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This book examines the benefits of multilingual education that puts children’s needs and interests above the individual languages involved. It advocates flexible multilingual education, which builds upon children’s actual home resources and provides access to both the local and global languages that students need for their educational and professional success. It argues that, as more and more children grow up multilingually in our globalised world, there is a need for more nuanced multilingual solutions in language-in-education policies. The case studies reveal that flexible multilingual education – rather than mother tongue education – is the most promising way of moving towards the elusive goal of educational equity in today’s world of globalisation, migration and superdiversity.
One of the most pressing issues in contemporary European societies is the need to promote integration and social inclusion in the context of rapidly increasing migration. A particular challenge confronting national governments is how to accommodate speakers of an ever-increasing number of languages within what in most cases are still perceived as monolingual indigenous populations. This has given rise to public debates in many countries on controversial policies imposing a requirement of competence in a 'national' language and culture as a condition for acquiring citizenship. However, these debates are frequently conducted almost entirely at a national level within each state, with little if any attention paid to the broader European context. At the same time, further EU enlargement and the ongoing rise in the rate of migration into and across Europe suggest that the salience of these issues is likely to continue to grow. This volume offers a critical analysis of these debates and emerging discourses on integration and challenges the assumptions underlying the new 'language testing regimes'.
This accessible textbook offers students the opportunity to explore for themselves a wide range of sociolinguistic issues relating to the German language and its role in societies around the world. It is written for undergraduate students who have a sound practical knowledge of German but who have little or no knowledge of linguistics or sociolinguistics. It combines text with practical exercises and discussion questions to stimulate readers to think for themselves and to tackle specific problems. In Part One Patrick Stevenson invites readers to investigate and reflect on issues about the status and function of the German language in relation to its speakers and to speakers of other language...
Examining the ways in which the media represents language-related issues and how it shapes and constructs what people think language is, this book offers a multilingual survey of the construction of language in and by the media. Tackling the big issues of identity, gender, youth, citizenship, politics and ideology across a range of mediums including television, radio, newspapers, magazines and the internet, Language in the Media brings together an international team of experts to examine how the media gives language distinctive forms and values. This is an essential text for students and researchers of sociolinguistics or language and communication. At a time when trust in the mainstream media is at an all-time low and world leaders are using new media to deride so called 'fake news', this classic text offers insight and critical analysis into the key issues surrounding the relationship between language, the media and its audience.
Purism is an aspect of linguistic study which appeals not only to the scholar but also to the layperson. Somehow, ordinary speakers with many different mother tongues and with no formal training in linguistics share certain beliefs about what language is, how it develops or should develop, whether it has good or bad qualities, etc. The topic of linguistic purism in its many realisations is the subject of this volume of 19 articles selected from the contributions presented at a conference at the University of Bristol in 2003. In particular, the articles deal with the relationship of purism to historical prescriptivism, e.g. the influence of grammarians in the 17th and 18th centuries, to nationhood, e.g. the instrumentalising of purism in the standardisation of Afrikaans or Luxembourgish, to modern society, e.g. the existence of puristic tendencies in computer chatrooms, to folk linguistics, e.g. lay perceptions of different varieties of English, and to academic linguistics, e.g. the presence of puristic notions in the historiography of German or English.
What is required to achieve civic integration and citizenship in nation states across the world? Should language testing be a part of it? This book addresses the urgent need to develop a fuller conceptual and theoretical basis for language testing than is currently available, to enable widespread discussion of this theme and the concomitant linguistic and cultural requirements. The policy proposals for civic integration have so far been conducted almost entirely at a national level, and with little regard for the experiences of a countries with long traditions of migration, such as the USA, Canada, the UK or Australia. At the same time, EU enlargment and the ongoing rise in the rate of migration into and across Europe suggest that these issues will continue to grow in importance. This book raises the level of discussion to take account of international developments and to promote a more coherent and soundly based debate. It will appeal to researchers and academics working in sociolinguistics and language education, as well as those working on language policy.
An indispensable guide to the newest and most searching ideas about language in society.
This volume focuses on language planning in Cyprus, Iceland and Luxembourg, explaining the linguistic diversity, historical and political contexts and current language situation (including language-in-education planning), the role of the media, the role of religion and the roles of non-indigenous languages. The authors are indigenous to the situations described, and draw on their experience and extensive fieldwork there. The three extended case studies contained in this volume draw together the literature on each of the polities to present an overview of the existing research available, while also providing new research-based information. The purpose of this volume is to provide an up-to-date overview of the language situation in each polity based on a series of key questions, in the hope that this might facilitate the development of a richer theory to guide language policy and planning in other polities where similar issues may arise. This book comprises case studies originally published in the journal Current Issues in Language Planning.
The French-Speaking World is an accessible textbook that offers students the opportunity to explore for themselves a wide range of sociolinguistic issues relating to the French language and its role in the world. This new edition has been fully revised to reflect the many political and social changes of the last 15 years, including the impact of technology on language change. It continues to combine text with practical exercises and discussion questions to stimulate readers to think for themselves and to tackle specific problems. Key features of this book: Informative and comprehensive: covers a wide range of current issues Practical: contains a variety of graded exercises and tasks plus an index of terms Topical and contemporary: deals with current situations and provides up-to-date illustrative material Thought-provoking: encourages students to reflect and research for themselves The French-Speaking World is the ideal textbook for undergraduate students who have a sound practical knowledge of French but who have little or no knowledge of linguistics or sociolinguistics.
In the social sciences and humanities, researchers often qualify the period in which we are living as ‘late-modern’, ‘post-modern’ or ‘superdiverse’. These terms seek to capture changing conditions and priorities brought about by a new social order. This social order is characterized, among other traits, by an increased visibility of social, cultural and linguistic diversity, arising out of unprecedented migration and mobility patterns. It is also associated with the development of information and communication technologies, which in the digital era transform communication patterns, identities, relationships and possibilities for action. For education, these late-modern condition...