<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Some of the language-rights literature is based on law cases and quite a few of them is based on the defendants being sued for speaking their mother tongue at the work place. One of the latest involved of all people the Salvation Army. The employer usually loses the case. Christina<br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><br><div><div>On Jan 17, 2009, at 3:01 PM, Don Osborn wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div class="Section1"><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">Has anything been written on this perspective of multilingual interaction?... Is it universal that people assume that speech they do not understand between others is negative and about them? Having lived in multilingual societies, I don't remember that sort of general reaction, though the context might make a big difference, and often someone in a multilingual group conversation will take it upon themselves to brief someone who obviously is not going to understand a particular discussion.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">I have had the impression since long ago that it is a "monolingual" American trait. In high school I think it was, I remember an interaction like this: someone asks an exchange student to say something in their language, the latter then obliges, and then the first student asks if they did not just say something bad about them.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">Two excerpts from the NPR article in particular give rise to this question now:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span class="article-content">"So let's say that there's two staff members, me and another staff member, sitting in the office, and we're both talking in a foreign language - that we shouldn't do that if we both understand English, because it's not fair to the other people who walk in and out of the office, who may not understand what we're talking about," [District Superintendent Brian] Whiston says.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "> . . .<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span class="article-content">"I think human nature is, if you don't understand something, the assumption is that they're talking about you. I think it tends to put people who are not familiar with the language in an uncomfortable position," [president of the Dearborn Federation of Teachers Kevin] Harris says.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">. . .<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p> </o:p></span></div><div style="border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(181, 196, 223); border-top-width: 1pt; padding-top: 3pt; padding-right: 0in; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; "><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; ">From:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; "><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:owner-lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">owner-lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[<a href="mailto:owner-lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">mailto:owner-lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu</a>]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>On Behalf Of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b><a href="mailto:jbale@msu.edu" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">jbale@msu.edu</a><br><b>Sent:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Saturday, January 17, 2009 11:18 AM<br><b>To:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu</a><br><b>Subject:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Michigan: Dearborn schools leader: Foreign language use limited<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">This report on Michigan Radio, MI' NPR station, offers a little more <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>detail than the Detroit Free Press article - and a little more cause for concern.<br><br>Keep in mind that Dearborn secondary schools are partnered with <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>Michigan State University's Arabic Flagship, focusing primarily on <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>curriculum development at this point. In addition, one primary and <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>one intermediate school use one of the largest FLAP grants to support <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>Arabic instruction and curriculum development. Like I said, this <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>newest report is cause for concern.<br><br><a href="http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/michigan/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1458253" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/michigan/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1458253</a><br><br><br>Regards,<br><br>Jeff<br><br>---<br>Jeffrey Bale, Ph.D.<br>Assistant Professor of Second Language Education<br>World Languages Faculty Leader<br>Department of Teacher Education<br><br>College of Education<br>Michigan State University<br>356 Erickson Hall<br>East Lansing, MI 48824<br><br>517-353-0750 (office)<br>517-505-8888 (cell)<br>517-432-5092 (fax)<br><a href="mailto:jbale@msu.edu" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">jbale@msu.edu</a><br><a href="http://bale.wiki.educ.msu.edu/" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">http://bale.wiki.educ.msu.edu/</a><br><br><o:p></o:p></div></div></div></span></blockquote></div><br></body></html>