Throughout human history, the fate of languages has been closely linked to political power relationships. Political shifts in the international system continue to affect linguistic patterns, which today are still in a state of flux following the end of the Cold War. This book considers the effects of present-day trends in global politics on the relative status of languages, and the directions in which the linguistic hierarchy might develop in the future. It will appeal to researchers and students of sociolinguistics and language planning as well as of international relations.
An investigation of how governments, organizations, and groups use the Internet to promote civic and political engagement among young people. There has been widespread concern in contemporary Western societies about declining engagement in civic life; people are less inclined to vote, to join political parties, to campaign for social causes, or to trust political processes. Young people in particular are frequently described as alienated or apathetic. Some have looked optimistically to new media—and particularly the Internet—as a means of revitalizing civic life and democracy. Governments, political parties, charities, NGOs, activists, religious and ethnic groups, and grassroots organiza...
L’objectiu de l’obra Catalan Sociolinguistics. State of the Art and Future Challenges és donar compte, de manera sumària, dels grans vèrtexs en què s’ha manifestat l’estudi de la relació entre llengua i societat en la comunitat lingüística catalana, la recepció que s’ha fet dels plantejaments internacionals i l’adaptació domèstica. Cada tradició sociolingüística ha interpretat la interacció esmentada amb plantejaments específics. La catalana, per exemple, ha apostat per una visió integradora de tot un seguit de treballs que arriben des d’àmbits temàtics diversos (economia, dret, ciència política, comunicació, ecologia, variació lingüística, antropologia,...
Addresses the complex & divisive issues at the heart of the debate over language diversity & the English Only movement in U.S. education. Offers a range of perspectives that teachers & literacy advocates can use to inform practice as well as policy.
This volume explores the reversing language shift (RLS) theory in the Mexican scenario from various viewpoints: The sociohistorical perspective delves into the dynamics of power that emerged in the Mexican colony as a result of the presence of Spanish. It examines the processes of external and internal Indianization affecting the early European protagonists and the varied dimensions of language shift and maintenance of the Mexican colonial period. The Mexican case sheds light upon language contact from the time in which Western civilization came into contact with the Mesoamerican peoples, for the encounter began with a demographic catastrophe that motivated a recovery mission. While the reco...
Recent political developments in Spain regarding Catalonia have prompted scholars from several disciplines to research the singularity of this region and of the territories of the old Crown of Aragon. Against the backdrop of the pro-independence movement, those in favor and against have insisted on the particularity or commonality of Catalonia and the Països Catalans (Catalan-speaking areas) within the Spanish State. From the Catalan point of view, their singularity is not sufficiently recognized, and respect for their institutions and their autonomy is at stake to the point that many prefer to secede from Spain. Singularity or its absence play a relevant role in the construction of identit...
This book presents a new extended framework for the study of early multicompetence. It proposes a concept of multilingual competences as a valuable educational target, and a view of the multilingual learner as a competent language user. The thematic focus is on multilingual skill development in primary schoolers in the trilingual province of South Tyrol, northern Italy. A wide range of topics pertaining to multicompetence building and the special affordances of multilingual pedagogy are explored. Key concepts like language proficiency, native-speakerism, or monolingual classroom bias are subjected to critical analysis.
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. It is free to read at Oxford Academic and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Decolonizing Linguistics, the companion volume to Inclusion in Linguistics, is designed to uncover and intervene in the history and ongoing legacy of colonization and colonial thinking in linguistics and related fields. Taken together, the two volumes are the first comprehensive, action-oriented, book-length discussions of how to advance social justice in all aspects of the discipline. The introduction to Decolonizing Linguistics theorizes decolonization as the process of center...
This book offers an introduction to the many facets of multilingualism in a changing world. It begins with an overview of the multiplicity of human languages and their geographic distribution, before moving on to the key question of what multilingualism actually is and what is understood by terms such as 'mother tongue', 'native speaker', and 'speech community'. In the chapters that follow, Florian Coulmas systematically explores multilingualism with respect to the individual, institutions, cities, nations, and cyberspace. In each of these domains, the dynamics of language choice are undergoing changes as a result of economic, political, and cultural forces. Against this background, two chap...