Language Policy

Language Policy

Presented by : Meredith Cas

​ Language policy is one mechanism for locating language within social structure so that language determines who has access to political power and economic resources. It refers to explicit or implicit language planning by official bodies, such as ministries of education, workplace managers, or school administrators.

 

Language policy is one mechanism for locating language within social structure so that language determines who has access to political power and economic resources. It refers to explicit or implicit language planning by official bodies, such as ministries of education, workplace managers, or school administrators.

 

According to Spolsky (2004), language policy refers to all “language practice, beliefs, and management decisions of a community or polity”. It ‘’constitutes an attempt by someone to manipulate the linguistic behavior of some community for some reason”. (Burton 2013, p.3, in Monje, 2019,p.4).

Many countries have a language policy designed to favour or discourage the use of a particular language or set of languages. Although nations historically have used language policies most often to promote one official language at the expense of others, many countries now have policies designed to protect and promote regional and ethnic languages whose viability is threatened.

Language Policy is what a government does either officially through legislation, court decisions or policy to determine how languages are used, cultivate language skills needed to meet national priorities or to establish the rights of individuals or groups to use and maintain languages.

​ The 1994 Toubon law made the use of French mandatory in all TV broadcasts, meaning all foreign-language programs are dubbed, while radio stations must play at least 40 percent of French music for most of the day.

​What can Language policy do and why is it important?

​ The decisions made on language policy influence the right to use and maintain languages, affect language status, and determine which languages are nurtured. Language policy and planning decisions have a major impact on language vitality and, ultimately, on the rights of the individual.

​Overall, we can say the language policies’ goal is to sustain, reinforce, and expand our local languages and to provide the foundation skills for acquisition of English and other international languages. Most importantly, we need to maintain language policies to ensure the access of minority populations to prestigious forms of national standard languages and literacy.