Multilingualism

“If I speak only one language, I can help my country as only one man. If I can use two
languages, I can help as two men. But if I can use all nine languages, then I can work as
nine men.”

Definition of language policy?

Agents in language policy:

-The personal use of language: We are policy makers in our own environment. We might
decide which language we use and which language is not acceptable. For instance, we might
find the use of Catalan or Spanish inappropiate at home (because of whatever reasons people
might have).

-Lexicographers, teachers, textbook writers, etc.

-Applied linguists

Spaces:

Public sphere and family spaces.

Corpus, status, and acquisition planning: efforts to increase or decrease... Check ppt. Example:
Singlish.

Keeping languages alive

THere are many languages in the world, and some of them are dying. We should prevent this.

Based on our current estimates, languages are being lost at the rate of about two a month.

Key factors that contribute to language maintenance: education, transmission at home.

Linguistic landscape

Method to analyze languages contact and use in bilingual multilingual contexts (mostly
cities). Also connected to language policy.

Consists in observing the surrounding and taking pictures of language signs.

Roles for applied linguists: in lamguages that don’t have a written code, for instance, and that
are the focus of some sort of language that is being promoted in order not to be extinct, what
can link the linguists? Revising ortography, create dictionaries... How to deal with linguistic
diversity, how to help newcomers (who don’t know catalan, for example), encouraging them at
the same time to keep their mother tongues.