[lg policy] bibitem: Bilingual Education As Language Policy

[Harold Schiffman]

Bilingual Education As Language Policy
By Sally Wide

Language policy and language planning are two areas of applied
linguistics that are intended to be used hand in hand to assess
communication problems in education and society. Unfortunately,
language planning and policies have sometimes been used in ways that
have actually increased communication problems, such as when, for
example, their effect has been to suppress communication in particular
languages or when policies to promote mainstream education in the
United States only in the English language have been poorly planned or
poorly implemented.

The implementation of language policies usually requires a formal plan
of action based on guiding principles designed to promote,
accommodate, maintain, protect, or restrict the use of languages in
education or society. Although formal language policies imply
planning, much of the debate and implementation of policy related to
bilingual education in the United States have occurred without
extensive language planning. Language acquisition planning is a form
of language planning used to determine which language(s) or language
varieties are promoted through schools.

Bilingual education, in the broadest sense, falls under this form of
planning because of the importance of formal education in determining
the status and spread of languages. Traditionally, language planning
also involves corpus planning, which deals largely with issues of
selection of vocabulary, grammar, and standardization. Corpus planning
typically has been more of an issue for debate among publishers and
stylists, but it can also involve issues related to the identification
and selection of a standard variety or varieties of language.

In the early history of the United States, the lexicographer Noah
Webster exerted tremendous influence on English spelling, word choice,
and grammar-largely through his personal authority as a publisher.
Webster was also determined to promote a distinctly "American" form of
English and went to lengths to ensure that some spellings would
deviate from those used by the British.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sally_Wide

http://ezinearticles.com/?Bilingual-Education-As-Language-Policy&id=4469657

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