30.2368, Review: Sociolinguistics: Kraus, Grin (2018)

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Subject: 30.2368, Review: Sociolinguistics: Kraus, Grin (2018)

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Date: Thu, 06 Jun 2019 19:28:47
From: Danielle Fahey [dfahey at email.sc.edu]
Subject: The Politics of Multilingualism

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36490577


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/29/29-4077.html

EDITOR: Peter A.  Kraus
EDITOR: François  Grin
TITLE: The Politics of Multilingualism
SUBTITLE: Europeanisation, globalisation and linguistic governance
SERIES TITLE: Studies in World Language Problems 6
PUBLISHER: John Benjamins
YEAR: 2018

REVIEWER: Danielle Fahey, University of South Carolina

INTRODUCTION

“The Politics of Multilingualism: Europeanisation, globalization and
linguistic governance” is an edited volume by Peter A. Kraus and François
Grin. There are fourteen chapters, each summarizing and analyzing a set of
language policy issues for different European nations and Canada. There are
three main themes in the book, which guide the collection of chapters into
three sections. Part I, “Reconceptualizing multilingualism and collective
identity”, is conceived to investigate the relationship between linguistic
identities and state or political identities. Through this lens, the authors
may evaluate changes to the linguistic political landscape they term “a “new”
type of multilingualism” (3). Chapters two through six encompass Part I. Part
II, “Linguistic hegemony, insecurity and linguistic justice”, is intended to
investigate linguistic dimensions of transnational politics, especially in
light of what “adequate and fair linguistic frame of transnational politics
should look like” (3). Chapters seven through ten encompass Part II. Part III,
“_Lingua Franca_ and global linguistic governance”, is devised to investigate
the hegemonic roles of lingua francas in European linguistic governance,
particularly the role of global Englishes. Chapters eleven through fourteen
encompass Part III. 

SUMMARY

Chapter One is entitled “The politics of multilingualism: General introduction
and overview”, by François Grin and Peter A. Kraus, the editors of the volume.
This chapter explains the goals of the multichapter volume, which are to
investigate the socio-political impact of diversity in Europe and Canada. This
chapter explains the organization of the book, explained above, and the aims.
Their stated aims are to investigate this multi-faceted topic through the lens
of multiple, relevant disciplines, including linguistics, political science,
and economics, and purposely to include authors of various backgrounds so that
scholars of diverse disciplines can be exposed to terms and ideas of relevant
and overlapping topics of research.

Chapter Two is entitled “The politics of multilingualism in Canada: A
neo-institutional approach”, by Linda Cardinal and Rémi Léger. This chapter
considers the selection of languages in policy choices in Canada.
Historically, English was privileged over all languages, even French. In the
late twentieth century, French was given a more prominent role in the
traditionally French provinces. However, Canada has always been home to a
multitude of languages from other immigrant groups and aboriginals. Within the
last few decades, some provinces have started to take consideration of this
pluralism and provide recognition to aboriginal languages in their language
policies. As Cardinal and Léger point out, the language policies over the
history of Canada can be best understood through an emphasis on state
traditions and entrenched language regimes. 

Chapter Three is entitled “A Russian-speaking nation? The promotion of the
Russian language and its significance for ongoing efforts at Russian
nation-building”, by Konstantin Zamyatin. This chapter considers Russian
language policies of the nation of Russia, as well as its nation-building
agenda internationally using the Russian language. As Zamyatin points out, the
Russian language has long been linked to ethnic-Russian identity. However, the
Russian language has varying association with individual nations, or as an
international lingua franca. While it was used across the Soviet bloc as
lingua franca, Russian usage and prestige seemed to have diminished
internationally in the post-Soviet era. Recently, Russia has come to view the
Russian language as a tool to be manipulated in its nation-building agenda,
both internally and externally. Internal policies to promote the Russian
language include education, better employment and citizenship prospects for
speakers, and higher status for the ethnic Russian identity. These efforts
more closely tie language both to ethnicity and nationhood. Zamyatin contends
that there is a vague political agenda as to how minority or titular languages
in Russian republics should be treated by central state policy. Although
written policy allows for the protection of the statuses of non-Russian
languages, actual practice has not been for positive promotion of those
languages. The Russian government has also had a strong role in promoting
Russian abroad, through promotion of Russian as state language in Soviet-bloc
countries, its use among ethnic Russians and non-ethnic Russians alike, and
its teaching as a foreign language. Zamyatin contends that “language itself
impacts on the strategic choices in the nation-building process.”

Chapter Four is entitled “The impact of mobility and migration on the
identity-constructing policy in Brussels”, by Rudi Janssens. This chapter
considers language policy in Brussels in light of the imagined communities of
Dutch and French speakers. In the past, Dutch and French were spoken in
separate regions. The separation of languages by language area borders was
reflected in the language policies. Individuals’ native languages are
respected in their ability to communicate with government entities through the
tongue of their choice. Although bilingualism is not the norm for individuals,
government policies largely ignore the possibility, institutionalizing
monolingualism in the Flemish and Walloon regions. Bilingualism among native
Belgians is growing, as is immigration from outside Belgium. However, as
Janssens points out, the nation was established with separate democracies in
mind. This separation is paramount to the language policy choices of the
country and regional areas, which view the language choices of the population
as a zero-sum game. 

Chapter Five is entitled “From glossophagic hegemony to multilingual
pluralism? Re-assessing the politics of linguistic identity in Europe”, by
Peter A. Kraus. This chapter explores linguistic nationalism’s impression on
nation building in Europe. Kraus takes cues from both historical changes and
sociolinguistic theory to analyzing linguistic identity building in Europe.
>From Kraus’s perspective, there is a combination of “top-down and bottom-up
dynamics” (91) that determines language policies in both Western and Eastern
Europe. While Western Europe has employed primarily ‘top-down’ language
policies, using a strategy of official languages to drive nationalism, and
Eastern Europe has had primarily ‘bottom-up’ language policies, following
nationalist movements by powerful ethnic groups, both sets of drives have been
followed across all of Europe. There is a range of linguistic identities
across Europe, from ‘glassophagic’ which promotes solely monolingualism, to
multilingual pluralism. As Kraus points out, the key question is whether
transnationalism and Europeanisation are emerging as new identities in Europe.
Current changes in Europe leave the answer to this question open.

Chapter Six is entitled “Transient linguistic landscapes of activism:
Protesting against austerity policies in the Eurozone”, by Virginie Mamadouh.
Mamadouh investigated worldwide images of protest signs and banners and asked
what language(s) were chosen by the protesters, such as the local language,
borrowings, English, other languages than the national one and code mixing.
Signs tended to show diversity in language orientation, and Mamadouh reflected
that this shows an outward orientation rather than a local one. 

Chapter Seven is entitled “How to measure linguistic justice? Theoretical
considerations and the South Tyrol case study of the Calvet Language
Barometer”, by Federico Gobbo. This chapter theoretically considers how
linguistic justice is broadly defined. Gobbo asks theoretical questions about
linguistic justice in the international context, such as who justice may be
for, and whether justice should be considered in narrow or broad geographic
contexts. Through a review of interdisciplinary sources, he determines that
the cultural value of language is ignored in preference of territory. An
important tool for analyzing linguistic justice is the Calvet Language
Barometer (CLB), which has 11 parameters for determining the linguistic
protection of groups of speakers. Using the CLB, Gobbo considers South Tyrol,
which has three language traditions: German, Italian and Ladin, and uses
English at the hyper level as well. Gobbo determined that the CLB was
inadequate in analyzing the language usage of Ladin, but that individual
parameters could be useful for comparison across languages.

Chapter Eight is entitled “Linguistic justice and English as a Lingua Franca”,
by Helder De Schutter. This chapter also theoretically considers definitions
of linguistic justice, but in light of English as a lingua franca (ELF).
Schutter compares two main theoretical strains for understanding ELF: one is
to distinguish it from natively spoken English, another is to view positives
and negatives of English dominance. Schutter argues that there are four main
injustices of ELF: communicative (caused by the disparity in proficiency
between native and non-native speakers), resource (caused by the disparity in
resources for learning English between native and non-native speakers),
life-world (caused by the Anglophonization of ELF cultures), and dignity
(caused by the loss of dignity when losing one’s native tongue). However, ELF
does also reduce injustice. To further curb injustices caused by ELF, Schutter
proposes reaffirming L1-based usages of English.

Chapter Nine is entitled “The promise and pitfalls of global English”, by
Thomas Ricento. This chapter considers how global English affects
socioeconomic mobility. Ricento begins by considering whether English can be
seen as neutral when used as a lingua franca. As he points out, it is anything
but neutral for speakers of the ‘wrong’ varieties. While it is clear that
speaking English provides economic benefits, only countries that make massive
investments in English education can claim that benefit. This difference can
be seen in postcolonial and expanding circle countries, such as South Africa
and Rwanda. Finally, Ricento asks whether there even exists a lingua franca
English. The wide variety of usages and users means that there are multiple
Englishes used worldwide, a marked difference from other lingua francas. 

Chapter Ten is entitled “Languages, norms and power in a globalised context”,
by László Marácz. This chapter considers diverging sets theories of
‘language’. ‘Language’ as defined by early sociolinguists and generative
grammarians, and ‘language’ as defined by a modern stream of sociolinguists,
termed “main-stream sociolinguistics” (224) by Marácz. Mainstream
sociolinguistics identifies languages through “languaging” (224), output
speech production that taps from all available linguistic resources. Marácz
argues against the mainstream sociolinguistic theory of language, suggesting
instead that counterexamples to the generative theory of language can be best
understood as code switching, as shown through examples of global Englishes
and multilingual societies.

Chapter Eleven is entitled “On some fashionable terms in multilingualism
research: Critical assessment and implications for language policy”, by
François Grin. This chapter considers four concepts of multilingualism from
applied linguistics: ‘superdiversity’ (a level of complexity previously
unexperienced in a given society), languaging, commodification (“the treatment
as potentially tradable ‘commodities’ of various goods, services, other
non-material entities and even people that were hitherto  _not_ viewed as
such” (260)), and ELF. Grin problematizes all four concepts individually, but
suggests that together, they are much worse. Using these concepts, language
policy may allocate and distribute material and symbolic resources improperly.
Grin contents that while the intended use of the terms may be innocuous, when
viewed from a language policy standpoint, they can be “dangerous for
multilingualism and social justice” (252). 

Chapter Twelve is entitled “English, the _Lingua Nullius_ of global hegemony”,
by Robert Phillipson. This chapter considers the hegemonic role of ELF in
Europe. As Phillipson points out, there has been a shift from direct
colonialism to a colonial inheritance resulting from British and US
traditions. Due to its current influence, English is a “_lingua nullius_, a
language that everyone needs in basic education worldwide” (283). Education as
an economic resource and religion both reinforce English as lingua nullius.
Phillipson compares this view to neoliberal political beliefs about
international hegemony. Thus, the role of English in Europe serves to
undermine multilingualism, diminishing local and national languages’ roles
alike.

Chapter Thirteen is entitled “Idealism or pragmatism? _Ad hoc_ multilingualism
and Open English”, by Astrid von Busekist. This chapter considers how “Open
English” can coexist with multilingualism for migrants in Europe. Two major
paradigms should be considered for what is fair for migrants in language
policies: language as identity and language as utility. In addition, national
and diversity interact with these paradigms to inform linguistic justice. Von
Busekist frames these concerns for the encouragement of linguistic diversity
and a “suitable _lingua franca_” (315) in Open English. As such, Open English
can promote “_ad hoc_ multilingualism” (317), the co-presence of multiple
lingua francas by bilingual speakers. This situation would require
bridge-speakers who can access multiple languages, acting as bridges for other
speakers. 

Chapter Fourteen is entitled “European integration and the variety of
languages: An awkward co-existence”, by Jean-Claude Barbier. This chapter
considers the difference between practical and stated equality of the 24
official languages of the European Union (EU). In particular, English has
grown hegemonic in usage over other languages, which Barbier points out as
ironic considering that part of the reasoning for Brexit was the UK’s
proportional influence  in the EU. English’s hegemony also privileges certain
EU citizens over others. Although in the interests of linguistic and political
justice this should be rectified, EU law structurally privileges English over
other languages and perpetuates discriminatory practices. 

EVALUATION

Together the chapters in this book attempt to cast a wide net over European
linguistic policy and governance. The edited volume is successful in
addressing these numerous issues with very interdisciplinary focus. This
breadth is beneficial in that the volume is potentially accessible to a wide
readership. In particular, Chapters Two, Four, Five and Nine are particularly
successful at explaining concepts potentially outside the background of their
readers. In particular, Chapter Five, “From glossophagic hegemony to
multilingual pluralism?”, draws upon the most comprehensive types of sources,
considering historical, linguistic, political and economic research. With this
wide net, the editors are able to target linguists, political scientists and
economists interested in European linguistic policy and governance, and the
book becomes a  way of initiating scholars to literature outside their own
narrow disciplines. For the most part, the volume is coherent in its scope,
considering European-based language policy and practices. However, the
inclusion of Chapter Two, “The politics of multilingualism in Canada”, is
somewhat surprising, albeit not without merit. Chapter Three, “A
Russian-speaking nation?”, fails to directly address multilingualism, thus
also falling outside the scope of the volume. This chapter also happens to be
less coherent, not providing concepts in a linear fashion or defining all key
terms. Nevertheless, the volume is a fairly successful attempt to introduce a
broad topic to a multi-faceted readership. 

REFERENCES

Kraus, Peter A. & François Grin (eds.). 2018. The politics of multilingualism:
Europeanisation, globalization and linguistic governance. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Danielle Fahey is a PhD student at the University of South Carolina,
researching bilingualism and language acquisition with behavioral and
neurophysiological methods. She is currently working on dissertation research
project which considers cognates in the bilingual mental lexicon.





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