Language acquisition language planning

A third type of language planning is called:

Language acquisition planning:

That is, the language policy decisions concerning the teaching and use of language and their careful formulation by those empowered to do so, for the guidance of others.

For example how much Russian, Ukrainian, or even English is taught in schools in Ukraine.

HOW ARE LANGUAGE POLICIES CREATED?

How are language policies created? Sometimes there are centralized groups of scholars who work to create the policies either inside the country or outside of it. Again though it is almost always the people in power who create the policy. I have given you a brief description of a policy-planning group in your readings. It is the INTAS paper.

INTAS is the International Association for the Promotion of Co-operation with Scientists from the New Independent States of the Former Soviet Union.

As we speak they are attempting to formulate a language policy for Ukraine—take a look and see if you agree with their goals.

SLIDE 21: PROMOTING LANGUAGE POLICY

The stated reasons for promoting language change from one variety to another, or from one language to another, often sound noble and usually cite a greater good for all the people of a nation. There is, however, more at issue than just language. Two important points to remember are:

· Remember, language involves social interaction and social behavior.

· Language can become a weapon for political power and social control.

Motivations for using language as an instrument of social control are influenced by scholarly and popular attitudes toward language variation and multilingualism. The image of the Tower of Babel, that is of a fall from a unified, holy language to the condition of language chaos, so many languages, is frequently used in countries where there are deep majority group fears and prejudices directed at a minority.

In societies where the majority of the population is monolingual—that is they speak only one language—a good example is the United States, and English, people view monolingualism as an ideal, natural state, where as multilingualism is viewed as a temporary, unnatural condition.

Other people see multilingualism as the natural state and any language defining policy as a dangerous threat to their own language, if its not the majority.

This is interesting because language planning is most frequently done to attempt to solve conflicts over language.

SLIDE 22: A COMMON SCENARIO