MINORITY LANGUAGES

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MINORITY LANGUAGES

• Discontinuity in Minority Language Communities
  Minority Language Policies in Linguistic
  History by Erdal Ayan
• European Union and Minority Language Policies
  by Jana Bacinská
• Education in Minority Languages by Zuzanka
  Salatka

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MINORITY LANGUAGES

• Minority is a group of people who speak a
  language other than the dominant one...(Crystal,
  1992, p.251)
• Native minorities such as Welsh...
• Immigrant minorities such as Italian, Polish,
  Hindi, and Greek...
• About half of the world is bilingual...
• Statistics
• borel.slu.edu/crubadan/stadas.html

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MINORITY LANGUAGES

• Every language is unique to itself
• Bilingualism is seen as an essential element in
  cross-cultural communication

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MINORITY LANGUAGES

• Monolinguals ... are a very powerful
  minority...(Romaine, 1995, p.6).
• American Indians
• more speakers, more prestigious history,
  influential role by the government

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MINORITY LANGUAGES

• DISCONTINUNITY IN MINORITY SPEECH COMMUNITIES
• Majority versus Minority speech communities
• The order of linguistic constraints is not
  constant
• Kay 1978 and Kay McDaniel 1979
• The New York City speech community speakers of
  Jewish extraction

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MINORITY LANGUAGES

• Threats to the cohesion of the state...
• The legitimacy of claims to special status and
  land rights...
• Danish Government and the Home Rule Act in 1979...

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MINORITY LANGUAGES

• THE OUTLINE OF MINORITY LANGUAGE RIGHTS IN THE
  HISTORY OF LANGUAGE POLICY
• Stable national borders and the idea of national
  language in the 16th century...
• Serbian autonomy and the protection of minorities
  in 1812...

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MINORITY LANGUAGES

• WWI the reorganizations of the rights of
  linguistic minorities
• The Treaty of Versailles (1919)
• International recognition of limited language
  rights
• The Soviet Union
• Designed to teach literacy and socialism in a
  practical way

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MINORITY LANGUAGES

• The collectivization of agriculture in the 1930s
  and the grain crisis in December 1932
• Russian-teaching was upgraded in schools
• Some constitutional protection for minority
  languages between the World Wars
• The status of Finnish and Irish

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MINORITY LANGUAGES

• The United Nations charter adopted in 1945
• In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human
  Rights
• In 1957, international labour organization
  convention no 107
• The 1960 UNESCO Convention

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MINORITY LANGUAGES

• The term Linguistic rights
• International Labour Organization Convention no
  169
• UN adopted an international Convention on the
  protection of rights of all migrant workers
• In 1993, A Draft Declaration on the rights of
  Indigenous Peoples
• In 1994, the United Nations Human Rights
  Committee adjusted article 27

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MINORITY LANGUAGES

• The case in Sweden
• Sami, Meänkeli (Tomedal Finnish) and Finnish
• Ethnologue (SIL International) the number of the
  speakers of these communities are approximately
  6000, 60-80 000 and 200 000
• Scanian (sometimes spelt Skanian) has 1.5 million
  speaker
• It was regarded as a dialect (Spolsky, 2004,
  p.123).

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MINORITY LANGUAGES

• CONCLUSION
• Every language has its own systems
• Languages are the representations of the
  cultures..
• We need every languages to figure out

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MINORITY LANGUAGES

• CONCLUSION
• Minority Language policies are not new issues
• Until the end of the 19th century Minority
  language rights mostly appeared in Treaties
• In early 20th century, it became, largely, a
  domestic policy of the countries
• In late 20th century, it emerged in international
  organizations

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MINORITY LANGUAGES

• CONCLUSION
• Universal Declaration on Linguistic Rights
  (1996)
• All languages are collectively constituted
  for individual use as tools of cohesion,
  identification, communication, and creative
  expression.
• Since all languages are the expression of a
  collective identity... (article 7, p.6).

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The European Union and Minority Languages

• Jana Bacinská

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European unionMap of member states
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In European union are 27 member states

• Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech
  republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France,
  Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia,
  Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands,
  Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sovakia, Slovenia,
  Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom

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Community official languagespolicy

• - a language group that includes at least one of
  the official languages of all of the EC Member
  States
• Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German,
  Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish

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Community institution

• A Member State may write to the institutions in
  any of the official EC languages and must receive
  a reply in that language
• documents sent by a Community institution to a
  Member State must be in the official language of
  that State

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• Niamh Nic
• Minority languages are absent from any
  "official" language policy of the European Union
  
• Nic Shuibhne
• That there is an unofficial policy governing
  minority language rights which is discernible in
  resolutions of the European Parliament , the
  evolving cultural policy, funding and research of
  the European Commission and the increasingly
  open consideration of minority language rights by
  the European Court of Justice

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• The Official Journal of the European Communities
  is required to be published in all of the
  official EC languages
• http//publications.europa.eu/general/oj_en.ht
  ml
• Language rights garanted by a Member State to its
  nationals must be extended to other Community
  nationals

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• Although data does vary, it is probable that over
  fifty million EU citizens speak a minority
  language
• Minority languages are not recognised within
  Community language policy to any material extent

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The European Parliament

• The European Parliament is often considered to be
  the key player in the field of EC minority
  language rights, reflecting its function as a
  directly elected institution which brings to the
  fore the concerns of its electorate

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• In 2001 was designated European Year of Languages
  in project undertaken by the EU and the Council
  of Europe
• 1996 Euromosaic Report - it is one of the few
  empirical studies to examine the economic
  dimension to minority language issues in the EC
• General Lenz (advocate) there can be found
  more overt discussion age of language rights

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Conclusion

• The recognition and realisation of minority
  language rights are rooted in considerations of
  equality and non-discrimination, effective
  participation and cultural democracy
• Ambitions towards this end must be tempered by an
  appreciation and understanding of the capacity of
  the Community to act, and of the purpose and
  functions of the EU more generally

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Thank you for your attentionmia-mei_at_azet.sk
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EDUCATION IN MAJORITY POPULATIONS

• Zuzana Talaová

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STRUCTURE

• Minority population
• ?Definition
• ?Facts about minority populatins
• Language and education
• ?Linguistic model
• ?Education of languages nowadays
• Education in minority populations
• ?Language and education policy

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I. MINORITY POPULATION

• Minority - An ethnic, racial, religious, or other
  group having a distinctive presence within a
  society
• Population A total number of inhabitans
  constituting a particular race, class or group in
  a specific area
• ? American Indian and Alaska Native
  populations,Black or African American
  populations, Hispanic or Latino populations

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MINORITY POPULATIONS IN CANADA

• In 2001 - Home to 4 million 13,4
• Increased over the past 20 years
• ? In 1981 - 1,1 million (4,7) -gt
• ? In 1996 - 3,2 million (11,2)

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• Are growing much faster than the total population
• ? Between 1996 2001, the total population
  increased 4, the minority population 25
• ? Between 1991 1996, the total population
  increased 6, the miority population 27

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MINORITY POPULATIONS IN USA

• According to the last estimates 1 in every 3
  people in the US belong to a racional and ethnic
  minority group
• ? Latinos 13
• ? African Americans 12
• Racial and ethnic health disparities

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MINORITY POPULATIONS IN EU

• 13 million resident emigrants and ethnic minority
  populations
• 50 million people who belong to some 150 minority
  groups in the EU, out of a total population of
  450 million people
• Appeal to EU heads of state and goverment to do
  more to protect ethnic minorities

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II. LANGUAGE EDUCATION

• Language-Learning relationship begins long before
  school
• Children from bilingual enviroment start to learn
  how to draw on their languages in different ways
  sooner
• Language in schools is not only a vehicle for
  academic teaching and learning

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LINGUISTIC MODEL WHICH CHILD FOLLOWS

• Usual model Parents-gtpeers-gtadults
• Children from bilingual enviroments appear to be
  aware of diffrent speech forms even at 18 months
  (RONJAT 1913)
• 18 months - notice that many things can have
  more than just one word
• 3 years - efficiency at keeping his two
  languages separetely
• 4 years - remarkable versatility

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EDUCATION OF LANGUAGES NOWADAYS

• English as a global language
• Bilingual and multilingual children acquire the
  communicative competence
• Availability for bilingual education
• England strongly monolingual,
  community-ran schools
• United States english only lobby
  associated with anti-immigration position
• Wales state sponsored bilingual education
• South Africa democratical choice

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SOCIAL DIMENSIONS IN THE CLASSROOM

• Gender Boys are more competetive, dominate
  classroom interaction and use of computers
• Recent trends towards more uses of collaborative
  talk may be seen as feminization

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LANGUAGE IN OUT OF SCHOOL

• Experience of differences between language and
  literacy at home and school
• Sociolinguists argued against the idea that
  childern from non-standard varieties of English
  were linguistically depraved
• The problems some children experienced in school
  do not come from language deficit but from
  language difference

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III. EDUCATION AND MINORITY POPULATIONS

• Pabhakarans plea is organization for attention
  and support for Indian langueages in South Africa
• Bilingual education in US and other multilingual
  states
• Change of Izraels language education policies

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LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION POLICY

• 2 supporting principles for immigrant
• language minorities in US
• 1. Continua model
• ?use of the contexts
• ?similar and dissimilar aspects
• SKILTON SYLVER recommends support based on help
  from their native speakers
• 2. Second principle with regard for immigrant
  language
• ?specific chatecteristics can be defined only
  in each specific case

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

• L. MILROY Language and Social Networks, Oxford
  1980, ISBN 0-631-15314-4
• R. A. HUDSON Sociolinguistics-Cmbidge Textbooks
  in Linguistics, Cambridge 1980, ISBN
  0-521-29668-4
• C. LLAMAS, L. MULLANY, P. STOCKWELL The
  Routledge Companion to Sociolingiustics, Oxon
  2007, ISBN 978-0-415-338509
• http//www.census.gov/pubinfo/www/hotlinks.html
• http//www.familiesusa.org/issues/minority-health/
  facts/
• http//www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/
  Reference/tech_rep/
• http//atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/peoplea
  ndsociety/population/visible_minority/vmin

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Any comments, questions or suggestions?

• Contact me at
• suzieka_at_zoznam.sk

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Crystal, David (1992). An Encyclopedic
  Dictionary of Language and Languages Oxford
  Blackwell Publishers.
• Hornberger, Nancy H. Language policy, language
  education, language rights
• Indigenous, immigrant, and international
  perspectives Language in Society Vol. 27,
  Issue 04. (October, 1998). pp.439458. Retrieved
  27 April, 2007 from ltjournals.cambridge.orggt
• Mougean, Raymond Nadasdi, Tery.
  Sociolinguistic Discontinuity in Minority
  Language Communities Language, Vol.74, No.1.
  (March 1998). pp.40-55. Retrieved 05 April, 2007
  from lthttp//www.jstor.orggt
• Languages By Countries from the webpage of
  ltwww.infoplease.com/ipa/A0855611.htmlgt
• Romaine, Suzanne (1995). Bilingualism Oxford
  Blackwell Publishers.
• Scannel, Kevin P. (2004) Corpus Building For
  Minority Languages from the webpage of
  ltborel.slu.edu/crubadan/stadas.htmlgt
• Spolsky, Bernard (2004) Language Policy
  Cambridge Cambridge University Press.
• UNESCO (United Nations, Education, Scientific,
  and Cultural Education).Universal Declaration on
  Linguistic Rights, World Conference on Linguistic
  Rights Barcelona, Spain, 9 June, 1996. Retrieved
  28 April, 2007 from UNESCO http//www.unesco.org/
  cpp
• UNESCO (United Nations, Education, Scientific,
  and Cultural Education). The Human Rights of
  Linguistic Minorities and Language Policies
  International Journal on Multicultural Societties
  (IJMS). Vol. 3., No.2., 2001. Retrieved 27 April,
  2007 from UNESCO http//www.unesco.org/cpp

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• CAPOTORTI, F. 1979. Study on the Rights of
  Persons belonging to Ethnic, Religious and
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• ISTITUTO DELLA ENCICLOPEDIA ITALIANA/EUROPEAN
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• MCMAHON, J.A. 1995. Education and Culture in
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• NIC SHUIBHNE, N. 2002. EC Law and Minority
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