Nations, Language and Citizenship

Nations, Language and Citizenship PDF

Author: Norman Berdichevsky

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2018-02-22

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0786427000

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This study evaluates the importance of language in achieving a sense of national solidarity, considering factors such as territory, religion, race, historical continuity, and memory. It investigates the historical experiences of countries and ethnic or regional minorities according to how their political leadership, intellectual elite, or independence movements answered the question, "Who are we?" The Americans, British, and Australians all speak English, just as the French, Haitians, and French-Canadians all speak French, sharing common historical origin, vocabulary and usage--but each nationality's use of its language differs. So does language transform a citizenry into a community / or is a "national language" the product of idealogy? This work presents 26 case studies and raises three questions: whether the people of independent countries consider language the most important factor in creating their sense of nationality; whether the people living in multi-ethnic states or as regional minorities are most loyal to the community with which they share a language or the community with which they share citizenship; and whether people in countries with civil strife find a common language enough to create a sense of political solidarity. The study also covers hybrid languages, language revivals, the difference between dialects and languages, government efforts to promote or avoid bilingualism, the manipulation of spelling and alphabet reform. Illustrations include postage stamps, banknotes, flags, and posters illustrating language controversies. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Struggles for Multilingualism and Linguistic Citizenship

Struggles for Multilingualism and Linguistic Citizenship PDF

Author: Quentin Williams

Publisher: Channel View Publications

Published: 2022-07-08

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 1800415338

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book offers a fresh perspective on the social life of multilingualism through the lens of the important notion of linguistic citizenship. All of the chapters are underpinned by a theoretical and methodological engagement with linguistic citizenship as a useful heuristic through which to understand sociolinguistic processes in late modernity, focusing in particular on linguistic agency and voices on the margins of our societies. The authors take stock of conservative, liberal, progressive and radical social transformations in democracies in the north and south, and consider the implications for multilingualism as a resource, as a way of life and as a feature of identity politics. Each chapter builds on earlier research on linguistic citizenship by illuminating how multilingualism (in both theory and practice) should be, or could be, thought of as inclusive when we recognize what multilingual speakers do with language for voice and agency.

The Multilingual Citizen

The Multilingual Citizen PDF

Author: Lisa Lim

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2018-02-27

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 1783099674

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In this ground-breaking collection of essays, the editors and authors develop the idea of Linguistic Citizenship. This notion highlights the importance of practices whereby vulnerable speakers themselves exercise control over their languages, and draws attention to the ways in which alternative voices can be inserted into processes and structures that otherwise alienate those they were designed to support. The chapters discuss issues of decoloniality and multilingualism in the global South, and together retheorize how to accommodate diversity in complexly multilingual/ multicultural societies. Offering a framework anchored in transformative notions of democratic and reflexive citizenship, it prompts readers to critically rethink how existing contemporary frameworks such as Linguistic Human Rights rest on disempowering forms of multilingualism that channel discourses of diversity into specific predetermined cultural and linguistic identities.

Language and Citizenship

Language and Citizenship PDF

Author: Tommaso M. Milani

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2017-06-09

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 902726516X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This volume offers fresh, cutting-edge perspectives on issues of language and citizenship by casting a critical light on a broad spectrum of geo-political contexts – Flanders, Luxembourg, Singapore, South Africa, the UK - and discourse data – policy documents, newspaper articles, ethnographic notes and interviews, skits, bodies in protests. The main aims of the book are to investigate institutional discourses about the relationship between nationality and citizenship, and relate such discourses to more ethnographically grounded interactions; tease out the multiple and often conflicting meanings of citizenship; and explore the different linguistic/semiotic guises that citizenship might take on in different contexts. The book argues that the linguistic/discursive study of citizenship should not only include critical investigations of political proposals about language testing, but should also encompass the diverse, more or less mundane, ways in which various social actors enact citizenship with the help of an array of multivocal, material, and affective semiotic resources. Originally published as a special issue of Journal of Language and Politics 14:3 (2015).

Language and Citizenship in Japan

Language and Citizenship in Japan PDF

Author: Nanette Gottlieb

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-12-12

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 1136503161

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The relationship between language and citizenship in Japan has traditionally been regarded as a fixed tripartite: ‘Japanese citizenship’ means ‘Japanese ethnicity,’ which in turn means ‘Japanese as one’s first language.’ Historically, most non-Japanese who have chosen to take out citizenship have been members of the ‘oldcomer’ Chinese and Korean communities, born and raised in Japan. But this is changing: the last three decades have seen an influx of ‘newcomer’ economic migrants from a wide range of countries, many of whom choose to stay. The likelihood that they will apply for citizenship, to access the benefits it confers, means that citizenship and ethnicity can no longer be assumed to be synonyms in Japan. This is an important change for national discourse on cohesive communities. This book’s chapters discuss discourses, educational practices, and local linguistic practices which call into question the accepted view of the language-citizenship nexus in lived contexts of both existing Japanese citizens and potential future citizens. Through an examination of key themes relating both to newcomers and to an older group of citizens whose language practices have been shaped by historical forces, these essays highlight the fluid relationship of language and citizenship in the Japanese context.

Language Policies and (Dis)Citizenship

Language Policies and (Dis)Citizenship PDF

Author: Vaidehi Ramanathan

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2013-08-07

Total Pages: 129

ISBN-13: 1783090219

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This volume explores the concept of 'citizenship', and argues that it should be understood both as a process of becoming and the ability to participate fully, rather than as a status that can be inherited, acquired, or achieved. From a courtroom in Bulawayo to a nursery in Birmingham, the authors use local contexts to foreground how the vulnerable, particularly those from minority language backgrounds, continue to be excluded, whilst offering a powerful demonstration of the potential for change offered by individual agency, resistance and struggle. In addressing questions such as 'under what local conditions does "dis-citizenship" happen?'; 'what role do language policies and pedagogic practices play?' and 'what kinds of margins and borders keep humans from fully participating'? The chapters in this volume shift the debate away from visas and passports to more uncertain and contested spaces of interpretation.

Learning the Language of Global Citizenship

Learning the Language of Global Citizenship PDF

Author: Adrian J. Wurr

Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Published: 2007-01-09

Total Pages: 488

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

While addressing the implications of rising multilingualism in America, Learning the Language of Global Citizenship explores the link between the achievement gap and academic language proficiency, as well as civic literacy and the individuals' motivation for civic engagement. In this book, the authors show how service-learning enhances language learning, international understanding, and global civic participation skills. This is a topical book designed for practical use by service-learning and language educators in applied linguistics and related disciplines such as English, foreign languages, hearing and speech sciences, and TESOL. It introduces readers to current and unique approaches toward research on first- and second-language acquisition, language policy and planning, language testing and methodology, assessment, and bilingualism. The book also raises fundamental questions for undergraduate and graduate courses with social justice themes by considering educational, linguistic, and human rights issues. Learning the Language of Global Citizenship is divided into four parts: Theoretical framework for developing service-learning projects in applied linguistics Domestic service-learning efforts International service-learning efforts Service-learning research reports representing Spanish, TESOL, teacher education, and composition studies The authors make a convincing case for promoting and preparing learners for educated and engaged citizenship in both local and global arenas. Each of the projects and methods they describe emphasizes the importance of second language proficiency for establishing and sustaining academic community partnerships in today's multilingual and multicultural societies.

Acts of Citizenship

Acts of Citizenship PDF

Author: Engin F. Isin

Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.

Published: 2013-04-04

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 184813598X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book introduces the concept of 'act of citizenship' and in doing so, re-orients the study of what it means to be a citizen. Isin and Nielsen show that an 'act of citizenship' is the event through which subjects constitute themselves as citizens. They claim that such an act involves both responsibility and answerability, but is ultimately irreducible to either. This study of citizenship is truly interdisciplinary, drawing not only on new developments in politics, sociology, geography and anthropology, but also on psychoanalysis, philosophy and history. Ranging from Antigone and Socrates in the ancient world to checkpoints, euthanasia and flash mobs in the modern one, the 'acts' and chapters here build up a dynamic and wide-ranging picture. Acts of Citizenship provides important new insights for all those concerned with the relationship between individuals, groups and polities.

Language, Immigration and Naturalization

Language, Immigration and Naturalization PDF

Author: Ariel Loring

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2016-04-20

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 1783095172

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This volume focuses on the everyday legalities and practicalities of naturalization including governmental processes, the language of citizenship tests and classes, the labelling and lived experiences of immigrants/outsiders and the media’s interpretation of this process. The book brings together scholars from a wide range of specialities who accentuate language and raise issues that often remain unarticulated or masked in the media. The contributors highlight how governmental policies and practices affect native-born citizens and residents differently on the basis of legal status. Furthermore, the authors observe that many issues that are typically seen as affecting immigrants (such as language policies, nationalist identities and feelings of belonging) also impact first-generation native-born citizens who are seen as, or see themselves as, outsiders.

From Foreign Language Education to Education for Intercultural Citizenship

From Foreign Language Education to Education for Intercultural Citizenship PDF

Author: Michael Byram

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2008-05-27

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 1847698832

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This collection of essays and reflections starts from an analysis of the purposes of foreign language teaching and argues that this should include educational objectives which are ultimately similar to those of education for citizenship. It does so by a journey through reflections on what is possible and desirable in the classroom and how language teaching has a specific role in education systems which have long had, and often still have, the purpose of encouraging young people to identify with the nation-state. Foreign language education can break through this framework to introduce a critical internationalism. In a ‘globalised’ and ‘internationalised’ world, the importance of identification with people beyond the national borders is crucial. Combined with education for citizenship, foreign language education can offer an education for ‘intercultural citizenship’.