[lg policy] Language Endangerment: Language Policy and Planning

[Harold Schiffman]

Language Endangerment: Language Policy and Planning *Friday, 26 July 2013*
Location: *CRASSH, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DT*

*Nana Ama Agyeman* (SOAS) and *Nana Aba Amfo* (Ghana).
*The language policy of education in Ghana: implications for minority
languages*

The current government’s policy on the language of basic education in Ghana
allows for a bilingual approach; where English, the official yet
non-indigenous language of the country, is used in combination with a
Ghanaian language. Given the linguistic diversity in the country, presented
through the existence of over seventy indigenous languages, not every
language is used in the educational system. This paper examines the
challenges that the country’s language policy of basic education pose for
the survival of minority languages such as Efutu (Niger-Congo, Kwa, South
Guan). During a language documentation fieldwork in Winneba where Efutu is
the native language, a survey in selected schools revealed that Efutu is
not used in any aspect of the school curricular. Rather, a dominant
language, Fante (Niger-Congo, Kwa, Akan) is used as the Ghanaian language
option. It was further disclosed that the use/speaking of Efutu is
prohibited in schools: a potential threat to the language. Significantly,
the paper does not aim at condemning the current policy but rather it seeks
to draw attention to its weaknesses and calls for its improvement,
especially in the direction of an explicit protection of minority languages.

*Elisabeth Barakos* (WUWien)
*The promotion of Welsh in business – a discursive approach to language
policy*

This paper applies a critical discourse analytic perspective to situate,
analyse and interpret the production, dissemination and consumption of the
discourse on promoting Welsh in businesses in Wales by combining Shohamy’s
(2006) framework of overt and covert policy mechanisms with the
Discourse-Historical Approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (e.g. Reisigl
and Wodak 2009). Language policy is thus addressed from a discursive angle
and starts from the essential premise that policies are constituted,
enacted, interpreted and (re)contextualised in and through language. In
this paper, I aim to put forward a way to classify how and where language
policy occurs and explore the relationship between ideologies encountered
in top-down Welsh government language strategies, corporate language
schemes of Welsh firms and the lived ideologies of managers of such firms.
Cardiff and Bangor are the contexts for my empirical research, which
triangulates questionnaire data, semi-structured interviews and a range of
language policy documents.

*Sebastian Bednarowicz* (Kazimierz Wielki University, Poland).
*Standardization of the Turoyo Language by Using the Latin Alphabet: Does
it Make Sense?*

The main purpose of this paper is describing attempts of standardization of
Turoyo (being one of the Neo-Aramaic languages) by using the Latin letters.
The Neo-Aramaic in its regional varieties is today spoken by relatively
small communities scattered in the Middle East. However the large portion
of its users lives in such Western European countries as Sweden or
Germany,  as well as in the USA and in the countries of the former USSR. So
far only the dialect of Iranian Urmia became a literary language for the
large part of Eastern Arameans. It is written with the help of modified
Syriac script.
In this paper it will be described another attempt of standardization of
the Aramaic language though based on the Latin alphabet and made among the
communities of Aramaic speaking immigrants in the Western Europe. The
following issues will be brought up:

1. social attitude to the new writing systems and to the new literary
language itself
2. problems of orthography/orthographies
3. Internet as a tool for promotion of Turoyo written in Latin letters
4. state support for preserving and development of Turoyo in Sweden and in
Germany
5. main publications in the new literary language

*Lucia Brandi *(Liverpool)
*The politics of language maintenance: the case of Kgoyom Totonaco in Mexico
*

Speakers of indigenous languages in Mexico (MIL) are now less than one
tenth of the population; around two-thirds of MIL are endangered, the rest
vulnerable. The decline is intimately bound up with the project to
construct national identity out of a vast, ethnolinguistically diverse
population. In the light of political unrest and rural rebellion in recent
decades, this project has been rearticulated into one of national heritage.
In 2003, Mexico introduced apparently vanguard legislation to recognise
MIL; however there is concern at increasing commodification of MIL
communities in eco-tourism initiatives, and the implications of what is
euphemistically described as ‘intercultural’ education.  In this paper, the
experiences of young Totonaco bilinguals at an independent,
ideologically-driven rural school will be explored. The school, set up by
Totonaco elders but run by a Spanish-speaking director, draws on principles
of critical pedagogy to marry education with socio-political action. Using
external support, the school has set up a Totonaco publishing project to
support community literacy. The school’s history and context highlight the
contradictions of state language-in-education policy, bring into sharp
focus the political content of language maintenance, and challenge
linguists to engage with speakers of endangered languages in more than just
the defence of language.

*Ya-ling Chang* (National I-lan University)
*Linguistic Landscape in Taiwanese Indigenous Communities*

This paper investigates the signage displayed in public spaces of twenty
Taiwanese indigenous communities, including signs and posters found within
schools. The aim of this study is to understand the implicit dimension of
how the properties of indexicality of language scripts and related
semiotics are presented to construct ideologies and sociocultural identity
which shape and are shaped by the wider context of the social structures.
This paper will also examine what semiotic forms have been adopted for the
distribution of symbolic values between the various languages and cultures,
undergoing the processes of multicultural development. It is assumed that
the interaction between the linguistic and the semiotic elements
effectively enables the signage to serve as an instrument of inclusion and
exclusion, thereby contributing to the production and reproduction of
sociopolitical and cultural equality and inequality. The data subjected to
multimodal discourse analysis includes a corpus of permanent street and
building signage, together with salient semiotic displays in the public
spaces for community members. The analysis of the texts sheds light on the
processes of aboriginal language policy formation and makes more visible
the power relations between the dominant and the dominated.

*Josep Cru* (Newcastle)
*Exploring grassroots efforts to revitalise Yucatec Maya in Mexico*

As a consequence of growing indigenous mobilisation in Mexico, particularly
after the Zapatista uprising in 1994, there have been significant
legislative changes concerning indigenous languages and cultures in Mexico.
Thus, article 2 of the Mexican Constitution was amended in 2001 to
acknowledge the contribution of indigenous peoples to the multicultural
composition of that country. In 2003 the Law of Education was reformed to
include a paragraph stating that speakers of indigenous languages will have
access to compulsory education both in their own language and in Spanish.
Also in 2003, the General Law on Linguistic Rights of Indigenous Peoples
was approved, becoming the first official legislative text that explicitly
addresses the promotion of indigenous languages in Mexico. Two years later
the National Institute of Indigenous Languages (INALI) was created in
Mexico City with the aim of cataloguing and standardising the indigenous
languages of Mexico. These top down initiatives, which stem from official
institutions, may have a positive impact on the public recognition of
indigenous languages in Mexico but they have enormous limitations for
actual revitalisation of linguistic practices on the ground. Against this
background, this presentation looks at current efforts to promote Maya in
alternative domains of use such as the Internet, and particularly social
media. Adopting an ethnographic perspective, this presentation explores
grassroots initiatives that focus on local contexts, horizontal linguistic
practices and speakers as final agents of language management.

*Andrew James Davies* and *Prysor Mason Davies*  (Aberystwyth)
*Perceptions and attitudes amongst bilingual post-16 students in Wales
towards Welsh-medium Study.*

In spite of continued growth in Welsh-medium education during the statutory
phases of education, the extent of Welsh-medium provision in Further
Education colleges, and take-up among post-16 students, has remained
relatively low in recent years.  The Welsh Government’s Welsh-Medium
Education Strategy (2010) - the first of its kind - identified challenging
targets for the expansion of such provision in the post-16 sector. This
paper reports on the findings of an applied research study, commissioned by
the Welsh Language Board, the aim of which was to identify areas of
effective practice in promoting post-16 bilingual and Welsh-medium learning
to students in Further Education colleges in Wales. The research included
focus groups with Welsh-English bilingual post-16 students, conducted at
eight different Further Education colleges across Wales. The groups explore
the students’ career and academic aspirations; their attitudes towards
studying in both English and Welsh; and reveal their perceptions about the
value and status conferred upon both languages in various occupational and
academic sectors. The discussions also address students' own awareness of
the importance of Welsh-medium education in language revitalisation, and
explore their own choices in the context of this debate.

*Margaret Deuchar* and *Kevin Donnelly* (Bangor)
*A model for evaluating the health of minority languages*

This paper argues that linguists can play a role in contributing to
language policy by collecting and analysing corpora of minority language
use, often alongside the use of the majority language in the form of
code-switching.  We will describe a proposal for developing a diagnostic
tool to provide a prognosis for the future of minority languages using
techniques from corpus linguistics.  The approach involves use of the
automatic glossing of transcribed corpora to extract clause-size units and
then automatic analysis of the clauses in terms of their language
composition and morphosyntactic frame.  This will be illustrated with
reference to work that has already been done on the Siarad Welsh-English
corpus (see bangortalk.org.uk).  Automatic analysis of data from 148
speakers has shown that Welsh is the source language for the vast majority
of words in the corpus, and that monolingual Welsh clauses make up the
majority of the clauses. Welsh also provides the morphosyntactic frame of
almost all bilingual clauses. These  results arguably provide an optimistic
prognosis for the future of the Welsh language.  We will outline our plans
to apply similar techniques to corpora of other minority languages where a
less positive prognosis is expected.

*Nicole Dołowy-Rybińska* (Polish Academy of Sciences)
*Language Policy versus the needs of young Kashubs*

Kashubs, the autochthonous minority of Poland, have suffered for many years
because of their localization in the Polish-German border conflict zone.
Depending on the political arrangement, Kashubs were subject to
Germanization or Polonization, particularly prevalent during the time of
communism in Poland (1945-1989). The Kashubian language was considered a
patois of Polish therefore speaking Kashubian was forbidden and derided.
The new democratic political system in Poland resulted in a change of
treatment of the Kashubian language. Kashubian has been recognized
officially since 2005 as the only regional language in Poland. As a result
of this recognition ‘Kashubian Language Policy and Planning’ processes were
instigated: with the Commission of the Kashubian Language, and the
Kashubian-Pomeranian Association working on a strategy for the Kashubian
language. Although the young generation can learn Kashubian in school,
Kashubian is rarely, and for some only, the language of home communication
today. This report presents the results of anthropological research in
Kashubia in 2012 related to the attitudes of young Kashubs concerning their
ethnic language and culture, and the motivations of their engagement in the
life of this minority. I will try to indicate where the language policy
conducted by Poland and by the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association meets the
young people’s expectations, and where it is divergent.

*Stuart Dunmore* (Edinburgh)
*Planning for the future of an endangered language:  Gaelic-medium
education in Scotland*

Gaelic-medium education (GME) started in 1985 with classes opening in
Glasgow and Inverness, and expanded throughout the late 1980s and 1990s,
becoming established in communities throughout Scotland. Since then
hundreds of children have come through the system, and GME is often
regarded as one of the principal means by which the language can be
revitalised. Until recently little has been known about the degree to which
adults who received GME actually use Gaelic or identify personally with the
language after formal schooling. Some theorists are particularly critical
of an over-reliance on the school in attempting to reverse language shift;
while schools clearly have a role to play, it is thought that they may
become an environment of partial language acquisition alone, while failing
to provide lasting socialisation into the language. The aim of my research,
based on 46 semi-structured interviews, is to uncover the longer-term
effects of the Gaelic-medium classroom. Through an analysis of informants’
discourses my investigation will address the following primary research
questions: how do former-GME students engage with Gaelic in the present
day? And what sets of attitudes and language ideologies do they hold,
particularly in relation to their cultural identities as young Gaelic
speakers in Scotland?

*Lorena Fontaine* (Winnipeg)*
The Life of Aboriginal peoples Comes from our Languages:  Indigenous
Language Rights in Canada*

Indigenous ancestral languages are the lifeblood of Indigenous identities,
cultures, and communities in Canada. For Indigenous peoples, expressive and
rich cultural epistemologies – that devise the foundation of Indigenous
societies – are embedded in these languages.  Unique kinship systems and
relationships that provide the basis for law, government, and ceremonies
are derived from concepts that are embedded in the languages. The history
of the land is derived from name places, stories and songs too. Simply
said, ancestral languages are one of the single most important vessels in
Indigenous cultures.  At the moment, Canada’s Constitution Act of 1982
recognizes only French and English languages as suitable for unique status
and rights. My paper will focus on the legal and cultural aspects of two
distinct Indigenous language communities of the Cree and the Ojibway in
Manitoba. The main argument of my paper is that in spite of the limited
legal recognition and protection from Canadian law, Cree and Ojibway
customary law serves as the foundation for their language rights. A brief
examination of the important role birch-bark scrolls play in the recording
and ultimately the preservation of oral history will further my discussions
on Indigenous customary law.

*Fabienne Goalabré* (Highlands and Islands)
*Language policy successes without the expected impact on language
revitalization: Immersion education in Brittany and in the Western Isles of
Scotland*

Many endangered languages are enjoying an improved status. Most states in
the western world encourage their revitalization through the implementation
of state intervention programmes, namely schools. For Baker (2003), García
(2009), bilingual education provides a way to produce speakers when
intergenerational transmission is failing. The present research sits within
the context of growing concerns about the impact of immersion schools on
the vitality of minority languages (Fishman (1991); Edwards (2004, 2007)).
It explores many factors informing the decisions of the parents such as
their socio-economic profile,  language background and  patterns of
language use. The research, mainly conducted by a structured interview
schedule, deals with two minority languages: Breton in western Brittany and
Gaelic in the core Gaelic-speaking area of Scotland. The aim of this paper
is to explain that immersion schools mainly represent an educational
choice: most parents do  not expect to use the minority language as their
home language. Consequently, the taught language remains a school language,
used only during teaching time , without community links.
The exploration of the parental aspect goes some way to explain why
language planners need to have a comprehensive understanding of the
language situation and the attitudes of its first language speakers in
order to design effective language policies.

*Lenore A. Grenoble* (The University of Chicago & Inuit Circumpolar
Council, Canada)
*The Arctic Indigenous Language Initiative: Leveraging Policy to Effect
Change
*
Language shift is an integral part of cultural disruption in the
circumpolar Arctic: of the 50 or so indigenous languages spoken in the
region, all but Kalaallisut (West Greenlandic; iso-639 kal) are endangered.
The present talk reports on an indigenous-driven project, the Arctic
Indigenous Language Initiative (AILI), that is working to reverse language
shift through active engagement and collaboration throughout the
circumpolar region. The stakeholders see policy change as integral to any
significant and sustained change in Arctic language ecologies. At the same
time, external researchers—linguists and scientists alike—are similarly
trying to engage political leaders and policy makers to effect change. The
most recent Arctic Biodiversity Assessment, presented to the Arctic Council
in May 2013 (see Barry et al. 2013) is an example of an attempt to present
linguistic data in a format argue for supporting and maintaining diversity.
Arctic indigenous peoples are perhaps uniquely organized within the world
today in a way that potentially empowers them to take action. The eight
Arctic nation states are organized into the Arctic Council, an
intergovernmental political council consisting of the eight member states
(Canada, Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland,
Iceland, Norway, Russian Federation, Sweden, and the United States).  The
Arctic Council includes the Permanent Participants, the six indigenous
organizations which represent Arctic peoples:  Aleut International
Association; the Arctic Athabaskan Council; Gwich’in Council International;
the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC); the Saami Council; and the Russian
Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON).
The AILI is defined and determined by the Permanent Participants, stemming
from 2008 when they convened to establish an action plan. This meeting laid
the foundation of the AILA, a collaborative effort between researchers,
representatives from Arctic Indigenous organizations and Arctic
governments, language activists, and policy makers. While the long-term
goal is to achieve vitality and sustainability for Arctic indigenous
languages, the first measures center around assessment in three key areas:
(1) Arctic language policy; (2) language pedagogy and education; and (3)
language vitality. Fundamental to this initiative is the plan to leverage
our findings to achieve policy change across the Arctic.

*Barry, Tom, Lenore A. Grenoble & Finnur Friðriksson*; with contributing
authors Carl Chr. Olsen puju, Tero Mustonen. 2013.
*Linguistic diversity. In Arctic Biodiversity Assessment. Status and trends
in Arctic biodiversity, 431-441. Akureyri: Conservation of Arctic Flora and
Fauna (CAFF), Arctic Council.*
http://arcticbiodiversity.is/index.php/the-report/chapters/linguistics-diversity

*Aurélie Joubert* (Leicester)
*The interface between macro and micro levels: language ideologies and
attitudes in Catalan and Occitan speakers*

This paper intends to explore some contrasts in the past and present
Occitan and Catalan revitalisation campaigns and their effects on speakers.
These two closely related minority languages, both spoken in France and in
Spain, have very distinct life prospects which would tend to indicate a
relative success story for Catalan language planners and a continuous
threat of extinction for Occitan (Paulston 1987). This disparity, due to
different national language policies and to some essential dissimilarity in
the historico-political and socio-economic power of the marginalised
communities is also paralleled with a different perception of the defence
of the minoritised languages. Indeed, linguistic activism is strongly
tinted with political activism in the southern part of Catalonia whereas
the Occitanist movement has always lacked strong political back-up and has
focused on elevating the prestige of ‘patois’ by emphasising its glorious
past literature (Courouau 2005; Lafont 1997; Rafanell 2006). This
historical and comparative take will allow us to examine the interface
between national language policies, the language ideologies underlying the
various messages aimed at promoting language revitalisation, and the
speakers' attitudes. The transnational dimension adds an interesting
element of contrast which will be investigated through the analysis of
interviews with Occitan speakers.

*Jonathan Kasstan* (Kent)
*Towards a pan-regional orthography for obsolescent Francoprovençal*

Francoprovençal is spoken transnationally between the South-east of France,
and parts of Switzerland and Italy.  Its introduction in the 19th century
as a coherent grouping has never been fully accepted by Romance linguists,
who have long professed to its illegitimacy.  As a language experiencing
gradual death, Francoprovençal faces many problems similar to those of
other minority varieties.  For example, there is no prestige variety to
choose from, and inter-generational mother-tongue transmission no longer
takes place in much of the Francoprovençal-speaking zone.  However, calls
are now coming from a galvanised militant-speaker movement for further
recognition and wider literacy.  These neo-speakers, who instead term the
language Arpitan, support a pan-regional orthography that simplifies
conventional spelling-systems, and shows considerable influence from
French.  In terms of language planning then, Francoprovençal represents an
interesting case.  Is the process of orthographic reform rendered more
problematic by a dialect grouping that has never been fully accepted or
legitimated? Are traditional speakers able to compromise and accept the
proposed standard?  The answers to these questions may hold some
significance for other minority varieties faced with similar problems.

*Ruth Kircher* (Liverpool Hope)*
Saving French by teaching English: Language attitudes in Quebec and their
implications for acquisition planning*

In Quebec, French faces the challenge of English not only as the global
lingua franca but also as the language of upward mobility in Canada at
large. Over the years, much pro-French legislation has been implemented –
most importantly Bill 101, as a result of which most children have to
attend French-speaking primary and secondary schools. While this
legislation currently does not affect language choices at post-secondary
level, the provincial government plan to extend Bill 101 to colleges.
However, they are not considering that language legislation must take
account of the attitudes of those who will be affected by it, because such
legislation is rarely effective without grassroots level support. This
paper presents a quantitative study whose findings show that while college
students do value French, they attribute more status to English, and they
are acutely aware of its necessity for economic advancement. However, the
French-medium school system leaves them dissatisfied with their English
skills, thus fuelling their desire to attend English-medium colleges. The
government’s plan thus lacks the necessary attitudinal support, and a more
differentiated approach to acquisition planning, entailing for instance the
creation of bilingual colleges, would be more likely to contribute to the
maintenance of French in Quebec.

*Halyna Matsyuk* (Lviv Ivan Franko National University)
*Empowered politicians, society and languages: interplay in post-Soviet
Ukraine  *

The paper focuses on the decisive role of the empowered politicians in
modeling the linguistic situation 2010 through 2013. The research draws on
the theoretical works on language policy. Illustrative material includes
linguistic bills and laws, sociological surveys, mass media publications.
Despite the disapproval from the European institutions, in 2012, the
parliament adopted a new Law on Languages that stopped a sluggish
restoration of social functions of Ukrainian as state language in the
country, secured the status of Russian and exacerbated language conflict.
The oppositional forces failed to impede actions of the ruling majority.
The society experiences the curtailing freedom of speech. Different
languages are associated with different identities (Ukrainian, post-Soviet,
Russian etc). Protests arise the moment the politicians make manipulative
decisions.  In addition to unequal communicative functions, the languages
enjoy different symbolic functions. The Ukrainian language is a symbol for
the Ukrainians’ movement towards the European values, Russian preserves
ties with the Soviet past and contemporary Putin’s Russia, with the ideals
of the “Russian World”, while English is associated with young people,
careers, jobs in international companies and high salaries.  Linguists have
no influence on the development of language policy.

*James McLellan* ( Brunei Darussalam)
*Maintaining and revitalizing Borneo indigenous minority languages:
Comparing top-down and community-based policy initiatives and strategies*

Complex patterns of multilingualism are found throughout the island of
Borneo: in Indonesian Kalimantan, in the East Malaysian states of Sarawak
and Sabah, and in Negara Brunei Darussalam. Indigenous minority languages
in all these polities are threatened with extinction, as their speakers may
be shifting towards more powerful languages, especially Malay (Bahasa
Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Melayu) and English. These languages are
supported through national education systems, whilst indigenous languages
tend to be marginalized. However, four recent developments offer
possibilities for change
•    community-initiated moves towards mother-tongue based multilingual
education (MTBMLE) at pre-school level
•    the introduction of credit-bearing courses in Borneo languages at
universities
•    technological innovations leading to increased presence of indigenous
languages in cyberspace and improved rural internet connectivity
•    changing perceptions among language planners and the indigenous
communities themselves about ethnolinguistic vitality

Discussion of these draws mainly on a case study of the Bidayuh community
in Sarawak, with some reference to Kenayatn in Kalimantan Barat,
Kadazandusun and Iranun in Sabah, and Dusun and Tutong in Brunei. The
conclusion proposes a paradigm shift based on the realization that the
future of indigenous Borneo languages involves their use alongside the
powerful languages, rather than in isolation as before.
*
Rebecca Mitchell *
*‘To be a good westerner, you need to know where you come from’: the
challenges facing language preservation initiatives in central Africa*

**This paper is based on unpublished research into language, ethnicity and
identity carried out on 110 young adults in 2012 in Cameroon, a region of
exceptional ethnolinguistic diversity where only English and French have
official status. This paper examines the mismatch between what the
respondents overtly declared and what their responses actually suggest, and
the resulting challenges for language preservation initiatives. Overall the
respondents regard the local languages as important, particularly for
personal identity, and their self-reported levels of linguistic proficiency
are high. However, the study identifies an increasing voluntary avoidance
of the local languages in the home, and few perceive the local languages as
overt markers of ethnic group membership. Significantly, although the
respondents profess a strong sense of racial/African identity, most do not
question utterances taken from a Gabonese corpus [Mitchell 2012] expressing
an aspiration to western/white identity. This paper argues that any
language policy aimed at counteracting ethnolinguistic attrition would be
compromised by such ambivalent attitudes. Additionally, while intervention
from European researchers is inappropriate in post-colonial central Africa,
uninvolved descriptive studies of endangered languages are often not
directly beneficial to speakers. Speech communities alone can determine the
fate of their languages and cultures, and, if they wish, must empower
themselves to do so.

*Damien Mooney* (Oxford)
*Confrontation and language policy: non-militant perspectives on
conflicting revitalisation strategies in Béarn, France.*

This presentation focuses on the southern Gallo-Romance variety
historically spoken in the region of Béarn, France. The variety has been
largely ousted from its territory by French and since the 1960s, a
standardised variety ‘Occitan’ has secured an institutional monopoly in the
region. Two conflicting movements have emerged, propagated by the Institut
Béarnais et Gascon (IBG) and the Institut d’Études Occitanes (IEO): the IBG
is conservative rather than reformist, aiming to preserve local language
varieties, which they call Béarnais/Gascon; the IEO aims to unify all
southern Gallo-Romance varieties by promoting features they have in common.
The proposed ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority
Languages by the French government has brought language policy issues to
the forefront in the region. Both the IBG and IEO movements call for the
inclusion of ‘Béarnais’ and ‘Occitan’ in the Charter at the exclusion of
the other. The attitudes of three generations of non-militant Béarn
residents will be presented using a coded qualitative analysis based on
thirty hours of interview data and focusing on three key themes: naming the
language; orthography; propaganda. The analysis will assess, from a
lay-person perspective, the role of concensus-building in
facilitating/hindering the implemenation of national language policies.

*Anik Nandi *(Heriot-Watt) and *Lissa Davies* (Sussex)
*Bottom-up language policy through Mother-Tongue-Based Multilingual
Education: Voices of the Toto people in India*

Our study underscores the main perspectives for endangered languages
illustrated in Flores Farfan and Ramallo (2010: 147): that "position
threatened language-speakers at the forefront of the action", and are
"context sensitive sociolinguistic studies... that contributes to the
emancipation of linguistic communities". It starts with a critical analysis
of India's language policies regarding India's 196 endangered languages,
scrutinizing the "Three-Language-Formula" policy as an insufficient
governmental solution, and introducing more successful revitalization
practices in India like Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education
(MTBMLE). To illustrate this point, we will present the Headstart Totopara
Project which works with an isolated tribe of 1,500 in the Bhutan Hills.
The Totos have a unique, oral language and culture. With an influx of
non-Toto speaking people, popular Hindi and Nepali media and music, along
with the pressure to learn English, their own mother-tongue is now under
threat. In this session, we will discuss the complexities of designing and
implementing such a project, including the role of government, how
linguistics are being used and the politics surrounding language policy in
education decisions. We will also discuss the difficulties with taking an
evidence-based  approach while concomitantly giving weight to the voices of
the community and their epistemological values.

*Leigh Oakes* (Queen Mary, London) and *Yaed Peled *(Montréal and McGill)
*Doing Justice? Normative Language Policy in Praxis *

Language politics in the new global era presents policymakers with
significant ethical challenges. What moral ends and principles justify
state interventions in sociolinguistic issues, such as language
endangerment (real and/or perceived), shift and decline? Despite interest
among sociolinguists and applied linguists in the normative aspects of
language policy and planning (e.g. linguistic diversity and democracy; the
scope, nature and limits of the language of language rights; the role of
language in theories of multiculturalism and globalisation; theories and
conceptions of linguistic justice), current engagement with the complexity
of these questions remains nevertheless sporadic, unsystematic and limited.
Recognising this state of affairs, the paper presents a new research
project that seeks to develop and propose a new interdisciplinary framework
for normative language policy, integrating into language policy and
planning research theoretical advances from contemporary political theory.
Using the French-speaking world as an insightful case study, it explores
some of the ethical questions that are inseparable from language policy in
both theory and praxis, particularly in cases of significant power
discrepancies between language communities, or between communities and
national governments. Drawing on notions such as multicultural citizenship,
justice as even-handedness, language rights, linguistic justice and
language ethics, the paper presents and discusses some of the moral
challenges facing individuals, researchers, practitioners and governments
involved in language sustainment, and explores their application to
real-life contexts in the French-speaking world.

*Poia Rewi *(Otago) and *Rawinia Higgins *(Victoria).
*‘When planning and policy don’t fit the cultural paradigm, take it to the
Tribunal – The Aotearoa/New Zealand experience’*

The Māori language has been heralded as being at the forefront of
Indigenous revitalisation movements.  Despite receiving recognition from
the Waitangi Tribunal in 1986, the Māori language continues to weaken as a
language in New Zealand.  In 1987, Māori became an official language,
however the provisions within the Act do not support or enhance the
development of language policy or planning beyond ‘status’.  Māori
communities continue to maintain revitalisation efforts despite this, yet
they are often stymied by the lack of resources or the regulations imposed
by policies created by government agencies.  In response to these
challenges, Māori have lodged two more claims to the Waitangi Tribunal (WAI
262 and WAI 2336) about issues relating to how these policies impede
language use.  This paper will examine research conducted by Te Kura Roa (a
3 year research project) to examine how community planning (bottom-up) and
State policy (top-down) could be more coordinated to achieve meaningful
developments in Māori language normalisation efforts.  We will present the
ZePA model as one possible method of achieving coordination and hopefully
prevent the need to return to the Waitangi Tribunal to resolve conflicts
over Māori language issues.

*Carlo J. W. Ritchie* (Sydney)
*The Role of Orthographies in Language Conservation*

The creation of a standard orthography is an essential process in minority
language revitalisation. However, the process of orthographic
standardisation is seldom alike between languages, despite similar
intentions. An examination of the intentions and methods in the creation of
standardised orthographies, with a comparison of the successes and failures
of these processes for the Irish language, Low German and Wymysorys
(Vilamovian), is therefore useful in establishing a precedent for the role
of orthography in language conservation. The Irish language, Low German and
Wymysorys represent three distinct languages from the perspective of
vitality, speaking populations and the extent to which efforts of
revitalisation have impacted on the language. By examining the effect and
implementation of a written standard in the process of maintaining these
languages, it is possible to evaluate the significance of orthographies in
language conservation and to establish a precedent for ensuring language
vitality.

*Julia Sallabank *(SOAS)
*Language ideologies, practices and policies in New Caledonia*

There are 28 distinct Kanak languages in New Caledonia, but rapid cultural
and linguistic shift is underway. This paper discusses the circumstances
and implications of this shift, and the responses of government and
individuals. Parents, teachers and young people report that children now
prefer to speak French. This is usually blamed on education (which follows
the French curriculum) or the Catholic Church, but research in Pouébo,
Northern Province, has revealed stigmatisation of the language practices of
young people. Parents and grandparents complain that children speak
‘deformed Caac’; children respond with reluctance to speak their home
language.  Until the Nouméa Accord of 1998, Kanak people, their culture and
languages were marginalised. Traditional local multilingualism has been
disrupted by colonialism and urbanisation, and the range of languages now
spoken in the capital, Nouméa, is perceived as problematic. The Kanak
Languages Academy was founded in 2007: its remit is to codify and promote
Kanak languages as ‘languages of culture and of education’. Language
policies tend to be top-down, even at community level. They focus on corpus
planning, standardisation and orthography development; linguists developing
materials have little knowledge of social factors in language and literacy,
applied linguistics or educational principles.

*Arieh Sherris *and *Jill Robbins* (Columbia)
*Miccosukee Language Revitalization: Policy, Oracy, and Teacher Appraisal*

The Miccosukee language, a member of the Muskogeean language family, is
endangered (n < 400). Language revitalization efforts are underway at the
Miccosukee Indian School (Florida, USA). While independent of both Federal
and State education mandates, school policies have developed that reflect
and constitute a hybrid identity (e.g., an identity neither entirely
independent of nor dependent on government policy). The purpose of this
paper is to explore the ramifications of this hybrid policy for pedagogy
and teacher appraisal. Through the triangulation of data that includes
statements from Tribal leaders, site administrators, and interviews with
teachers, we have discovered that policy is both top-down and bottom up. We
illustrate our finding by discussing two developments: the decision to
develop curricula for the development of oral/aural skills in Miccosukee,
and thereby disregarding the written script, and a request to develop a
walk-through protocol for non-Miccosukee fluent administrators who want to
assess teacher performance in Miccosukee language classrooms. In the policy
to turn away from teaching a written script, which has existed for some
time, and the teacher appraisal policy, we will also discuss policy
solutions.

*Claudia Soria* (CNR-ILC)
*You can speak it now: assessing the effect of official recognition on the
vitality of minority languages*

In 1999, an Italian controversial law granted o_cial recognition to twelve
regional and minority languages, but denied it to others such as
Piedmontese, Venetan, Sicilian, Emilian, Romagnol, that nevertheless are
rated as endangered by UNESCO and Ethnologue. This particular situation
o_ers an ideal laboratory to assess the impact of language policies on
protected languages and at thesame time the efect of lack of social
protection and recognition on languagesdenied of institutional support. In
this research we have coupled social census data with the results of an
extensive survey carried out among speakers of all endangered languages of
Italy, recognised or not, to re-assess their vitality in terms of speakers'
number, domains of use, intergenerational transmission and speakers'
attitudes. After illustrating the methodology adopted for the survey, we
will show how the law was largely ine_ective in producing quantitatively
signficant changes, while had a sharp effect on speakers' attitudes. We
will argue that social recognition generally improved self-esteem and
generated a pride in the language that is severely lacking among speakers
of other languages, while lack of top-down recognition can be a powerful
element in reinforcing negative feelings and overestimation of the
difficulties of language revitalization.

*Marco Tamburelli* (Bangor)
*Finding languages: can linguistic criteria inform language policy?*

During the 20th century, many linguists were preoccupied with identifying a
structural definition of what constitutes a “language” and how this relates
to its “dialects” (e.g. Weinreich, 1954; Kloss, 1967, Ammon, 1989). This
preoccupation faded, however, as consensus grew that “languages” and
“dialects” are social constructs rather than independently identifiable
structural entities (e.g. Trudgill, 1974, Chambers & Trudgill, 1980). This
paper argues that the development of language legislation makes that
conclusion no longer tenable. As the protection of linguistic rights hinges
on discourse that often employs the concept of regional/ minority language,
the recurring assumption is that the entity “language” does exist and that
it is somewhat objectively identifiable. In such cases, sociolinguistic
criteria cannot provide a useful definition since most regional/minority
languages display very low sociolinguistic status due to the very fact that
they have been socially subordinate to some other non-regional variety. A
purely sociolinguistic view, therefore, creates a paradox whereby the
notion of “language” excludes a priori many of the linguistic varieties
that legislation is meant to protect. I conclude by presenting a pilot
study that shows how the paradox can be resolved by applying insight from
recent work on intelligibility levels as measurements of linguistic
distance.

*Mike Tressider *(Cornish Language Partnership)
*The impact of the Cornish language office on language policy*

For most of the 20th centaury Cornish has persisted without recognition or
support from any nationwide British institution, cultural, political or
academic. However, in November 2002, after campaigning by Cornish
organisations and local authorities, the United Kingdom government
specified Cornish under Part II of the European Charter for Regional or
Minority Languages. Under the terms of the Charter, the government is
committed to 'base its policies, legislation and practice' on objectives
and principles which recognise Cornish as an expression of cultural wealth
and support resolute action to promote the language. In practical terms
this led to the establishment of a UK and local government funded language
office with responsibility for promoting the use and teaching of Cornish in
schools and the wider community, professional and volunteer teacher
training, translation and consultancy services, research, orthographical
standardisation and the organisation of volunteers etc.  This paper seeks
to explore the impact the language office has had on local government
policy, political and cultural groups and the established Cornish speaking
community with particular reference to notions of ‘recovered history’ and
‘a sense of place’.

*Margarita Valdovinos* (Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin)
*From policies to practice: The complexity of mediating interactions in
Náayeri public education (Nayarit, México)*

In the last decade, the Mexican government has adopted a policy of
promotion regarding Indigenous languages. In this policy, the
revitalization of Native languages appears as one of the main goals. This
national linguistic policy has been announced in every corner of the
country, including the most isolated Indigenous communities. As Indigenous
people try to understand this official perspective about their language and
adopt it in their realities, the dynamics of local governmental
institutions convey the opposite message by promoting forms of interaction
in which not just Spanish appears as the only channel of communication, but
where the conditions of possibility of the Native linguistic practices find
no place. In this paper, I want to analyze how national language policies
affect Native communities by studying the complexity of the interactions
that mediate between the abstract official policies and the concrete
language practices. In order to do so, I will analyze three concrete
situations of the formal education system observed among the Náayeri of
Jesús María (Nayarit, Mexico): pre-schooling, elementary schooling and
teachers' training.

*Miriam Yataco* (NYU)
*Peru: The changing face of language policy*

The last few years have seen important developments in the politics of
indigenous languages and language rights in Peru – developments that have
not only local and regional but global significance. This talk will briefly
explore the historical background, and provide firsthand insights into how
and why things could be changing looking at it from the two perspectives:
top down and bottom up initiatives. In 2006 the congress rejected Law 806,
“In Defense of the Use and Preservation of Original languages of Peru” on
the grounds that the country was not ready for this kind of legislation.
However, in the last four years, the terrain has shifted even more
significantly. There has been an explosion of literature, music and other
popular cultural expressions in mainly Quechua and Aymara and the presence
of indigenous languages is becoming more evident in the media, linguistic
landscape and in other public domains. There have also been new regional
initiatives in Bilingual Intercultural Programs such as the one in
Apurimac, called QUECHUA FOR ALL. Bilingual Intercultural Educators are at
the forefront of these changes, acting in many ways as policy makers,
negotiating, interpreting and recreating language education policies.
Lastly, although there had previously been indigenous elected officials,
there is a new generation of indigenous congress people whouse Quechua on a
daily basis – in their offices and on the floor of the congress. Drawing
upon her background in sociolinguistics and her work as a language rights
specialist in the office of one of the indigenous congress people who has
sponsored the language rights legislation.

http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/2163/247




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