Linguistic Genocide in Education--or Worldwide Diversity and Human Rights?

Linguistic Genocide in Education--or Worldwide Diversity and Human Rights?
Author: Tove Skutnabb-Kangas
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 821
Release: 2013-05-13
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1135662363

In this powerful, multidisciplinary book, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas shows how most indigenous and minority education contributes to linguistic genocide according to United Nations definitions. Theory is combined with a wealth of factual encyclopedic information and with many examples and vignettes. The examples come from all parts of the world and try to avoid Eurocentrism. Oriented toward theory and practice, facts and evaluations, and reflection and action, the book prompts readers to find information about the world and their local contexts, to reflect and to act. A Web site with additional resource materials to this book can be found at http://www.ruc.dk/~tovesk/

Social Justice through Multilingual Education

Social Justice through Multilingual Education
Author: Tove Skutnabb-Kangas
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2009-08-20
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1847696856

The principles for enabling children to become fully proficient multilinguals through schooling are well known. Even so, most indigenous/tribal, minority and marginalised children are not provided with appropriate mother-tongue-based multilingual education (MLE) that would enable them to succeed in school and society. In this book experts from around the world ask why this is, and show how it can be done. The book discusses general principles and challenges in depth and presents case studies from Canada and the USA, northern Europe, Peru, Africa, India, Nepal and elsewhere in Asia. Analysis by leading scholars in the field shows the importance of building on local experience. Sharing local solutions globally can lead to better theory, and to action for more social justice and equality through education.

Linguistic Genocide or Superdiversity?

Linguistic Genocide or Superdiversity?
Author: Reetta Toivanen
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2016-07-26
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1783096071

Are we facing an immense wave of language death or a period of remarkable new linguistic variation? Or both? This book answers this question by analysing studies of language endangerment and loss along with those of language change, revitalization and diversity. Using case studies from Russia and the EU, the authors compare historical language variation to that of the present day, arguing that accelerated language extinction can be considered a result of colonization, modernization and globalization, but so too can many new creoles, intertwined and mixed languages, new ethnic identities, new groups of urban dwellers or migrant groups, all with their own distinct cultural traits. The book therefore surmises that the linguistic heritage of today is simultaneously more endangered and more diverse than ever before.

Linguistic Diversity and Social Justice

Linguistic Diversity and Social Justice
Author: Ingrid Piller
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2016-02-18
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0199937257

Understanding and addressing linguistic disadvantage must be a central facet of the social justice agenda of our time. This book explores the ways in which linguistic diversity mediates social justice in liberal democracies undergoing rapid change due to high levels of migration and economic globalization. Focusing on the linguistic dimensions of economic inequality, cultural domination and imparity of political participation, Linguistic Diversity and Social Justice employs a case-study approach to real-world instances of linguistic injustice. Linguistic diversity is a universal characteristic of human language but linguistic diversity is rarely neutral; rather it is accompanied by linguistic stratification and linguistic subordination. Domains critical to social justice include employment, education, and community participation. The book offers a detailed examination of the connection between linguistic diversity and inequality in these specific contexts within nation states that are organized as liberal democracies. Inequalities exist not only between individuals and groups within a state but also between states. Therefore, the book also explores the role of linguistic diversity in global injustice with a particular focus on the spread of English as a global language. While much of the analysis in this book focuses on language as a means of exclusion, discrimination and disadvantage, the concluding chapter asks what the content of linguistic justice might be.

Language Rights

Language Rights
Author: Tove Skutnabb-Kangas
Publisher: Critical Concepts in Language
Total Pages: 1754
Release: 2016-10-12
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780415740821

Research on Language Rights has produced an enormous-and unwieldy-corpus of literature. Moreover, such work is often controversial and contested, in part because of the need for scholars from different disciplinary traditions to coordinate their concerns and integrate conflicting paradigms. Now, to enable researchers and advanced students to make sense of this vast literature, and the competing scholarly approaches, Routledge announces Language Rights, a new title in its Critical Concepts in Language Studies series. In four volumes, the set draws on a wide range of disciplines, including Sociolinguistics, Law, Anthropology, Education, Sociology, Political Science, and Economics. The learned editors have assembled both normative texts and studies of their practical applications, as well as more diverse interventions and interpretations. Volume I presents some of the basic concepts in language rights and traces developments from treaties and national constitutions to human-rights principles, and conditions for the maintenance of languages.Volume II, meanwhile, explores the tensions between homogenizing nation states and the status of indigenous and minority languages in education. The third volume in the collection brings together the best thinking on recent developments in language and cultural revitalization through community mobilization around language rights, especially in education, the preconditions for their success, their relationship to land rights and self-determination, and state responses to demands for language rights. Finally, Volume IV assesses ongoing trends of regional and global integration and questions the prospects for the world's languages in the light of economic and cultural constraints.

Why English?

Why English?
Author: Pauline Bunce
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2016-06-10
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1783095865

This book explores the ways and means by which English threatens the vitality and diversity of other languages and cultures in the modern world. Using the metaphor of the Hydra monster from ancient Greek mythology, it explores the use and misuse of English in a wide range of contexts, revealing how the dominance of English is being confronted and counteracted around the globe. The authors explore the language policy challenges for governments and education systems at all levels, and show how changing the role of English can lead to greater success in education for a larger proportion of children. Through personal accounts, poems, essays and case studies, the book calls for greater efforts to ensure the maintenance of the world’s linguistic and cultural diversity.

Linguistic Human Rights

Linguistic Human Rights
Author: Tove Skutnabb-Kangas
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 485
Release: 2010-12-16
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110866390

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE brings to students, researchers and practitioners in all of the social and language-related sciences carefully selected book-length publications dealing with sociolinguistic theory, methods, findings and applications. It approaches the study of language in society in its broadest sense, as a truly international and interdisciplinary field in which various approaches, theoretical and empirical, supplement and complement each other. The series invites the attention of linguists, language teachers of all interests, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, historians etc. to the development of the sociology of language.

Imagining Multilingual Schools

Imagining Multilingual Schools
Author: Ofelia García
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2006
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1853598941

This book brings together visions and realities of multilingual schools throughout the world so as to examine the pedagogical, socioeducational and sociopolitical issues that impact on their development and success. It considers issues of multilingual schooling in different countries and for diverse populations.

Revitalising Indigenous Languages

Revitalising Indigenous Languages
Author: Marja-Liisa Olthuis
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2013-01-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1847698905

The book tells the story of the Indigenous Aanaar Saami language (around 350 speakers) and cultural revitalisation in Finland. It offers a new language revitalisation method that can be used with Indigenous and minority languages, especially in cases where the native language has been lost among people of a working age. The book gives practical examples as well as a theoretical frame of reference for how to plan, organise and implement an intensive language programme for adults who already have professional training. It is the first time that a process of revitalisation of a very small language has been systematically described from the beginning; it is a small-scale success story. The book finishes with self-reflection and cautious recommendations for Indigenous peoples and minorities who want to revive or revitalise their languages.

Sharing a World of Difference

Sharing a World of Difference
Author: Tove Skutnabb-Kangas
Publisher: UNESCO
Total Pages: 59
Release: 2003-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9231039172

We live in a world threatened by the loss of one of humanity's greatest treasures--it's linguistic heritage. But few realize that bound up with the loss of language is loss of knowledge about our environment. This book documents the complex interrelationships between the Earth's linguistic, cultural and biological diversity. It offers a general introduction to a complex field and outlines some of the key challenges facing sustainable development from cultural and educational perspectives. 'We need more than ever to find ways to share and maintain this world of diversity in which languages, cultures and environments are mutually supporting and sustainable.'