[lg policy] Languages and International NGOs

[Harold Schiffman]

Languages and International NGOs


Language Policy
Posted on May 16, 2012 by Leigh Blount

What has been much less evident in such research has been the
existence of institutional markers, policies which recognise the key
importance of languages and prepare in advance for the language
dimensions of conflict. The general pattern emerging from case studies
of past conflicts has been what Michael Kelly terms ‘bricolage’(
2011), an early phase in which linguistic resources are hastily found,
assembled and pieced together in response to an unexpected/emergency
deployment, followed by later attempts to regularise and
professionalize language provision.

Where languages do impinge on policy making – the MOD’s integrated
inter-services languages unit (Defence Operational Languages Support
Unit, DOLSU) for example – their role (Lewis, 2012) is largely defined
as one which is fully embedded within army structures, the concern
being to train and deploy military linguists who will be operating on
the ground as army personnel. Recent case studies however have
particularly underlined the part which civilian linguists (as opposed
to military linguists) play within most conflict situations, an area
which is generally outside the interests of official policymaking.

Recruiting such linguists is most often a responsibility subcontracted
to others outside the military, or left to a relatively junior officer
in the actual theatre of conflict. The key role of locals in crisis
zones – their functions (often engaged in multiple extra-linguistic
tasks), their relationship with the local communities, and their
protection and after-life beyond the terms of the specific deployment
– is generally well outside the pressing concerns of policymakers.
Local linguists are either invisible, or if seen at all, are
considered to be something of a second order problem.

http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/languages-and-international-ngos/2012/05/16/language-policy/

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