When Language Policies Fail: The Problem of Implementation

1
When Language Policies Fail
The Problem of
Implementation

• Harold F. Schiffman
• University of Pennsylvania
• Stockholm, September 2006

2
Implementation the Achilles Heel of Language
Policy

• Failure of a language policy to have the outcomes
  that language planners wish, can often be
  attributed to poor implementation of the policy.
• Why should this be so? Why not blame other
  factors?

3
Maybe it depends on who decides on language policy

• Language policyoften set (decreed, determined,
  ordained) by amateurs
• Novices at language planning
• Hand down a few decrees
• Make grandiloquent statements, promulgations,
  decrees
• Sit back and expect things to just happen.

4
The devil is in the details

• Deciding on concrete steps
• Allocation of financial resources
• Devising timetables for completion, evaluation,
  enforcement, and cross-checking
• Taking the 'long view' of the process (may not
  outlast the impatience of politicians seeking
  quick fixes for a problem)

5
The French Revolutionthe Decret Barère

• January 27, 1794 Barère, on the floor of the
  Convention, denounces languages (other than
  French) as enemies of the Republic
• Federalism and superstition speak Breton
  emigration and hate for the republic speak
  German counterrevolution speaks Italian, and
  fanaticism speaks Basque. Let us destroy these
  instruments of damage and error!
• The decree passes, taking on the name of Barère,
  its most outspoken proponent.
• But what does this decree actually DO?

6
The real name The act of lAn II, 8 pluviose

• Ordained the teaching of French in all areas
  where French was not in use
• Followed by the law of An II, 2 thermidor The
  Convention nationale imposes the use of French in
  the formulation of all public acts.
• And then what?

7
What happened next?

• Bilinguals are to be recruited to be trained as
  teachers
• An école normale for this purpose is set up in
  Paris, and tries to find students.
• But most bilinguals are already busy doing other
  things, so
• The école normale fails, and is disbanded.

8
In other words

• The much vaunted laws and decrees were not
  implemented.
• Personnel were not found and trained
• No mention of funding
• Nobody followed through
• But the myth that the law/decree actually had an
  effect was born.
• The rhetoric of Barère is remembered as if it
  were the text of the law!

9
Another example Sri Lanka

• Sinhala-only law of 1956 disenfranchised Tamil
  after many protests, and a protracted civil war,
• 13th and 16th amendments to the Constitution of
  1978 made Sinhala and Tamil official, and English
  the link language

10
So whats wrong?

• The main problems are the dearth of qualified
  staff and lack of institutional machinery
• A large number of vacancies in the post of Tamil
  typists and translators in several government
  institutions had not been filled
• Government had decided that Secretaries of every
  Ministry, Heads of Departments, Chief Secretaries
  of Provincial Councils, Heads of Government
  Corporations and Statutory Bodies would be
  designated as Chief Official Languages
  Implementation Officers (COLIO) responsible for
  the due implementation of the Official Languages
  Policy, and
• Senior Assistant Secretaries (Administration) of
  every Ministry and Deputies (Administration) in
  every Department, Local Body, Provincial Council,
  Government Corporation and Statutory Body would
  also be designated as official languages
  implementation officers in their central and
  divisional offices

11
Add more bureaucracy?

• What about training the Tamil typists and
  interpreters?
• What about funding for this training?
• What about a timetable for implementation?
• What about penalties for failure to implement,
  and rewards for implementing the policy?
• http//www.sundayobserver.lk/2005/10/02/new25.htm
  l

12
French Canada confusing status planning with
corpus planning

• Change in status of French, to give it status in
  higher domains than before
• Top-down decision from Govt of Canada
• Not something speakers of French demanded
• Province of Québec ( other provinces) were
  supposed to implement this

13
In Québec confusion of status and corpus planning

• Question then arose about what kind of French
  should be given the status?
• What was good French?
• Was Canadian French good French?
• Metropolitan French was better (especially in
  the eyes of the rest of English Canada)

14
In English Canada

• Other provinces are supposed to implement, but
  they have no incentive to do so
• Federal Government doesnt have the jurisdiction
  to act in the provinces
• So the other provinces have in general failed to
  act (Mackey 1983198)
• Perhaps only the rise (and prestige) of (totally
  unplanned) French immersion has counteracted
  this failure

15
Implementation failure in Singapore

• The Tamil case what are the issues?
• Singapores languages
• 77 Chinese
• 14 Malay
• 7 of Indian origin
• Of this, 60 speak Tamil, i.e. 4 of the
  population
• Egalitarian policy, but is it really?
• Can egalitarianism exist at this level?

16
Tamil additional problems

• Singapore in general exonormic policy
• All languages taught use external norms
• Thus in Tamil Focus on pure Tamil (rather than
  communicative skills)
• Use of Indian Tamil purist norms rather than
  spoken Singapore variety
• Children see little economic value for this
  variety

17
Additional issues

• Mother tongues are used for moral education
  to prevent spread of amoral western values
• Science, technology, other subjects are taught in
  English
• Students become compartmentalized bilinguals
• English has more economic value, so Tamils (and
  others too) allegiance shifts to English
• Students feel they dont own Tamilit is the
  preserve of purists who are never satisfied

18
Singapore English (Singlish)

• All Singaporeans acquire Singlish (local variety
  of English) before they acquire standard
  English, which is based on BANA norms
• BANA British-Australian-North American
• Singaporeans view Singlish as a marker of
  Singapore identity
• So the Govt of Singapore now wants to
  annihilate, ban, extirpate Singlish!

19
Speak Proper English Campaign

• Govt of Singapore now attempting to get
  Singaporeans to abandon Singlish and speak
  proper English
• The policy on Tamil makes Singapore Tamils want
  to shift to English, but the Govt of Singapore
  now trying to ban Singlish
• Does the right hand know what the left hand is
  doing here?

20
Failure of Tamil policy

• Policy on Tamil lacks clear goals shared by all
• Policy has no timetable or schedules
• Policy lacks evaluation and enforcement metrics
• No checking to see if goals are being met
• No evaluation metrics other than exit testing
• No carrots, only sticks

21
Carrot and Stick?

• No carrot students see no economic value to
  language, feel they dont own it
• Stick students must pass Cambridge O-level
  exams in mother tongue to get into National
  University of Singapore
• Any failures or shortcomings result in a blame
  game

22
Blame Game

• Teachers blame the students for lack of love of
  the language
• Students blame MOE and CDB, see teachers as
  people who cant do anything else
• MOE and CDB blame students and parents (for not
  speaking good Tamil at home)
• Everybody blames someone else
• Nobody sees their own failures, or attempts to
  fix the problem

23
Internal Criticism

• Internal criticism is not tolerated in Singapore,
  so internal critics have to pussyfoot around and
  couch criticism in coded terms
• Foreigners can critique things, but are mostly
  ignored
• Academics such as at National Institute of
  Education are aware of problem but are ignored
• Ministry of Education and Curriculum Development
  Board live in a world untouched by reality

24
Some changes may be in the offing

• Top-down planning may now give way to
  consideration of factors from below
• Crisis in shift to English (by all language
  groups) now seen as a problem (especially by
  Chinese)
• Language policy is not maintaining the languages
• More money now being allocated for empirical
  research 30 million

25
Does anyone anywhere have a sensible
implementation policy?

• The European Union faces many problems
• Constantly enlarging, adding new languages
• Policy requires translation from every language
  to every other language, e.g. Maltese to
  Estonian, Slovenian to Irish
• Is this a workable policy? Can it be implemented?

26
European Parliament supports multilingualism but
'pragmatic solutions' needed over rising
interpretation costs

• See report from Eurolang Brussels, Thursday,
  07 September 2006
• "The House also considers that multilingualism is
  an expression of the EU's cultural diversity,
  which must be preserved, and that, therefore,
  while the increasing number of official languages
  calls for pragmatic solutions in the preparatory
  work within the institutions, multilingualism
  must be guaranteed to ensure the legitimacy and
  diversity of the European Union."
• Total cost of all the linguistic services of the
  EU institutions, translation and interpretation
  combined, represents only 1 of the total EU
  budget.

27
Is there some ambiguity here?

• Goes on to say that In 2003, the EP spent 4m on
  interpretation services made available but not
  used due to late requests or cancellations. MEPs
  also ask that last-minute cancellations and
  last-minute requests be discouraged.
• In other words, use the services of translators
  judiciously, and save money

28
Some Resources

• EUROPA - Translation DG - Enlargement - Nine new
  languages
• EUROPA - Translation and drafting aids - Home Page

29
Official and Minority languages
30
What about the cost?
31
Enlargement plan

• EUgiles\actionplan2005.htm
• Become an interpreter
• EUROPA - Translation and drafting aids - Home
  Page
• Plans for expansion, training, recruitment
• Scholarships for potential trainees
• Action plan for other years, too.
• EUgiles\enlargement2004.htm

32
Can this plan succeed?

• Even with the best of implementation schemes, we
  must ask
• Is a plan that makes 20 languages equal likely
  to succeed?
• Is the monetary cost of this plan worth it? (Will
  the funds still be there down the road?)
• Is the original egalitarianism set up for the
  early common market six countries now being
  extended ad absurdem?
• What do other multilingual nations do?

33
EU States
34
Chart predicting costs for translation with 20
languages
35
Another example South Africa, with 11 languages

• Is this workable and realistic?
• Or is this compensatory trying to make up for
  past wrongs?
• Some of these languages are spoken by less than
  4 of the population

36
South Africas Languages where spoken, and by
number of speakers

• IsiZulu 23.8
• IsiXhosa 17.6
• Afrikaans 13.3
• Sepedi 9.4
• English 8.2
• Setswana 8.2
• Sesotho 7.9
• Xitsonga 4.4
• SiSwati 2.7
• Tshivenda 2.3
• IsiNdebele 1.6
• Other 0.5

37
What are some other (more realistic)
possibilities?

• India Three-language formula many official
  languages, but one national language (Hindi)
  and one other link language (English). All
  citizens supposed to learn all three.
• Soviet Union Russian as link language, other
  languages had regional rights
• Austro-Hungarian Empire German and Xish
• The principle of TERRITORIALITY, but with a
  minimum number of administrative working
  languages.

38
Indias linguistic states
39
EU why not use the model of India or Switzerland?

• Q Why not have 2 or 3 working link languages?
• A France doesnt want it.
• If 3 languages (English, French, German).
  Most would choose English or German
• If 2 languages (English and French),
• Most would choose English (and already have).

40
If given a choice of 2 or 3 languages,

• Not enough would choose French

41
How I view language policy

• Consists of overt elements (official, explicit,
  top-down, written, de jure) and
• Covert elements (unofficial, grass-roots,
  implicit, unwritten, de facto)
• Covert policy may be
• Subversive (Catalan in Franco Spain)
• Complicit meant as window dressing or
  face-saving devices (English in Nagaland)

42
Unintended consequences?

• Covert policy may be something unintendedthe
  seeds of the destruction or failure of the policy
  are in the policy, but the policy-makers dont
  know it.
• Example failure of 19th-century German language
  schools in America which were covertly
  assimilationist but were unaware of the
  consequences of the policy.

43
Stundenplan for 19th century German schools in
the US 50 English, 50 German
44
Covert policy

• Most of the overt policy is visible at the top
• There may be more to the covert policy than
  meets the eye
• The whole policy is immersed in the linguistic
  culture of the polity

45
Covert policy may also be

• Cynically subversive the authorities want it to
  fail and have planned for it to failby setting
  unrealistic goals.
• Nefarious and hypocritical they deny that they
  want it to fail (Shohamy hidden agendas)
• They have chosen it on condition that it never be
  implemented or that it be guaranteed to fail
• Examples some bilingual programs in the US
  which are intended to result in replacive
  bilingualism, rather than additive

46
So French policy with regard to EU language
policy is

• On the surface egalitarian, with all languages on
  an equal footing, regardless of the cost
• Covertly designed to keep English at bay, no
  matter what the cost
• Deeply, cynically hypocritical, since minority
  languages in France, though recognized by the EU
  Charter, are in fact not recognized since France
  has not ratified the Charter!

47
Q Are there any effective language policies?

• Do any policies result in the outcomes explicitly
  planned for them?
• Does any polity structure its policy to cover all
  the points that are required?
• Do any avoid unintended consequences?

• Explicit and realistic goals
• Adequate Budget
• Timetable and schedules
• Periodic evaluation and Monitoring
• Rewards for achieving goals
• Penalties for failure

48
A Im still looking

• Luxembourg does a pretty good job
• Lëtzebuergesch for early grades
• German then phased in for elementary school
• French phased in, to be used for secondary
  education
• Everybodys literate in German, some know French
  well

49
Domains are specified

• Lëtzebuergesch has specific domains home,
  school, humor, satire, funerary
• German (covert, but) journalism, parliament,
  law, business
• French higher formal domains

50
Example of Triglossia in the domain of Law

• Ein Ausländer, der einer Verhandlung vor einem
  luxemburgischen Polizeigericht beiwohnt, wird aus
  dem Staunen nicht herauskommen, vor allem dann
  nicht, wenn er irgendwo gelesen hat, dass die
  Amtssprache in Luxemburg das Französische sei.
  Er wird nämlich feststellen, dass die
  Verhandlungen ausschliesslich auf Lëtzebuergesch
  geführt werden. Der Vertreter der
  Staatsanwaltschaft und der Verteidiger aber
  sprechen beim Requisitorium und Plädoyer
  französisch. Wüsste er, dass das schriftliche
  Urteil in deutscher Sprache verfasst wird, wäre
  er vollends aus dem Konzept gebracht.

51

• A foreigner who observes the proceedings of a
  Luxembourg police court will be profoundly
  shocked, especially if he has read somewhere that
  the official language in Luxembourg is French. He
  will note that the proceedings are conducted
  exclusively in Lëtzebuergesch . For the
  requisitorium and the plea, however, the
  Counsels for the prosecution and for the defense
  speak French. To then learn that the written
  sentencing is done in German would leave him
  completely confused.' (Hoffmann 1979ix.)

52
Geography

• Administrative units and position with regard to
  its neighbors

53
Lëtzebuergesch for primary literacy
54
Humor In Letzebuergesch, but notice French in
the signage on the wall behind the doctor!

• He shouldnt drink any more he has to drive.

• Im sorry Ive tried everything you can afford

55
The downside

• Foreign guestworkers have no linguistic rights,
  have to learn three other languages
• Cant become citizens if they cant pass a test
  in Letzebuergesch
• (Europe in general doesnt do much for guest
  worker languages, or non-territorial languages)
• Its a very small country

56
Conclusion

• Language policies may fail if they are too
  ambitious, or try to be too egalitarian
• Ambitious trying to work with too many
  languages, or convert L-varieties to H-varieties
  by legislative fiat
• Mostly they fail because they fail to implement
  the policy, or because of hidden agendas.

57
Bibliography

• An extensive bibliography on the subject of
  implementation can be viewed at
• http//ccat.sas.upenn.edu/plc/clpp/bibliogs/implem
  entbiblio.htmlgt

58
Abstract

• The question of language policy implementation is
  one that is typically
• thought of as problematical in some
  way--sometimes referred to as the
  
• Achilles Heel of language policy--since the
  failure of a language policy
• to have the outcomes that language planners wish,
  can often be attributed
• to poor implementation of the policy.
  Frequently, language policy makers
  
• are novices at language planning, and tend to
  view it as something that
• can be, or should be, easily implemented--a few
  broad strokes to give the
• basic outlines of the policy, and one is done. I
  however tend to see
• implementation as the most problematical area of
  language planning, since
• it involves many details--deciding on concrete
  steps, the allocation of
• financial resources, devising timetables for
  completion, evaluation,
• enforcement, and cross-checking--and it may also
  involve a 'long view' of
• the process that may not outlast the impatience
  of politicians seeking
• quick fixes for a problem. This paper will
  examine language policy
• failure in a number of different polities, and
  try to point out why these
• policies have problems, and how the role of
  implementation is typically
• ignored or downplayed.