Request for references on Implementation

[Joe Lo Bianco]

Hal,

Hi.   The following may not be easy to obtain but is exactly the kind of
this you are after. It is from Sri Lanka and focuses on the (in truth very
poor) measures for the implementation of Tamil language measures, often
intended as "remediation" or "amelioration" for harsh laws like the 1956
Official Sinhala Act.

Dharmadasa, K.N.O., (1996) (ed) National Language Policy in Sri Lanka, 1956
to 1996.  Three Studies in its Implementation.  Kandy: International Center
for Ethnic Studies.

Also relevant, and possibly easier to get hold of,  is;
Theva-Rajan, A. (1998) (2nd edition) Tamil as Official Language, Retrospect
and Prospect.  Colombo: International Center for Ethnic Studies, but this
is not so precisely an evaluation of implementation, though it does comment
on this.

I have copies if you cannot obtain them otherwise.  Also relevant is
Australian Policy Activism in Language and Literacy, Lo Bianco and Wickert
2001 analyses the implementation of language policy in Australia.

I don't think poor or bad implementations is just a problem of technique or
method or bad administration however. You don't have to be too cynical to
think that it is sometimes (perhaps often) a reflection of myopia, or that
politicians make concessions to minorities that bureaucrats and others in
entrenched positions do not share and therefore undermine.  This is not
necessarily deliberate, or even conscious, though it sometimes is
both.  Often it arises, in my experience, from a "monolingual habitus"
(can't remember whose term that is, probably Bourdieu).  Though we don't
want to let them off too lightly!  Regards Joe



At 11:45 PM 23/04/2004, you wrote:
>There is a first time for everything, and this is the first time I'm
>asking members of this list to give me some references.  I have been
>working on an article recently on some issues concerning language policy
>implementation, and can't find much that is said about it except to define
>it.  There are three articles in Cobarrubias and Fishman 1983, one by
>Haugen (on corpus planning), another by Barnes (on China) and a third by
>Lewis (on the USSR), but beyond this I'm stumped.
>
>I (and others of course, too) have always held that implementation is the
>"Achilles' Heel" of language policy and planning, i.e. the weakest link,
>and that many failures of policy are due to poor implementation, not poor
>planning (unless we include poor implementation-planning in planning).
>
>Can anyone refer me to other specific analyses of failures of
>implementation, i.e. detailed studies of how a particular language policy
>failed to achieve its objectives because of failure to carry out the
>implementation of it?  Or, studies of exemplary implementation, which led
>to great successes in the plan?
>
>Here is the definition of implementation that I am working with,
>constructed from various people's statements about it:
>
>"Implementation in language policy consists of the measures (plans,
>strategies, timetables, mechanisms) that provide the authoritative
>backbone (including financial rewards and resources) to achieve the goals
>of the language policy, and the motivation for the use of the language of
>the policy by the people affected."
>
>Thanks very much in advance for any help people can offer.
>
>Hal Schiffman
>
>=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>                           Harold F. Schiffman
>
>Professor of Dravidian Linguistics and Culture                       Director
>Dept. of South Asia Studies                     Pedagogical Materials Project,
>3624 Market Street, Box 2615               South Asia Language Resource Center
>
>                         University of Pennsylvania
>                         Philadelphia, PA 19104-2615
>
>                         Phone:  (215) 898-5825
>                         Fax:  (215) 573-2138
>
>                         Email:  haroldfs at ccat.sas.upenn.edu
>                         http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>


Joseph Lo Bianco

Professor of Language and Literacy Education
LLAE, Faculty of Education
The University of Melbourne
3010 VIC   Australia

Tel:    03 8344 8346
Fax:    03 8344 8612
Mob: 0407 798 978
Email: j.lobianco at unimelb.edu.au
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