James Archibald
Università di Torino, Italy
Panel: Language as a means of inclusion in educational and institutional settings
Chair: Maria Margherita Mattioda, Università di Torino, Italy
In any state, monolingual or multilingual, a common overriding objective is to create, build and maintain a cohesive national entity which will serve the social, cultural and economic needs of the citizenry, present or future. In order to create this type of national linguasphere and to maintain relations with other or related linguaspheres, the state must establish coherent policies which will guide its practices with respect to socioeconomic inclusion, cultural identity and language.
Integrative language planning cannot be disassociated with strategic development. This is what we have called elsewhere a stakeholder approach to language planning.
This model of devising or implementing language policies requires that states articulate clear statements of intent so that all concerned have an understanding of what is planned and how the plans will be executed. Hence, planning and practice go hand in hand.
Moreover, given the human involvement in the process, legislators and administrators must be mindful of the “affects” (Damasio 2018, Ch. 7) that will result from statements of intent, policy formulations, legislative texts and regulations used in the implementation of language legislation. In addition, public administrators must be in a position to objectively measure any possible social, cultural and economic effect of such policies, legislation and regulations. At the same time, this measurement should take place in an atmosphere which reflects the fundamental human rights of the present and future citizenry.
Rooted as they are in shared ideologies, these policies and practices help the state to define its educational philosophy and priorities as well as its institutional policies. That is why state-mandated institutions must define their own institutional policies. These should be in alignment with national policies and practices.
Such a system, if well planned and maintained, should have as a main objective to foster citizen engagement and support for policy orientations.
References
Archibald, J. & Chiss, J.L., éds. (2007). La langue et l’intégration des immigrants. Sociolinguistique, politiques linguistiques, didactique. Paris : L’Harmattan.
Archibald, J. & Galligani, S. (2009). La langue, l’immigration et la cohésion sociale. In Archibald, J. & Galligani, S., dirs. (2009) Langue(s) et immigration(s) : société, école, travail, 9-15. Paris : L’Harmattan.
Archibald, J. (2019). Principes de mise en œuvre de politiques linguistiques intégrées. In Grin, F., dir. Les « linguasphères » dans la gouvernance mondiale de la diversité, 26-28. Neuchâtel : Délégation suisse à la langue française, 2019.
Busekist, A. von. (2018). The ethics of language policies. New York : Routledge.
Damasio, A. (2018). The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures. New York : Pantheon.
Freeman, R.E. (2010). Strategic management: a stakeholder approach. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
Freeman, R.E. & Mcvea, J.F. (2001). A stakeholder approach to strategic management. Social Science Research Network Electronic Journal, January. (DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.263511).