ECML Conference, Graz, September 2007

Language policy for cultural and social cohesion

Les politiques des langues pour la cohésion sociale

Lucija Čok, Slovenija

For common issues common instruments are needed.

The balance between rights and duties of each human is important and has to be regulated on a common convention. Economic, social and especially cultural rights are not just individual, but collective rights of groups or even nations, and therefore subjected to special legitimacy. They are subjected to international law.

International law - the most representative and authorative document

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) International Covenant on Economic, Social

and Cultural Rights (1976) Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European

Union (2000)

Promotion of the full expression of all languages

Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL)

European Language Portfolio (ELP) Language Education Policy Profile New Framework Strategy for Multilingualism

Plurilingualism of the single speaker is:

“(t)he ability to use languages for the purpose of communication and to take part in intercultural interaction, where a person, viewed as a social agent, has proficiency, of varying degrees, in several languages and experience of several cultures. This is not seen as the superposition or juxtaposition of distinct competences, but rather as the existence of a complex or even composite competence on which the user may draw” (2001: 168). *Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning,

Teaching, Assessment

Intergovernmental co-operation

Language Policy Division (formerly the Modern Languages Section) in Strasbourg (France) since 1957

European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) in Graz (Austria) since1994

ECML programme 2004 - 2007

“Languages for social cohesion: language education in a multilingual and multicultural Europe”

Having based its work on the underlying values of the Council of Europe and its pioneering work in language education, the ECML is ideally equipped to act as a catalyst for reform in the teaching and learning of languages.

Apprendre à respecter et accepter l’autre

L’éducation interculturelle qui stimule le respect et l’acceptation de l’autre peut aider à trouver des solutions. Dans cette optique, il s’agit de l’expérience culturelle qui prend forme dans un dynamisme perpétuel des générations. Tout en recevant des valeurs intériorisés des générations antérieures, l’individu introduit sa volonté pour élaborer et accommoder le monde autour de lui. Dans ses ambitions existentielles il murit culturellement, le processus de la création de la mémoire culturelle démarre en lui et évolue si ses fonctions comportementales d’ordre cognitif et émotif ont été transférées (Cole, 1996:113).

Le transférant et le résultat

. La communication linguistique et la langue en

général est le transférant des fonctions mentales par excellence : elle est la forme matérielle et le contenu dans lesquels la culture génère des systèmes des valeurs culturelles, multiples et spécifiques.

La mémoire culturelle est le résultat des occasions multiformes dans lesquelles les faits réels deviennent des valeurs humaines

Approcher l’etnoréaltivisme - le modèle de Bennet (1993) [1]

La dénégation des différences Défendre ou stéréotyper les différences Minimaliser la diversité culturelle Accepter les différences culturelles S’adapter aux différences Modeler la propre identité en l’intégrant avec une

identité interculturelle

[1] Bennett, J.M.(1993). Towards ethnorealitvism: A development model of intercultural sensitivity. In R.M.Paige (Ed.) Education for Intercultural experience (2nd ed. pp.21- 72). Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.

‘Unity in diversity’

The European civilisation model: To reach / conserve the European tradition in

building healthy environment, social cohesion and better quality of life;

To promote linguistic and cultural diversity in society,

To promote a healthy multilingual economy, To manage relations with other societies.

Language learning and language use

Common goals in national education systems: To establish clear objectives for language teaching

at the various stages of education To sustain effort to raise awareness of the

importance of linguistic diversity To teach regional and minority languages and

migrant languages To promote early learning of languages To provide greater opportunities within the school

curriculum for exposure to foreign languages To promote multilingualism amongst students

Arbre à palabre

Kraj dogovorov, prepričevanja, razgovora o skupnem cilju. Mesto pod drevesom sredi vasi, kjer se veljaki afriških plemen dogovarjajo, ko nastajajo razhajanja v odločitvah (Boro, Centralna Afrika).

Arbre sous lequel se réunissent les notables, les anciens, les gens du village. En cas de démêlés ou de différends entre certains membres de la société Böro, le peuple, sur convocation du chef coutumier, se réunissait sous l'arbre à palabres afin de trouver un terrain d'entente. (Dekean-Zama, Au pays Böro, Afrique centrale).

http://www.cjmk.upr.si/

Link between language and economic processes in multicultural societies Refers to: Benefits and costs related to different forms of

intercultural / inter-group communication and regulation,

Different approaches in labour markets, Varying distribution of language inequality, Varying role of individual language in society's

economic development, Economic advantages of the policy on teaching

different languages (Novak Lukanovič, 2002).

Language as a tool in multilingual economy

There are links between economy and language: Language command offers a broad spectrum of

employment possibilities, It shows respect of language diversity on a

workplace, It is useful when bilingual/plurilingual contacts are

needed, It contributes to the production of human capital, It exerts indirect influence upon an individual's

economic and social status.

Economic value of language

The value of linguistic diversity (majority language, traditional autochthonous / indigenous minority language, immigrant group's language, foreign language), and the extent of financial and institutional support

The value of adequate inter-group communication, which includes adequate language teaching

The value of language vitality, which includes the effect of language upon commerce

One of the great challenges of the present European reality is to carry out the economic and political integration under the provision of cultural diversity and thus to offer to the global public, after a century, a new civilisation model. This new European civilisation model will be confronted with the first test in the numerous European "contact" settings, where - apart from the issues of international contact and settling the functional social, economic and administrative issues - conditions for coexistence and mechanisms to protect cultural specificities of different peoples, as well as ethnic and language groups and to stimulate social cohesion are created. Abolition of different kinds of "frontiers" will demand a major revision of traditional and ethnocentric conceptions and social behaviours (Bufon, 1997b).

Merci! Thank you!