Linguapax speakers urge protection for minority languages (fwd)

[Matthew Ward]

I noticed that this article mentions the issue of Navajo immersion
programs being threatened by Arizona's English-only law.  On that
subject, I recently recieved the following e-mail from the ACLU of Arizona:

Hi Matthew - we are in receipt of your 3/4/04 complaint to the ACLU of
Arizona re: the Attorney General's absurd opinion that public schools
on
the reservations.  We are VERY interested in this issue and I will be
calling the Superintendent of Window Rock Schools, Deborah
Jackson-Dennison, to see if they need our assistance.  The AG's office
is misconstruing the law.  The English Only requirement of Prop 203 was
struck down by the Arizona Supreme Court in 1998.  Thanks for bringing
this issue to our attention.

-Angie Polizzi, Staff attorney

This makes it seem like the ACLU is indeed a good resource in any
situation in which native-language immersion programs are being
threatened by various barbaric  English-only laws.


phil cash cash wrote:

>Linguapax speakers urge protection for minority languages
>http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20040427wob2.htm
>
>Cristoph Mark Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
>
>Languages of minority political and cultural groups must be protected to
>avoid being lost in favor of more dominant languages, Felix Marti
>warned at the inaugural Linguapax Asia conference, held in Tokyo on
>April 17.
>
>"A lot of the problems in our world are provoked by the lack of
>attention to cultural and political minorities. If you protect
>linguistic minorities all over the world, you work for peace," said
>Marti, Linguapax Institute President and human rights activist.
>
>Governments, multinational corporations and the mass media are among the
>agents of globalization that promote the move toward dominant languages
>and away from minority languages, he said.
>
>The daylong conference was held at United Nations University in Tokyo,
>and covered a range of issues, from the perseverance and decline of
>Slovene linguistic communities in Italy, Austria and Hungary, to the
>struggle to offer bilingual education for children in California and
>Arizona in the face of public opposition.
>
>Lectures were presented by experts from Japan, Austria, Hungary and the
>United States, and were given in English, Japanese and German. The
>proceedings were moderated by two of the organizers, Frances
>Fister-Stoga and Jelisava Sethna.
>
>"A lot of linguistic communities have decided to maintain their
>linguistic identity. That has been a change in the last 20 years,
>probably because a lot of communities until now were declining
>linguistic communities," Marti said. "Simultaneously, we observe some
>linguistic communities that are losing their linguistic practices and
>are now changing into 'important' languages."
>
>Many minority languages and cultures exist in Europe, and to protect
>them, an independent union called the Federal Union of European
>Nationalities was established, according to Kolomon Brenner, Assistant
>Professor of Eotvos-Lorand University in Budhapest.
>
>In Thailand, according to Donald Smith, linguistics expert and professor
>at Notre Dame Seishin University, many areas of the country have
>several levels of language, with locals speaking their local and
>regional languages, as well as standard Thai, among others. About 80
>different languages are spoken in Thailand.
>
>"Today, the 80 languages...are all vital, and there is apparently no
>danger of language extinction, there is no phenomena of language death
>in Thailand," Smith explained. "People are multilingual--not
>bilingual--often trilingual and quadrilingual. They just speak whatever
>language is appropriate wherever they are."
>
>Another example of language that could be said to be thriving is that of
>Palau. The island nation was colonized by Spain, Japan and eventually
>the United States, which took the country as a protectorate following
>World War II. Over the years, according to Yoko Okayama, associate
>professor at Ibaraki University, English began to virtually wipe out
>the local language, with children learning less and less Palau as they
>went through school.
>
>To avoid the complete attrition of their native language, the tiny South
>Pacific nation has made Palau a part of the educational curriculum,
>spending a portion of each day teaching children to speak, read and
>write it. In many cases, parents end up learning new words from their
>children, Okayama said.
>
>Still, many of the world's minority languages face decay and potential
>extinction.
>
>In Italy, Slovene is facing extinction in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia
>region. Slovene speakers are a minority within the Friulian-speaking
>community, itself a minority Italian dialect. While use of the Friulian
>dialect actually expanded during the 20th century, Slovene in the area
>has been abandoned as a language, and most of its native speakers can
>no longer speak the language, said Shinji Yamamoto, senior lecturer of
>Italian Linguistics at Tokyo University.
>
>In the United States, bilingual education is facing a less natural, more
>oppressive problem on a number of fronts, according to Melvin Andrade,
>English professor at Sophia Junior College, and Cary Duval, associate
>professor in the Faculty of International Studies at Bunkyo University.
>
>In California, despite an extremely large number of residents who speak
>a language other than English at home, there is much opposition to
>bilingual education. Previously, children were expected to spend about
>four years in English as a second language (ESL) classes so they could
>obtain functional fluency, from which point they would enter regular
>classes.
>
>"The hope is that once ELL (ESL) students are fairly proficient in
>English, they can continue their education in classes with their
>English-speaking peers. This is nothing about preserving heritage
>languages though--it's to get them to use English," Andrade pointed
>out.
>
>However, as a backlash against a wave of immigration--particularly from
>south of the border--a successful ballot initiative put forward by
>anti-bilingual millionaire Ron Unz introduced a "sheltered English" ESL
>program, which reduced special instruction to one year, only allowing
>English to be used in classes, Andrade said.
>
>California, though, has a legal loophole, making it possible for local
>governments to provide such families and children with information in
>their primary language, and to offer linguistic assistance, thereby
>helping the students to participate in their own education, Duval
>stressed.
>
>However, he pointed out that Arizona has done away with any loopholes
>that would allow for such education, which is greatly affecting the
>Navajo tribes in the area. Many Native American languages have already
>become extinct. The Navajo nation is 250,000 strong, and if their
>language cannot survive, none of the other Native American languages
>have a chance, Duval warned.
>
>There is opposition--again an Unz-backed initiative--to Navajo bilingual
>education. The initiative aims to make English the only language to be
>used in an official capacity, such as teaching.
>
>In some cases, teachers have been sued for using languages other than
>English in their instruction.
>
>Although greater language maintenance and signs of revival have been
>seen in recent years, there is clearly an uphill battle to be fought to
>preserve the world's linguistic heritage and protect the rights of
>frequently displaced minorities.
>
>
>