cultural psychology and second minor language acquisition

[Eduardo Blasco Ferrer]

To Vince,Fred,Barbara, Margaret, Katie,Ann, Ginny, Aubrey and other habitués with second minor language acquisition

I have read with great interest all contributions to the question raised by Vince about second "minor" language education/acquisition. Summing up all contributions, I would say that they concentrate on two main issues: (1) educational level (when to start with education at school; which materials to use in order to improve competence and to balance competition with english), (2) political support (official use in public, formal situations; corpus planning).
Without dismissing out of hand the relevance of a political and educational intervention, I still believe that the cultural-psychological background of minor languages outside the USA represents a largely neglected topic. Just take into consideration the fact that a vast array of cultural and political circumstances may trigger very different outcomes with individual attachment to the "ethnic" language (I have not read that psychologically most important specification in any contribution) of the community. In rural communities, such as those in Sardinia, Provence, Malta or Friuli, children still hear the ethnic language in the neighbourhood and use it in plays, so that a "smooth" education in oral bilingualism (with first cognitive fields, narratives etc.) can be managed at school without necessarily awaiting that a pending standardization takes place; cultural "priming effect" acts as a powerful psychological argument to recognize and to acquire ethnical identity, and ensures an automathic involvement of the community in multiple interactions (which can also be guided by trained teachers at school). Let's also consider a somewhat different input, as it was Franco's repression in Spain for 40 years. Basque and Cathalan children of middle-class received a castilian (= spanish) education, whilst low-class or intellectually engaged families brought up their children with cathalan. I myself grew up in such a situation and became bilingual without support of schools or high educational policies. 
Cultural psychology can tell us much more about the inner motivations to be loyal to or to relinquish using ethnic languages than exclusive attention to social and educational politics. Working on both aspects may represent a fruitful line of research.
You may find a lot of literature and useful information about romance minor languages in:
Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik, ed. by Gunter Holtus et al., Tubingen, Max Niemeyer, 1988-2002, 9 vols.
E. Blasco Ferrer, Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik, Berlin, E. Schmidt, 1996
E. Blasco Ferrer, Handbuch der italienischen Sprachwissenschaft, Berlin, E. Schmidt, 1994
G. Brincat, Malta, una storia linguistica, Genova, Le Mani, 2003
M.H. Mira Mateus, As lìngua da Penìnsula Ibérica, Lisboa, Colibri, 2003.
I. Badia i Capdevila, Diccionari de les lleng"ues d'Europa, Barcelona, Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2002

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