Language Problems and Language Planning - Volume 40, Issue 1, 2016

El objetivo principal de este trabajo es valorar el impacto de la ley que reconoce la oficialidad de dos lenguas de signos en España. Para tal fin, diseñamos una encuesta orientada a conocer las opiniones de la comunidad sorda sobre los diferentes ámbitos en que la ley concede derechos lingüísticos a las personas sordas. La encuesta se realizó sobre una plataforma en línea y se difundió por medios electrónicos, con una estrategia de bola de nieve. El análisis de los resultados muestra diferencias relevantes entre las respuestas relativas al ámbito educativo con respecto a otros en que también se valora la posibilidad de usar una lengua de signos. El importante papel que juega la escuela en la transmisión lingüística dentro del contexto de la comunidad sorda ofrece una explicación a estas diferencias y, al mismo tiempo, constituye un reto para el futuro.

This article provides a comparative analysis of foreign language policies in Asia and Australia with reference to policy contexts, motivations and processes. The analysis is specifically motivated by the recent publication of the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper that represents Australia’s renewed desire to engage with Asia by developing “Asia literacy” including the development of national proficiency in selected Asian languages. It is argued that, although foreign language policies in the two regions present interesting similarities in terms of policy contexts and goals, there is notable disconnect between Asia and Australia that potentially undermines Australian policy desire to connect with Asia. Furthermore, although languages, like other national resources, are planned to address social needs and aspirations, subjecting languages to economic imperative reflects not only misconceptions of languages but also misappropriation of their potential.

This article presents a study of a multilingual research park at the University of Barcelona (Catalonia), where administrative staff, researchers and other members interact in a variety of languages. Focusing on the use of Catalan, Spanish, and English the study investigates whether all scientific tasks are carried out in English (the monoglot hypothesis regarding scientific language practices) or they are carried out in different languages depending on several variables (interlocutors, domains, etc.). An online questionnaire was sent to all members of the university research staff, and their responses provide evidence that English is the scientific lingua franca of the scientific park, but this does not mean that English has become the default language of the institution, but rather that the institution functions essentially on the basis of trilingualism. Two main factors can be singled out when trying to explain the organization of this plurilingual practice: the professional role of the PCB (Parc Cientific de Barcelona) staff, and the type of communicative activity, the latter being strongly influenced by the intended addressee. A cluster analysis of the research staff at the institution shows that there are four sociolinguistic profiles of researchers depending on their proficiency in different languages and their geographic origin. The final section argues that the processes of language change do not occur in a compact but rather in a domain-by-domain manner, according to complex balances that depend on the composition of each linguistic ecosystem.

This article explores language planning and policy from the perspective of individual agency and its embodiments in the process of implementing an English language education policy ensemble at a public university in Vietnam. The policy exemplifies the influence of globalized standards on local language education systems. It aims to build a national framework in Vietnam based on a Western model known as the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) which is expected to serve as a platform for reforming curriculum design, course materials development, and testing and assessment. Drawn from a set of data obtained through in-depth interviews with university administrators, the findings highlight the conflicting policy positions taken up by teacher-cum-administrators engaged in the policy enactment process. The paper argues that a critical barrier to CEFR enactment lies in the constraints and demotivation within each participant, particularly of those involved at a higher level of decision-making process in the institution. It is important, therefore, to deal with these conflicts at the level of macro policy planning to neutralize the paradox of policy enactment at the local site.

L. L. Zamenhof saw the creation of his proposed international language, Esperanto, as a process of construction, rather like the building of a city. This new city of words would replace the walls of language difference that had previously separated the nations. His poems imagined a new “foundation” replacing the Tower of Babel and destroying the walls of Jericho. Unlike most other projectors of international languages, Zamenhof saw the creation of a community of Esperanto speakers, who could claim ownership of the language, as crucially important. The language began as text, but soon, as a result of its growing community of users, became a spoken language. The language owed its popularity to the emergence of an urban European middle class, eager to travel and learn about the world — at a time when the modern city was also emerging, its sense of identity defined above all by shared text and a common narrative. A common narrative and a shared text were also generated among the speakers of Esperanto, who were imbued with faith in technological progress and a corresponding belief in the achievement of common values. They developed common symbols and common modes of organization reflecting those that they found around them, notably the holding of annual international congresses in European cities, and other city-based activities. Zamenhof’s own beliefs were driven above all by his experience as a Central European Jew and by his exposure to early manifestations of the Zionist movement, which led him to dream of a kind of post-Zionist universalism embracing all creeds and races. Sadly, this was not to be: he could not put an end to anti-Semitism, nor bring about the kind of ecumenism of which he dreamed. That vision was lost in the rise of nationalism in World War I and beyond.