Despite its multilingual heritage, the USA has a history of linguistic intolerance. Arizona, in the country's desert Southwest, is decidedly anti-bilingual although it has significant non-English-speaking groups, especially Spanish-speaking Mexicans/Mexican-Americans and indigenous groups such as the Navajo, Hopi and Yaqui tribes, among many…

This article focuses on the papers presented in a colloquium on issues related to minority languages that constitute research topics. The papers from this colloquium touch upon a number of research issues and their social implications. In particular, the papers pay attention to ethical questions, which relate to the social sciences in general, but…

In this paper I argue that literacy, as an aspect of language, is closely related to power. With the example of Karagwe, I show that different literacy practices relate differently to power. In Karagwe dominant literacies that are officially prescribed and standardised have a main function to sort people and maintain authority. As they are spread…

Introduces the topic of this special issue of the journal--linguistic construction and negotiation of social relations among bilingual Turkish-speaking adolescents in North-western Europe. The studies included focus on Turkish-German bilinguals and the Koge project in Denmark, a longitudinal study of bilingual development among Turkish Danes.…

Drawing on sociolinguistic research, points out that some patterns of socially appropriate language use in Indonesia actually involve Indonesian only to the extent that those interacting wish to maintain social distance, while regional languages are used to promote closer social ties. Suggests Indonesian programs require some rethinking in view of…

Discusses research related to bilingual education as a means of providing background information for policy makers, and then discusses a number of bilingual education models. Suggests separate models of language-in-education policies for the Melanesian, Micronesian/Polynesian parts of the South Pacific and for Fiji. (Author/VWL)

Examines the effect of a particular inherited ideology on the language practices of a particular intercultural community. The ideology may be characterized as "difference-equals-conflict." The community is a multinational student body at Europe College in Bruges, Belgium. Argues that this unwanted process results from the failure to examine the…

Suggests that language planning and policies that seek to protect the interests of linguistic minorities must be based on a realistic analysis of power relations that exist between the groups concerned. Argues that such an assessment is complex and exemplifies some of the difficulties involved through reference to the situation in Catalonia,…

Explores historical and intellectual causes for the lack of interdisciplinarity between language education and development economics. Reviews three development settings in Bangladesh, Egypt, and Latin America that illustrate the need to devolve responsibility for development and notes language and literacy play a vital role in this process.…

Examines statistics on minority illiteracy from the 1990 Chinese national census across age groups in relation to China's changing language policy among three types of minority communities: those with writing systems of historically broad usage; those with historically limited usage; and those without functional writing systems. (Author/VWL)

Outlines some of the key complexities and controversies that surround the advocacy of minority language rights, most notably via the movement of linguistic human rights (LHR). Argues that while the LHR movement has much to offer, particularly in articulating how minority languages might come to enjoy some of the privileges accorded majority…

Juxtaposes postmodernist discourses on language, identity, and cultural power with historical forms of language inequalities grounded in the nation-state. Focuses on mixed legacies of language-state relations within the pluralist nation state, colonial and post-colonial language policies. Examines the concept of linguistic minority rights beyond…

Focuses on the quest of contested speech forms for legitimacy as languages rather than dialects, the distinction being explored solely in a political context. Suggests that although the European Union supports the role of nation states in the legitimization of languages, the regular use of French and English has enhanced the status of these two…

Charts the recent debates in France in response to the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages that, if ratified and implemented, would grant limited protection to minority regional languages there. Examines the tenor and substance of the debates surrounding the fate of the charter. Argues that much of its opposition rests on France's…

Focuses on issues raised in the late 1990's by the debate about the second major piece of language legislation in Catalonia. Catalonia is a region where devolution and language policies in favor of regional language may have reached limits that are not so much imposed by the national state as by demographic developments within Catalonia itself and…