MINORITY LANGUAGES

1. MINORITY LANGUAGES • “Discontinuity in Minority Language Communities” &“Minority Language Policies in Linguistic History” by Erdal Ayan • “European Union and Minority Language Policies” by Jana Bačinská • “Education in Minority Languages” by Zuzanka Salatka

2. 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

3. MINORITY LANGUAGES • Every language is unique to itself… • Bilingualism is seen as an essential element in cross-cultural communication…

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

5. 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…

6. 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...

7. 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...

8. 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…

9. 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…

10. 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…

11. 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

12. 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).

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

14. 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…

15. 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).

16. Jana Bačinská The EuropeanUnion and MinorityLanguages 16

17. European unionMap of member states 17

18. 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 18

19. 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 19

20. 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 20

21. 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 „ 21

22. TheOfficial Journal of the European Communitiesis required to be published in all of the official EC languages http://publications.europa.eu/general/oj_en.html • Language rights garanted by a Member State to its nationals must be extended to other Community nationals 22

23. 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 23

24. 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 24

25. 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“ 25

26. 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 26

27. Thank you for your attentionmia-mei@azet.sk 27

28. EDUCATION IN MAJORITY POPULATIONS Zuzana Talašová

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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%) -> ▪ In 1996 - 3,2 million (11,2%)

32. 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%

33. 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 ▪Latinos13% ▪African Americans12% • Racial and ethnic health disparities

34. 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

35. 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

36. LINGUISTIC MODEL WHICH CHILD FOLLOWS • Usual model: Parents->peers->adults • 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

37. 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

38. 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

39. 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

40. III. EDUCATION AND MINORITY POPULATIONS • Pabhakaran’s plea is organization for attention and support for Indian langueages in South Africa • Bilingual education in US and other multilingual states • Change of Izrael’s language education policies

41. 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 recommend’ssupport 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

42. 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/peopleandsociety/population/visible_minority/vmin

43. Any comments, questions or suggestions? Contact me at: suzieka@zoznam.sk

44. 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.439–458. Retrieved 27 April, 2007 from <journals.cambridge.org> • 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 <http://www.jstor.org> • “Languages By Countries” from the webpage of <www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0855611.html> • Romaine, Suzanne (1995). “Bilingualism” Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. • Scannel, Kevin P. (2004) „Corpus Building For Minority Languages“ from the webpage of <borel.slu.edu/crubadan/stadas.html> • 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

45. CAPOTORTI, F. 1979. Study on the Rights of Persons belonging to Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. New York: United Nations. • CURTIN, D. 1993. "The Constitutional Structure of the Union: A Europe of Bits and Pieces". Common Market Law Review 30 (1): 17-69. • EUROPEAN BUREAU FOR LESSER USEDLANGUAGES. 1996. Unity in Diversity. 2nd ed. Dublin: EBLUL. • EVERLING, E. 1992. "Reflections on the structure of the European Union". Common Market Law Review 29 (6): 1053-1077. • ISTITUTO DELLA ENCICLOPEDIA ITALIANA/EUROPEAN COMMISSION. 1986. Linguistic Minorities in Countries belonging to the EC Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. • MCMAHON, J.A. 1995. Education and Culture in European Community Law. London: The Athlone Press. • NIC SHUIBHNE, N. 2002. EC Law and Minority Language Policy: Culture, Citizenship and Fundamental Rights. The Hague: Kluwer.