. (2006). Language Policy. London. Routledge.
Presenters Elias Ribeiro Da Silva Adjunct Professor Of Applied Linguistics At The Federal University Of Alfenas, Federal University Of Alfenas (Unifal-MG)
The Heterogeneity of Language Policies and Its Related Health Crisis Communication About COVID-19 in Lesotho and South Africa
Oral Presentation[SYMP56] OPEN CALL - Minority languages04:00 PM - 04:30 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/19 14:00:00 UTC - 2024/07/19 14:30:00 UTC
On 7 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported an unknown pneumonia outbreak. Sub-Saharan Africa only reported its first cases in mid-February, with some travellers from or returning mainly from Italy, but also Germany and France. It was only then that the media in South Africa started to report extensively about the COVID-19 outbreak. Various governmental ministries in South Africa or Lesotho informed their population about COVID-19 and their regulations to control the outbreak of the disease. Although most of the information was in English, a substantial amount of audio and video files were available in African Languages in South Africa, plus many governmental announcements in Sesotho in Lesotho. Governments were aware of the risks of fake news being spread, but they tried to be as transparent as possible with the public. This paper intends to analyse and see how different African countries like Lesotho and South Africa broadcasted COVID-19 in media, official government website and social media platforms. The usage of languages will be analysed as most African countries are multilingual, and such life-threatening topics and far-reaching political interventions in all spheres of life should be communicated as inclusive as possible.
Presenters Michael M. Kretzer Research Associate, Ruhr University Bochum & University Of The Western CapeVerbra Pfeiffer Senior Lecturer, University Of South Africa
Policy transitions of supporting non-common foreign language education in China: A comparative institutional analysis
Poster Presentation[SYMP56] OPEN CALL - Minority languages04:30 PM - 05:00 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/19 14:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/19 15:00:00 UTC
After proposing the Belt & Road initiative in 2013, increasing attention has been devoted to developing and supporting non-common foreign language (NCFL) schooling in China. This paper seeks to unpack the historical transitions of how policymakers encourage (or conversely, discourage) and negotiate with various stakeholders about integrating NCFL into foreign language education. Utilising the Comparative Institutional Analysis – a framework intending to explore interactions among social actors and institutional processes, the study identified four modes of policy-driven NCFL education, accounting for their goals, rules, and actors. Modes are namely: (a) preference-narrowed (2000-2006) – where students' option on NCFL learning is limited, identifying less policy intervention serving to de facto language practice; (b) research-launched (2007-2014) – where the government initiates to attend to NCFL education research for its development, simultaneously disclosing the potential problems; (c) revolution-oriented (2015-2017) – where NCFL education experiences a rapid evolution under policy support, achieving an increasing number of NCFL majors and potential learners; and (d) education-enhanced mode (2018-present) – where the policy targets harmony between teaching, learning and testing, attempting to improve education quality not just address the size of NCFL-learning group.
The fundamental changes in Chinese policies touching on non-common foreign language (NCFL) education offered a distinctive chance to illustrate multilingual problematisations of the policy that consider foreign language education. Unpacking the evolution of policy intentions through the four chronological policy modes, this study elucidates and sheds light on how the policies attempt to address national-to-individual NCFL-learning-supported necessities. Policy intention to coping with the concomitant challenges and opportunities has gradually shifted into Mode 4 (the education-enhanced mode, since 2018), proposing requirements for continually and comprehensively improve NCFL education – not just reflecting on expanding NCFL-learning group but also on enhancing its quality and supplementing what is missed in prior policy but important for NCFL education development. Meanwhile, contemporary language policies appear to invest more efforts for promoting the education of NCFLs that are official languages of the B&R designated partner countries, considering their role in serving the B&R initiative for China's educational, political, and economic development, as well as satisfying personal NCFL learning needs. The present study offers a systematic and historical overview and analysis of the NCFL-related Chinese policy, addressing the literature gap. At the same time, this study contributes to understanding towards the way of using Comparative Institutional Analysis (CIA) as an analytical framework to investigate language policies and/or language education by establishing the modes to characterise the institutions – on the basis of accounting for social goals, rules and actors in a specific social context. Also, unpacking the historical transitions towards NCFL development in China through the CIA framework may assist other policymakers in (re)considering and (re)positioning the role of NCFL education in other nations. Meanwhile, this study can also help the social agents at the meso-level including local policymakers and school administrators in China grasp the policy intention, and thus they can evaluate whether the local practice lines up with it, as well as how they can appropriate the policies based on the understanding of policy requirements and investigation of the local situation for assisting teachers in putting a top-down education plan on the ground for students' NCFL learning. Under a top-down process across multiple layers in the Chinese highly centralised education system, even though it seems like the individual agency at the macro level with robust control on the enactment of language policy, the institutional agency at meso and micro levels may adopt the policies in a contradictory way. This means that the policy intention might be reshaped in the implementation progress given social actors' interpretations, practical needs, personal values, and other related factors (e.g., social status and education level). Thus, while the transformation towards NCFL education-enhanced policy mode, considering that what is done at a lower level is frequently not the same as what is required at a higher level, more attention is needed to investigate how local education authorities and school administrators (meso-level), and teachers (micro-level) react to policy goals and rules.
Oral Presentation[SYMP56] OPEN CALL - Minority languages05:00 PM - 05:30 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/19 15:00:00 UTC - 2024/07/19 15:30:00 UTC
One of the most influential movements on language in recent years has been the growing attention to language rights, particularly as they affect linguistic minorities (both indigenous and migrant groups). Research on language rights has focused on formal language-rights statements (e.g., by the Council of Europe), on legal and constitutional guarantees of language rights (e.g., in South Africa), and on the use of language rights as a rationale for efforts by linguistic minorities to preserve, reinvigorate, and expand the functional range of minority languages. Among the most influential scholars working within a language-rights framework are Skutnabb-Kangas (2000; also see Phillipson, 2000) and May (2001). Skutnabb-Kangas, May, and others have argued that language rights offer a reasonable framework for the protection of minority languages. In contrast, Brutt-Griffler (2004) argues that a focus on language rights is neither theoretically justified nor useful as a means for protecting the interests of linguistic minorities. This paper would focus on the debate between Brutt-Griffler (who is highly critical of language rights) and Skutnabb-Kangas with reference of linguistics minority rights in Bangladesh.
In many postcolonial countries, the English language seems to be an inseparable part of socio-cultural and economic realities. One of the problematic assumptions of language rights is that it tries to reduce the language rights of national and national minorities' ethnic group affiliations. It is assumed that language policy should serve the interests equally and uniformly of all the members of the group. Bangladesh offers an example of how such language rights as human rights that transcend social, religious, and ethnic boundaries have been truncated, necessitating, as it were, a constrained national dialogue on the merits of national-education policies that seemingly exclude minority languages and position the country on the brink of economic disarray and social chaos, and negating the very essence of procedural and distributive justice. The ensuing muted debates in that country are not rife with procedural and distributive justice, in that equity in access to schooling does not loom large in those debates. There is also hardly an acknowledgment that less dominant (or minority) languages need to be more seriously considered in the education policy of a nation with 48 ethnic minority groups, each with its own language. Even with such a large number of traditional languages, historically, debates still focus on Bengali and English, making minority children, particularly those from rural areas, almost personally responsible for learning at least three languages. It is, therefore, important that more extensive work be undertaken to inform the process for instituting national-language policies that will expand educational opportunities to multicultural societies; foster inter-ethnic relationships; create synchronous dialogues among multicultural groups; prepare them to respect LHRs as, and synchronize them with, social equity; and encourage them to participate more actively in an increasingly global marketplace. The most widely used home language in Bangladesh is Bengali, spoken by approximately 100 million people out of a total population of approximately 150 million in the country. A second important language, spoken by approximately 5 million people, is Sylhetti, also an Indo-Iranian language. Chittagonian, spoken by 14 million people, is widely considered a dialect of Bengali, but it is not mutually intelligible, and most of its speakers do not use standard Bengali. Although Bengali plays a central role in most institutions in Bangladesh, in reality, other languages also are central to life in rural areas, with consequences for education and literacy. The minority languages of Bangladesh include varieties from different language families. Many speakers of the minority languages speak some Bengali as a second language, though proficiency levels vary widely. Many varieties are not used for writing, and many speakers are not literate in any language. To date, the government has no language policy for the ethnolinguistic minorities of Bangladesh. This paper uses historical documents, government data, and structured interviews with Bangladesh's policy planners to examine the linguistic minority rights in Bangladesh. The result shows that the present policy creates inequality for minority children in Bangladesh. This paper calls for language planning and policy that emphasizes pedagogic equity.
Presenters TANIA HOSSAIN Professor, Waseda University
Minority language usage for health crisis communication: Examples from Western Cape (South Africa) and Pennsylvania (USA)
Oral Presentation[SYMP56] OPEN CALL - Minority languages05:30 PM - 06:00 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/19 15:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/19 16:00:00 UTC
In March 2020 the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Various health departments needed to react to this threat: first, conveying information about the virus itself, and later, announcing and promoting vaccinations. Multilingual, multimodal communication is essential during a crisis; lacking translated materials limits communication with groups, e.g., minority language speakers. Studies from early in the pandemic show some positive efforts and shortfalls in inclusivity regarding languages that have official status at the regional or national level (Kretzer & Pfeiffer, 2022), migrant languages (Ahmad & Hillman, 2021), signed languages (Blasi et al., 2021), and indigenous languages (Chen, 2020). We build on these to study the current state of COVID-19 communications with a contemporary issue, vaccination. We investigated the vaccination campaigns of two countries, South Africa and the United States, as examples from the Global South and North with similarities in their sociolinguistic history and language policy (e.g., a colonial history and the primacy of English), and key differences (e.g., South Africa has multiple official languages; the US has none). We collected online resources in all languages available from national government websites and one sub-national government from each country (Western Cape and Pennsylvania), from February-March 2022 and analyzed them in terms of O'Brien et al.'s (2018) framework of Availability, Accessibility, Acceptability, and Adaptability. In both countries, at the national and sub-national levels, the number of English resources available exceeded that of other languages. Both countries had multimodal resources (videos, posters), including videos in signed languages. The US offered 'easy to read' material in English and Spanish; no such resources were found for any language in the South African context. Although both countries included resources in non-majority languages, they offered only isolated materials in less populous minority, indigenous, and migrant languages. The Pennsylvania Department of Health relied primarily on automatic translation for non-majority languages, which has questionable acceptability. Websites varied in the accessibility or ease of finding materials in languages other than English. Results will be discussed additionally in the context of the language policies of both research areas.
References Ahmad, Rizwan, & Hillman, Sara. 2021. Laboring to communicate: Use of migrant languages in COVID-19 awareness campaign in Qatar. Multilingua, 40(3), 303–337. Blasi, Damián E., Mishra, Vishala, García, Adolfo M., & Dexter, Joseph P. 2021. Linguistic fairness in the U.S.: the case of multilingual public health information about COVID-19. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.27.21264211 Cappuzzo, Barbara. 2021. The importance of multilingual information and plain English in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. European Scientific Journal 17(30), 37-52. Chen, Chun-Mei. 2020. Public health messages about COVID-19 prevention in multilingual Taiwan. Multilingua 39(5), 597–606. Kretzer, Michael M. & Pfeiffer, Verbra. 2022. The heterogeneity of language policies and its related health crisis communication about COVID-19 in Lesotho and South Africa. COVID-19 and a world of ad hoc geographies. Springer. O'Brien, Sharon, Federici, Federico, Cadwell, Patrick, Marlowe, Jay, & Gerber, Brian. 2018. Language translation during disaster: A comparative analysis of five national approaches. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 31, 627–636.
Presenters Jessica Cox Associate Professor Of Spanish And Linguistics, Franklin And Marshall College
Elias Ribeiro Da Silva
Michael M. Kretzer
Verbra Pfeiffer
TANIA HOSSAIN
Jessica Cox
