LANGUAGE POLICIES & PROGRAMS in

MULTILINGUAL SOCIETIES
(PRELIM)

TOPIC 2: LANGUAGE POLICY

Language Policy
Language policy has been defined in varied angles. In order to help us arrive
at an appropriate synthesis, let8s look into these five definitions of language
policy.

a. A language policy is a body of ideas, laws, regulations, rules and practices

intended to achieve the planned language change enacted by an
authoritative body (like the government) in the societies, group or system.
(Kaplan and Baldauf, 1997)

b. Language policy is primarily a social construct. It may consist of various

elements of an explicit nature (judicial, administrative, constitutional ) but
whether or not a society has such explicit text, policy as cultural construct
rests primarily on other conceptual elements (belief systems, attitudes,
myths) the whole complex that we are referring to as linguistic culture, which
is the sum totality of ideas, values, beliefs, attitudes, prejudices, religious
strictures, and all the other cultural 5baggage6 that speakers bring to their
dealings with language from their background. (Schiffman, 1996)

c. Language policy means all the language procedures, practices,

beliefs and organizational preferences of a society. A useful first step is to
distinguish between the three components of the language policy of a
speech community: (1) its language practices 3 the habitual pattern of
selecting among the varieties that make up its linguistic repertoire; (2) its
language beliefs or ideology- the beliefs about language and language use;
and (3) any intervention, planning, or management. (Spolsky, 2004)
d. McCarty (2011) characterized language policy as a complex sociocultural
process and as modes of human interaction, negotiation, and production
mediated by relations of power. The 7policy8 in these processes resides in
their language-regulating power; that is, the ways in which they express
normative claims about legitimate and illegitimate language forms and
uses, thereby governing language statuses and uses. Also, she viewed
language policy not simply as 5top-down6 or 5bottom-up6 but multi-layered.

e. Tollefson (1991) views language policy as a mechanism of power,

which institutionalizes language hierarchies that privilege dominant
groups/ languages and denies equal access to political power and economic
resources.

As Schiffman and Spolsky pointed out, language policies exist across many
different layers of levels from official government law to the language
practices of a family. Further, policies can be official regulations enacted by
some authoritative body (Kaplan and Baldauf) as well as unofficial
principles and cultural constructs that emerge within a community
(McCarty, Schiffman, Spolsky). Now, let8s look into the types of language
policies identified by Johnson (2013).