CRITICAL ISSUES OF LANGUAGE
POLICY IN MULTILINGUAL
EDUCATIONAL CONTEXTS
ANAS MUSA ISMAIL
Sinhala Declaration, 1956

The Sri Lanka in
1956 passed a law
which made Sinhala
the sole-official
language of the
country, despite the
fact that quarter of
the population were
Tamil. This ignite
huge public unrest
where thousands lost
their lives
Kiev, Ukraine, 2012

In July 2012
thousands of people
took to the streets of
Kiev to protest a
government decree
that adopted
Russian language in
some Ukrainian
institutions.
THE STRUCTURE
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Introduction
The Role of Nation States
Components of Language policy
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Language Practice
Language Belief (Ideology) and
Language Planning
Typology and Models of Bilingual Education
The Effectiveness of Bilingual Education
Standard Languages vs. Standardization
Epilogue/Conclusion
INTRODUCTION:
the ‘indispensability’ of
bilingualism/multilingualism

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How many languages are there in the world?
There are estimated 6800 languages in the world
How many countries?
Roughly between 193 and 250
The languages are more than thirty times the number of the
world countries
So, bilingualism/multilingualism is present in practically
every country
IMPLICATION: Multilingual/bilingual educational practice is
present in every country of the world
It is simply INDISPENSABLE!
THE ROLE OF NATION STATES

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State nations as the most vital units of analysis
Minority/Majority status is assigned using national
boundaries
The case of Mandarin


900,000,000 speakers in China—majority
Yet minority in other countries like Malaysia
COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGE POLICY
1.
2.
3.
Language Practice
Language Belief (Ideology) and
Language Planning
1.
LANGUAGE PRACTICE

This concerns the attitude the members of a
community show toward the available varieties of a
particular language.

Example: Haitians who migrated to Miami may use English in
varying degrees

People naturally show little enthusiasm for the
language of immigrant minorities even when the
language is a world language.

Example: Spanish (in the US), Arabic (the language of many immigrants in
France and Netherlands).
Language Policy includes any
conscious effort to change
people’s practice by a means of
management or intervention.
2. LANGUAGE IDEOLOGY AND
BELEIF



The belief of language community about the
“appropriacy” or otherwise of certain
language elements
Assigning values and prestige to certain
aspects of it
These beliefs can be a basis for language
policies
Language Ideology or belief, therefore, designate a
speech community’s consensus on what value to
apply to each of the language variables or named
language varieties that makes up its repertoire.
Language Loyalty

“This refers to efforts by a speech community
to maintain its own (first or home) language in
the face of real or perceived threats to its
status and continued use”
Bowerman (2006)
Why Some Languages Feel Threatened by
Others?
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Depopulation or mass emigration (of its
community)
Mass immigration by other speech
community
Coercion (martial or economic)
Voluntary language shift (often for economic
reasons)
The Strength of Loyalty


How conscious the speech community is and
How conscious the mainstream society is
about their otherness
The Case of Irish:
Efforts to maintain a language eroded in its home territory
Contact conflict with England for 800 years
 English only became the language of opportunity In
17th century
 Previous attempts failed
 The dominance of English has since been
overwhelming (Irish L1 speakers under 3%)
 After independence (1921), Irish was made the first
official language
 Succession of revival campaigns
Irish may not be the mainstream medium of
communication in Ireland, butt its official status is
becoming more overt

3.

LANGUAGE PLANNING AND POLICY
Language Planning (used in 1950s and
1960s) refers to sweeping intervention and
control of language behavior, therefore,
determining the exactly the language(s) that
people will know in a given nation.

Language planning does not leave anything to the
individual to decide; the governing body
determines not just what the person will know, but
also how to arrive there.
LANGUAGE POLICY
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On the other hand, Language policy attempts
to be less interventionists
Refers mostly to principles with regard to
language use

Example: A number of languages should be learned in a
given country or that minority languages have the right
to maintain their languages
It DOES NOT go into which group or which
language or HOW this should be implemented
TYPES OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION
1.
2.
3.
Null form of bilingual education
Weak form of bilingual education
Strong form of Bilingual education
1. “Null” Form of Bilingual Education
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Brings together bilingual children with the aim
of monolingualism in the majority language.
Submersion
Technically, this is not form of bilingual
education
2. Weak forms of bilingual education


Allow children to use their home language
temporarily
Weak forms include
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Structured immersion
Withdrawal classes
(various forms of) Sheltered English
Transitional Bilingual education
3. Strong Forms of Bilingual Education
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Aim for each child to achieve bilingualism, biliteracy and cultural pluralism. Examples
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U.S dual language schools
Heritage Language programs
Canadian immersions, and
European Schools movement
BilingualEducationModels
1.
2.
3.
Transitional Models
Maintenance Model
Enrichment Model
1. Transitional Models
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Teach the target language as quick as
possible
The students are “exited” or “mainstreamed”
into regular classes
The model includes
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Early exit
Late exit
ESL pull out
One year structured immersion
2. Maintenance Models
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Instructions in academic subjects are
designed in student’s native language
But they also learn English (target language)
during the school day
Is otherwise called ‘Developmental’ programs
(long-term and no limit)
3. Enrichment Models

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Promote cross-cultural understanding among
bilingual students
Unique: natives of the target language are in
the class
Enrichment models have time limit (some
times part of transitional)
The Effectiveness of Bilingual Education


The strongest research support come from the
success of Canadian immersion programs since
1960s
Complex equation between academic success and
other factors like:

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Devotion and dedication of teachers
The children’s feeling towards the acceptance of their minority
lang. and,
Positive development between bilingual education and cognitive
development
It cannot be assumed that bilingual education, per
se, results in higher attainment across the syllabus.
There are interacting variables that underlie such
assumptions.
Standard Languages vs. Standardization

Standard languages pass through the
following processes
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Selection
Codification
Elaboration (of function)
Acceptance (by the relevant community)
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Standards exist to avoid the dangers of
variability
Standard could evolve as a result of
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its association with a religious or literary writing
Creation of official body which “institutionalizes” it
It can emerge overnight
Epilog/Conclusion
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Educational institutions as the primary
mechanisms for promoting ideological power
Language policy and power are inseparable
“Linguicide” as important factor in language
policy (Russia, Turkey and Syria in regards
with Kurdish and Kiswahili)
“Language policy is about choice. It may be the choice
of a specific sound, or expression, or of a specific
variety of a language. It may be a choice regularly made
by an individual, or socially defined group of
individuals, or a body with authority over a defined
group of individuals. It may be discovered in the
linguistic behavior language practices) of individual or
group. It may also be discovered in the ideology or
beliefs about the language of the individual or group”
THANK YOU FOR
YOUR ATTENTION