Language rights: Moving the debate forward

This article provides an overview of the current issues and challenges facing the nascent paradigm of minority language rights (MLR). It focuses on the theoretical points of dispute and tension with respect to MLR, as well as the challenges attendant upon their implementation in complex, multiethnic and multilingual contexts. The article acknowledges, but also responds to, key critiques of MLR to date. These include debates about linguistic modernisation, linguistic identities and essentialism, language and social mobility, and macro and micro language practices. In light of these debates, the article speculates about possible ways forward for the MLR paradigm.     

Language Diversity and Accountability in the South: Perspectives and Dilemmas

This paper examines the need for accountability in language planning in multilingual contexts in the South. After a brief overview of language diversity in the South, it notes that this multilingual reality has often been ignored by policy-makers acting in their own interests, unaccountable to those affected by their decisions. It considers how world trends of increasing democratisation and strengthening of minority rights are generating calls for greater accountability and language rights, so that governments become more accountable to communities for their decisions about language. Some dimensions of accountability are explored, focussing on the need to integrate the perspectives of both government and community. Structures are addressed, with an emphasis on the role of local communities and illustrations from two particular African contexts, in Cameroon and Zaire. The paper concludes with a discussion of some practical dilemmas relating to policy and research, technical input, financial assistance and community ambivalence.     

Trends and issues in language policy and language education in Crimea

This work identifies and discusses developments in language policy and language education in Crimea since the peninsula’s incorporation into the Russian Federation in March 2014. Working on the assumption that post-Soviet reforms and changes in language and education policies cannot be understood outside their historical context, the article starts by briefly outlining some of the defining features of the historical and sociolinguistic situation of Crimea until March 2014. It then presents the changing linguistic situation of the peninsula since its accession into Russia and discusses present developments in light of the broader context of post-Soviet language ideologies, policies and practices. It suggests that the new Crimean authorities are following a double strategy: the imposition of monolingual educational and linguistic policies, accompanied by largely symbolic concessions to the demands of local ethnic communities.     

A sociolinguistic application of Bakhtin's authoritative and internally persuasive discourse

Through the use of two central Bakhtinian concepts, authoritative and internally persuasive discourse (word), this paper examines the tension between the ideology of linguistic hegemony as a source of power in the Greek public sphere and the condition of language shift faced by the Albanian‐speaking communities of modern Greece. I argue here that a cautious application of these two notions, which are relevant to linguistic ideology, can reveal crucial aspects of two processes: that of subordination to and that of questioning of the dominant linguistic ideology by local Albanian‐speaking communities. Thus, in language shift contexts, it is possible that no simple relations obtain that place social agents in unquestionable and easily predictable positions. Such an approach proves useful for the sociolinguistic study of threatened language communities.     

Problems with the 'language‐as‐resource' discourse in the promotion of heritage languages in the U.S.A.

In the United States, language 'rights' have been tethered to ethnic or racial entitlements as a means to redress historical patterns of discrimination and exclusion. The perception that language 'rights' are about the redress of past wrongs has had negative effects on efforts to gain broad public support for the teaching and maintenance of languages other than English. The language‐as‐resource orientation ( Ruiz 1984 ) is considered as an alternative to a language rights approach. However, analysis of texts produced by advocates of the heritage language movement reveals the shortcomings of the language‐as‐resource metaphor in advancing broad‐based support for the teaching, maintenance, and use of minority languages in the U.S. While efforts to promote heritage language education as a national strategic priority may result in short‐term governmental support, wider and more sustained popular support for such programs will require significant modifications in the underlying values and ideologies about the status and role of languages other than English in education and public life.     

The negotiation of minority ethnic identities in virtually all-white communities: research with children and their families in the South Wales valleys

This paper draws on qualitative interviews with 19 children and nine of their parents or carers in the South Wales valleys to discuss the effect on the social identities of minority ethnic children of living in virtually all-white communities. There is discussion of minority ethnic identities, local identities and Welshness, and the paper concludes with consideration of the theoretical and policy implications of the research. Interviews with the children showed them to be using a variety of creative strategies to negotiate their identities in a challenging and highly racialised context. Diverse individual histories and family relationships interact with available minority cultural identities and local and national cultural influences. The children have to construct their own identities in the context of dominant discourses of ‘Wales’ and ‘Welshness’ and also class-based notions of what it means to come from this particular region. Some maintain minority ethnic identities with pride and for others the maintenance of a minority ethnic identity is put under extreme pressure.     

Communities of practice: Legitimacy not choice

Communities of practice has emerged as an alternative to other current sociolinguistic models such as speech communities and social networks, particularly in the area of language and gender. The valorization of non‐linguistic behaviours as adding further explanatory power to sociolinguistic models is timely: it has often been implicit in linguistic study (through ethnography) but rarely been given recognition. However, the types of self‐constituting communities of interest to sociolinguists are not the same as the communities of learning studied by Lave and Wenger (1991) and Wenger (1998) . If this construct is to be useful to sociolinguists, then the mechanisms by which it models access, gate‐keeping and its internal hierarchy need development. Using Eckert's (2000) Belten High data, and other work on adolescent talk, it is argued that gaining legitimate peripheral participation is a matter of sanction from within the hierarchy. Individuals do not have open access to communities based solely on their desire to be part of that community and to take part in its practices. While practices may define the community, the community determines who has access to that practice.     

The interurban mobility of the foreign born in Canada, 1976-81

This study concerns itself with the relationship between nativity, language affiliation, and interurban mobility in Canada during the period 1976-1981. 3 hypotheses are evaluated: 1) the urban/ethnic affinity thesis predicts that international immigrants share strong preferences for settling in and relocating toward large urban centers where established ethnic communities exist; 2) the sociocultural explanation of mobility posits that variations in the propensity to relocate are a function of nativity and language; and 3) the heterogeneity explanation predicts that interurban mobility flows ultimately serve to increase rather than decrease linguistic heterogeneity in large urban areas. Using data from the 1981 census of Canada, a series of cross-tabular and logistic regression analyses provide support for all 3 hypotheses. Theoretical and policy oriented implications are discussed in the context of ethnic community survival in urban Canada.     

The Thai Lao question: the reappearance of Thailand’s ethnic Lao community and related policy questions

This article presents an anatomy of the 2011 Thailand Country Report to the Committee responsible for the UN Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, in which Thailand recognized its largest ethnic minority community, the Thai Lao, to the international community. The article analyses the Country Report as well as the deliberations of the Committee in dialogue with the Thailand Country Delegation. It provides a policy context for the Country Report, including Thailand’s classification of ethnic communities. The article argues the need to minimize racialized discrimination as regards the Thai Lao. Five policy issues, framed in the context of inclusion and which arise from the recognition of the Thai Lao by the Country Report, are considered. The article concludes by discussing how the Thai Lao may be better included in Thailand via political developments towards a social democracy in Thailand, for social democracy can recognize sociocultural rights.     

The Linguistic Continuity of Ontario's Minority Francophone Population: Examining the Relationship between Culture and Linguistic Practices

Despite decades of policy aimed at the maintenance of Francophone communities in Ontario, the proportion of individuals with French as a mother tongue or who speak French most often at home has steadily declined. Research on language retention has highlighted the importance of sociodemographic and structural factors in understanding minority language practices. However, given the relationship between culture and action, this paper examines how cultural factors contribute to Franco‐Ontarians’ linguistic practices. Results indicate that beyond couple composition and the concentration of minority‐language speakers, cultural factors including identity, cultural consumption, and values play an instrumental role in Franco‐Ontarians’ linguistic continuity. The importance of considering linguistic continuity as part of a “package” of cultural practices is discussed.     

Organizational structure,leadership and readiness for change and the implementation of organizational cultural competence in addiction health services

Increasing representation of racial and ethnic minorities in the health care system and on-going concerns about existing health disparities have pressured addiction health services programs to enhance their cultural competence. This study examines the extent to which organizational factors, such as structure, leadership and readiness for change contribute to the implementation of community, policy and staffing domains representing organizational cultural competence. Analysis of a randomly selected sample of 122 organizations located in primarily Latino and African American communities showed that programs with public funding and Medicaid reimbursement were positively associated with implementing policies and procedures, while leadership was associated with staff having greater knowledge of minority communities and developing a diverse workforce. Moreover, program climate was positively associated with staff knowledge of communities and having supportive policies and procedures, while programs with graduate staff and parent organizations were negatively associated with knowledge of and involvement in these communities. By investing in funding, leadership skills and a strategic climate, addiction health services programs may develop greater understanding and responsiveness of the service needs of minority communities. Implications for future research and program planning in an era of health care reform in the United States are discussed.     

Contested communities: the refuge movement and cultural identities in Wales

This paper explores different meanings of community and cultural identity. Women involved in the refuge movement in rural Wales belong to overlapping communities: geographically located rural communities; linguistic and ethnic communities; and the gendered and occupationally based community of Welsh Women's Aid. Language is an important marker of belonging to Welsh rural communities which are under threat from an influx of non-Welsh speakers. Incoming women who are homeless as a result of domestic violence may be perceived as part of this threat. This creates a potential conflict for refuge workers, some of whom are also Welsh speakers, who represent the interests of this group of women but also belong to Welsh-speaking, rural communities. We explore the interrelation between these refuge workers, the various communities to which they belong, and how belonging or not belonging shapes their identities. We conclude that these women, in spite of the conflicting rights and interests of their various communities, negotiate a shared collective identity which owes something to all three.     

Ethnic patterns in the phonetics of Montreal English

Most North American cities no longer display strong ethnic differentiation of speech within the European‐origin population. This is not true in the English‐speaking community of Montreal, Canada, where English is a minority language. Differences in the phonetic realization of vowels by Montrealers of Irish, Italian, and Jewish ethnic origin are investigated by means of acoustic analysis. A statistical analysis of ethnic differences in formant frequencies shows that ethnicity has a significant effect on several variables, particularly the phonetic position of /u:/ and /ou/ and the allophonic conditioning of /æ/ and /au/ before nasal consonants. The unusual tenacity of ethnophonetic variation in Montreal English is explained in light of the minority status of English, and the social and residential segregation of ethnic groups in distinct neighborhoods, which limits their exposure to speakers of Standard Canadian English who might otherwise serve as models for assimilation.     

Nationalism and the Linguistic Rights of Deaf Communities: Linguistic Imperialism and the Recognition and Development of Sign Languages

This paper examines the impact of nationalism on the linguistic rights of Deaf communities. In exploring the subtle hegemony of nationalism in relation to linguistic minorities, the paper discusses the impact of nationalisms on sign languages from two perspectives and in two contrasting situations. First, the paper examines the impact of nationalism on the recognition and promotion of natural sign languages. Second, it examines a particularly potent form of linguistic imperialism as the dominant linguistic forces seek not only to destroy minority languages but to transform existing minority linguistic processes to conform with the form and content of the national language, through the development and promotion of manually coded versions of national spoken and written languages in formal education. These issues are examined in relation to the nationalisms and indigenous sign languages of Australia and Indonesia.     

Disability Politics, Language Planning and Inclusive Social Policy

Language is one of the primary media through which capitalism and the mobilisation of resistance against capitalism are perpetrated. However, although capitalism is becoming an increasingly global phenomenon, language continues to delineate nationstates and identities—no language is fully translatable. Drawing upon a large body of literature and research concerning minority-majority language relationships and language planning, this paper will, first, interrogate the relationship between bilingualism and proposed policies of inclusive education in the context of current struggles for linguistic minority 'rights' by sign language users. The 'minority rights' agenda is contrasted with disabled people's struggles for the legitimation of 'new' disability discourses within a framework of citizenship, as contextualised by issues of social exclusion. It is argued that language use, language development and their relationship to disability, cannot be adequately addressed within localised interpretations of 'special needs' policy. The paper concludes with the view that in the face of New Labour's rhetoric of 'modernisation', disabled people must address the hegemony implicit to language planning, by acknowledging the centrality of language rights and practices to social policy, political expression, citizenship and the mobilisation for social change.     

Self‐presentation in sociolinguistic interviews: Identities and language variation in Panambi, Brazil

This paper contributes to recent work examining the role of identity, and in particular the uses of language for self‐presentation and the expression of individual identity, through the analysis of two sociolinguistic interviews from a community of German origin in southern Brazil. Drawing from a quantitative study of variation in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, we conducted a detailed analysis of the interviews of two women of different ages and social backgrounds. We first describe the social, cultural and historical context of the interviews, and then discuss how our two speakers use their linguistic resources to express varied, and at times conflicting, aspects of their identities. More specifically, we show how our participants seem to maintain certain in‐group, German‐linked features, yet also use out‐group or Brazilian features in order to index both the (local) German and (regional) Brazilian aspects of their identities. Our data and analysis highlight how participants' identity and language use patterns can be better understood through close analysis of the content of their discourse.     

Linguistic,affective, parental,and educational contributions to the bicultural identity development of Balkan minority adolescents

This study investigated linguistic, affective, parental, and educational contributions to bicultural identity, in two samples of younger (13- to 14-year-old; N = 95) and older (16- to 17-year-old; N = 67) bilingual adolescents, who were immigrants or belonged to ethnic minority communities in the Balkans. While bicultural identity level was not differentiated as a function of age group, there was an age-related shift in its predictors. Bicultural identity level was significantly predicted by perceived educators' attitudes toward linguistic/cultural diversity in the younger adolescent group, but by personal affective states (motivation and attitudes) toward the mainstream language in the older adolescent group. Implications of the findings are discussed regarding educational and family practices that would facilitate biculturalism in minority adolescents.     

A Leadership Role for Social Work in the Mental Health Transition to Local Care

Current philosophy, policy, and practice involving care of persons with serious mental illnesses are reviewed, with a focus on the movement that is usually called deinstitutionalization. Past efforts and future trends are discussed within the context of public mental health systems at the state level. The paper argues for a greater leadership role for social work in providing mental health care in local communities because of the social work tradition of client empowerment, family involvement, and systems intervention.     

Defining Māori language revitalisation: A project in folk linguistics

The postmodern and critical movements in language policy, with their redefinition of governmentality and attention to power structures, call for localised perspectives on language arrangements. In this way, a polity, in its social and cultural context, can be understood as much as the policies it operates. In the case of Indigenous languages undergoing revitalisation, this allows us to define language revitalisation, and the vitality it should deliver, not through western scholarship but for local purposes with local ideas by examining local knowledge and preferences. To do this, a folk linguistic approach was applied to language policy research. A quantitative and qualitative survey investigated how around 1,300 Indigenous and non‐Indigenous youth in New Zealand define Māori language revitalisation from their own perspective and how they perceive the revitalisation processes and outcomes proposed in scholarship and local discourses. The paper shows that claimed linguistic knowledge not only exists parallel to language attitudes, but informs local policy ideas. The findings indicate that these youth define language revitalisation and vitality in terms contextualised by local ontology, knowledge, ideologies and values, therefore challenging the local applicability of universal theories.