Education And The Survival Of Linguistic Minorities

Celebrates Tove Skutnabb-Kangas' 60th birthday. Contributions from around the world on minority, indigenous, and immigrant education; education leading to multilingualism; linguistic human rights; language & global power issues.

Many regional languages across the world are threatened by modernization and urbanization whilst the universal and rapid rise of migration has created new and unprecedented forms of multilingualism. Aspects of education, national policies and attitudes towards minority languages are documented.

​This book presents research on the situation minority language schoolchildren face when they need to learn languages of international communication, in particular English. The book takes minority languages as a starting point and it bridges local and global perspectives in the analysis of multilingual education contexts. It examines the interaction of minority languages and cultures, majority languages and lingua franca-s in a variety of settings across different regions and countries on all continents. Even though all chapters in this book involve minority languages, the issues discussed are relevant to any context in which more than language is used in education. The book reveals challenges and opportunities of multilingual education by discussing issues such as Northern and Southern concepts, language education policies, language diversity, interethnic understanding, multimodal language practices, power, conflict, identity and prestige, among many others. “This is the volume that finally accounts for multilingual education from a truly multilingual perspective by involving proposals and research from a variety of multilingual speech communities in the world. The (linguistically) rich Ethiopia and Mexico can teach the poor Europe and other Northern countries about multilingual education. CLIL promoters may learn from Finnish Sámi and Canadian Innu and Mi’gmaq indigenous communities as well as from Basque results. Speakers and teachers of minority and international languages will certainly be glad to hear the news. There is no need for a monolingual bias or tunnel vision in acquiring English in non-English speaking communities. This volume includes new challenging pedagogical perspectives while pointing to interesting conclusions for worldwide educational authorities”. Maria Pilar Safont Jordà, Universitat Jaume I, Castelló, Spain

The ideal of a world where bilingualism or multilingualism is a normal and accepted feature is promoted in a commissioned report for International Literacy Year. It is noted that many minority groups are forced into bilingualism as a necessity for survival, but that those skills are rarely seen as an advantage and often seen as a cause of dissention and conflict. There are few international standards for the maintenance and promotion of linguistic human rights. Ideologies and examples of the education of minority children are discussed, along with a comparison of different educational programs (segregation, maintenance, submersion, immersion). The question of whether children or schools are deficient is also discussed, as well as mother tongue literacy and universal primary education. A preliminary Declaration on Linguistic Rights is presented that is intended to serve as a model for a United Nations standard. Excerpts from five international declarations on human rights are included. Contains 46 references. (LB)

Linguistic Minorities, Policies and Pluralism examines the position of some linguistic minority groups, including policies that affect them. This book provides a useful perspective on group relations, emphasizing the aims, purposes, and values held by the societies in which linguistic minority groups exist. The structure of society and perceptions of pluralism and assimilation are also described. This text demonstrates that there is not a simple opposition between pluralism and assimilation, there are difficulties with educational programs intended to support minority group language and identity, minority views are not themselves homogeneous, and advocates of cultural pluralism often hold over-simplified and unrealistic ideas. This publication is a good reference for students and researchers conducting work on pluralism, assimilation, language maintenance/shift, and ethnolinguistic identity.

Whose voices are taken into account in language policy and planning and whose have been ignored or more actively silenced? This is the central question addressed in this book. What are the political and social factors that have helped to create these historical exclusions, in terms of endangerment and loss of traditional languages? What are the global influences on the local landscape of languages and linguistic rights? What are the implications for cultural heritage and identity? In analyzing these questions and reporting on research in an array of countries, the chapter authors also suggest ways forward toward designing more inclusive policies and practices in educational contexts, whether in the context of obligatory schooling or in less formal educational contexts. UNESCO estimates that at least 43% of the estimated 6000 languages spoken in the world are endangered. Such statistics remind us that the linguistic diversity that characterizes the human condition is a fragile thing, and that certain languages need to be cultivated if they are to survive into the 21st century and beyond. The chapters in this volume originated as presentations at the XV World Congress of Comparative Education Societies (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2013). They represent several global regions, namely Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. They provide analyses of language policy and politics at the local, regional, national and transnational levels, grass-roots linguistic revitalization initiatives, and the attitudes of minority and majority speakers toward minoritized languages and cultures and towards intercultural and multilingual education programs./div

This book provides an overview of the principles used by policy makers in western industrialized countries as they seek to meet the educational needs of cultural and linguistic minorities. The book synthesises data from more than 30 national case studies and consultants' reports prepared for an OECD-sponsored study.