Examines the making of language policy, and language policy itself, in Britain and France, looking at how disciplines such as sociolinguistics and the analysis of the political process help in studying language policy and policymaking. Details stages, methods, and outcomes of the policymaking process, and compares policies in the two countries, with case studies on areas including the Welsh Language Act of 1993 and language policy for immigrants.
Through a detailed and systematic comparison of Britain and France, Ralph Grillo examines the concept of language dominance, and the causes and consequences of linguistic hierarchy.
It was traditionally assumed that a single official language was necessary for the wellbeing of the state, particularly in France and Britain. This assumption is now questioned, and regional languages are making, in some cases, an impressive comeback. This book analyses a range of languages' development, decline and efforts at regeneration.
This edited volume presents an analysis of the evolution of French language policies and their impact on French regional languages and their communities. It gathers studies on language revitalisation from several territorial minority languages (Breton, Alsatian, Catalan, Occitan, Basque, Corsican, Francoprovençal, Picard, Reunionese) and evaluates the challenges and opportunities that they face in the 21st century. The chapters tackle different aspects of language endangerment and language planning and adopt varied theoretical and methodological approaches. The first section of the book reconsiders the difficulties in establishing linguistic boundaries and classification for some regional languages. The second section examines the important theme of the new generation of speakers with issues of transmission and identity formation and the changes they can bring to traditional communities. The third section highlights new developments in the context of new technologies and the heightened visibility of regional languages. Finally, the last section presents an overview of the contemporary situation of minority language revitalisation in France and synthesises the key trends identified in this volume: from the educational domain to the European Charter for Minority and Regional languages. This book will appeal to students and scholars of the sociology of language, sociolinguistics, language policy, minority languages and language endangerment.
The author concludes from these data that dynamic identity construction, followed by willingness to act in conformity with expectations, are key elements in the planned behaviour and reasoned action which all authorities take in relation to language."--BOOK JACKET.
Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages provides a comprehensive history of language teaching and learning in the UK from its earliest beginnings to the year 2000. McLelland offers the first history of the social context of foreign language education in Britain, as well as an overview of changing approaches, methods and techniques in language teaching and learning. The important impact of classroom-external factors on developments in language teaching and learning is also taken into account, particularly regarding the policies and public examination requirements of the 20th century. Beginning with a chronological overview of language teaching and learning in Britain, McLelland explores which languages were learned when, why and by whom, before examining the social history of language teaching and learning in greater detail, addressing topics including the status that language learning and teaching have held in society. McLelland also provides a history of how languages have been taught, contrasting historical developments with current orthodoxies of language teaching. Experiences outside school are discussed with reference to examples from adult education, teach-yourself courses and military language learning. Providing an accessible, authoritative history of language education in Britain, Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages will appeal to academics and postgraduate students engaged in the history of education and language learning across the world. The book will also be of interest to teacher educators, trainee and practising teachers, policymakers and curriculum developers.
Henrik Larsen presents discourse analysis as an alternative approach to foreign policy analysis. Through an extensive empirical study of British and French policies towards Europe in the 1980s, he demonstrates the importance of political discourse in shaping foreign policy. The author discusses key theoretical problems within traditional belief system approaches and proposes an alternative one: political discourse analysis. The theory is illustrated through detailed analyses of British and French discourses on Europe, nation/state security and the nature of international relations.
"This book describes and evaluates recent Language Planning and Policy in the British Isles. Issues including minority language rights, language resources for the state and the citizen, and problems such as the standard English battle and policy for Welsh and Gaelic are analysed against the background of detailed study of contemporary British society and politics. "
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE brings to students, researchers and practitioners in all of the social and language-related sciences carefully selected book-length publications dealing with sociolinguistic theory, methods, findings and applications. It approaches the study of language in society in its broadest sense, as a truly international and interdisciplinary field in which various approaches, theoretical and empirical, supplement and complement each other. The series invites the attention of linguists, language teachers of all interests, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, historians etc. to the development of the sociology of language.
This book represents a significant intervention into the debates surrounding Brexit and language policy. It analyses the language capabilities and resources of the United Kingdom in a new, post-referendum climate, in which public hostility towards foreign languages is matched by the necessity of renegotiating and building relationships with the rest of Europe and beyond. The authors scrutinize the availability of key resources in diverse sectors of society including politics, economics, business, science and education, while simultaneously offering practical advice and guidance on how to thrive in the new international environment. This extremely timely edited collection brings together leading researchers from across the field of language policy, and is sure to appeal not only to students and scholars of this subject, but also to practitioners, policy makers and educators.
