Search results for "Language policy"

English Language Policy in Relation to Teachers and Teacher Educators in Latvia: Insights from Activity Systems Analysis

2020

The ambitious objectives of European language policy and the strive for competitiveness have led to an increasing emphasis on foreign language competence at the level of national education systems. Using Spolsky’s onion model of language policy (2004) and Engeström’s Expansive Learning theory (1987, 2008), the study attempts to determine the formative influence of the existing multilayered language policy on the professional development of Latvian educators with the aim to compare the situation for teachers and teacher educators in respect of their English language proficiency.Given the prioritisation of English and strategic differences in foreign language management in relation to teacher…

Language Policy and Ethnic Tensions in Quebec and Latvia

2004

Introduction Concern for the French language in Quebec in the 1960s and 1970s and the Latvian language in the then Soviet Union in the late 1980s and in the new Latvian state in the 1990s were ignited by some of the same demographic and assimilative forces in the two societies. Both Quebec and Latvia had lost their independence to larger powers. The birth rate and population declined abruptly in the two subnations. Schools in English (in Quebec) and Russian (in Latvia) attracted most immigrants. The elites were disproportionately drawn from outside the majority ethnic groups. To counter these trends, language policies were drafted, restricting access to English and Russian languages in scho…

The Latvian referendum on Russian as a second state language, February 2012

2016

On 18 February 2012 Latvian citizens participated in a referendum on making Russian a second official (“state”) language. The proposal was rejected by three-quarters of voters. There is a complex background to language policy in Latvia, where since regaining independence in 1991 the country has promoted Latvian as the only state language, though Russian and other languages are widely used at a societal level. The language law and associated citizenship law in Latvia (as in Estonia) have received considerable commentary, with recent significant writings disagreeing strongly regarding their interpretation. These laws have also very often been criticized by both European institutions and by Ru…

Beware of the dog! Private linguistic landscapes in two ‘Hungarian’ villages in South-West Slovakia

2015

This study demonstrates how a single type of sign can be connected to language policy on a larger scale. Focusing on the relationship between language policy and language ideologies, I investigate the private Linguistic Landscape (LL) of Hungarians living in two villages in Slovakia. Through an examination of ‘beware of the dog’ signs, it is shown how such signs can be indicative of different language policies. In Slovakia, the Hungarian public LL is often referred to as a threat to the state language and public order. This ideology is reflected on the LL so that there are mostly Slovak-only public signs in bilingual and Hungarian dominant villages. The private realm is the only significant…

University language policies : How does Finnish constitutional bilingualism meet the needs for internationalisation in English?

2018

In this article, we discuss the position of Finnish constitutional bilingualism in higher education in the context of internationalisation in English, by focusing on two universities: one dominantly monolingual (Finnish), one dominantly bilingual (Finnish–Swedish); in addition, both teach in English. This article investigates how discourses around language choices (language policy documents, selected staff and student interviews) construe these universities as monolingual, bilingual or trilingual, and what these discourses say about the universities as organisations themselves. Results suggest that, although lack of clarity remains regarding language choices in many practical situations, Fi…

Nordic language policies for higher education and their multi-layered motivations

2016

Language policies have been drafted in Nordic higher education with the obvious, but unproblematised and unchallenged motivation caused by internationalisation. In this article, we analyse the various motivations for drafting language policies in Nordic higher education and the ideological implications of those motivations. We do this by approaching the question from multiple (macro, meso and micro) viewpoints, in order to make visible some of the undercurrents in higher education language policy. We are particularly interested in the explicit motivations for language policy change, and the explicit and implicit actors and action represented in our data. We will first discuss the background…

Introduction: Conceptualizing Language Policy, Higher Education and New Nationalism

2020

This chapter outlines higher education language policies as historically and politically layered and contingent. I will first discuss the way in which I understand language both as a proxy for policies and ideologies and as a means for construing those policies and ideologies. My focus is on the layered and intertwined nature of history, politics, language and nation. The subchapter closes with a methodological discussion of “looking beyond” language—i.e. the ways in which we can take our focus from language to the underlying societal structures. I will then present the higher education context and the role of language in higher education. From there, a discussion of the main concepts relat…

Sami in the Media: Questions of Language Vitality and Cultural Hybridisation

2008

Abstract In this paper, I will discuss language vitality and cultural hybridisation as taking place in the indigenous, transnational and partly diasporic Sami community and their media. Drawing on ethnographic and interview data on Sami journalists, children and a rap musician, I focus on two central aspects emerging from the data: the implications involved with Sami-only language policy adopted in Sami media and the impact of globalisation, particularly in terms of transnationalism, on Sami media. As Sami media function in a complex multilingual terrain of language endangerment and revitalisation, and multilingual audience and community, the issues of relative value of languages and identi…

Review of Gottlieb (2012): Language Policy in Japan. The challenges of change

2012

Multilayered perspectives on language policy in higher education : Finland, Estonia, and Latvia in comparison

2016

This article analyses language policies in higher education (HE) in Finland, Estonia, and Latvia, as well as the European Union (EU). We take a multilayered approach to language policies in order to illuminate the intertwined nature of local, national, and international language policies in HE. We are particularly interested in the construction of national language(s) and the language(s) of internationalisation in our case countries. Finland, Estonia, and Latvia share common features as relatively small non-Anglophone countries in the Baltic region, while simultaneously having somewhat differing political and cultural histories. The results of our discursive analysis indicate that while the…