UNIVERSITY OF SIDI BEL ABBES – DLU

FACULTY OF LETTERS , ARTS AND LANGUAGES

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

TEACHER IN CHARGE OF THE MODULE:

MRS. E. ZAHAF

LEVEL: MASTER 1
SPECIALTY: LINGUISTICS
MODULE: LANGUAGE POLICY AND PLANNING
SEMESTER: FIRST SEMESTER (S1)
Teacher: Mrs. E. Zahaf
Lesson 1: Language Planning & Language Policy

Introducing Language Planning

1. Introduction

Language is the most vital means of interaction between people. Whenever

and wherever there is a contact between people of different tongues, one language will
become generally superior and more used by time. Therefore, to guarantee preserving
languages, there is need to respect the significance, characteristics and function of each
one. However, authenticity has always reflected a different image and confirmed the
death of many languages and the spread of others. Therefore, ancient civilisations have
left their signs through language. Language is not only a means of communication, but
one of the fundamental characteristics and components of any society.

2. Overview of Language Planning

Diverse samples of Language planning (LP) as an activity have usually

occurred through time. “In one sense, our knowledge of language planning is probably
as old as recorded human history as it is a part of how people use language,” (Kaplan
&Baldauf, 1997: ix). Since antiquity, man has been known by his desire to improve
one’s existence. Hence, many models of writing were developed to engrave signs of
early nations. When the Romans conquered the circum-Mediterranean world, Latin
and Greek acted as lingua francas and the authorities of the Empire did a certain
amount of LP as Latin spread throughout the vast conquests of the Empire (Kahane &
Kahane, in Kaplan & Baldauf, 1997:1), and later, Arabic has been spread through the
teaching of Islam.

Language planning is also related to the rise of early academies. The

Accademia Della Crusca of Florence (1572) and the “Académie Française” (1634)
were founded for purifying, alleviating language and cleaning words that could not
have “a place in polite society”. The French academy was founded, for example, to
defend French from any influence, to purify the vernacular, expand its functions and
regulate the language so as to “render it pure, eloquent and capable of treating the arts
and sciences” (Cooper (1989), in G. Ferguson, 2006: 26-7).

Regulating, defending and improving language have all been occurred during
mankind life, whether consciously or not. As language plays a central role in
supplying all kinds of human contact, it is viewed one of the basic constituents of a
society, and so, it seems very logical to teach it to children accurately, and then make
them respect it. So, some sort of LP is naturally carried out to provide intelligibility
within the society, and inevitably a degree of policy occurs. So, what is language
planning and language policy? Is there any difference between them? And, how do
they occur? Focus in this lecture, is only on language planning.

3. Definition of Language Planning

Language planning, based on the tenet of growing a homogeneous people of

distinguished language and culture, has been deliberately and methodically undertaken
just as the rise of “Nationalism”, during the period of decolonisation. LP is widely
viewed as an activity, often calculated consciously, to influence the function, structure,
or acquisition of a language/variety within a society. It is often undertaken by
governments to find out solutions for social problems, to improve education, and to
preserve national identity. It could be also performed to specify which language for
which purpose in a given community. Thus, it seems clear that LP might be one of the
main factors that make positive changes to retain the language structure and function,
or to improve acquisition. Kaplan and Baldauf (1997) see that ‘Language planning' is
an activity, most visibly undertaken by government (simply because it involves such
massive changes in a society), intended to promote systematic linguistic change in
some community of speakers.’ (p. X)

Traditionally, LP has been seen as the conscious, future-oriented systematic-

change of language code, use and/or speaking, most visibly undertaken by
government, in a community of speakers. It is an activity endeavoured by a
government or an individual to adjust language problems in terms of the linguistic
behaviour of a speech community for some goals. As an academic discipline, LP is
usually linked to decolonisation. In fact, it has a quite recent origin, with the first use
of the term “language planning” attributed to Haugen’s (1959, 1966a) model. Many
works emerged like those stated in G. Ferguson (2006) and in Liddicoat & Baldauf
(2008), Language Problems of Developing Nations (Fishman, Ferguson & Das Gupta
1968), Can Languages Be Planned? Sociolinguistic Theory and Practice for
Developing Nations (Rubin &Jernudd, 1971), and others. The field has soon become
downward for its support to the leading power, its commitment to the notion of nation-
state, and its consideration of languages as natural.

4. Stages of Language Planning from Haugen’s Perspective

Haugen developed his model of LP (1966, modified in 1983) through an

analysis on Norway’s experience after its independence from Denmark, when a
Standard Norwegian uniform written variety was created. Haugen proposed his model,
seen as a major step in the provenance of LP as an academic process. He said that the
different components constituted abstract goals. He distinguished four processes that
he viewed in the beginning as crucial measures to develop a “dialect” to a “language”
and a “vernacular” to a “standard variety”. He also believed that the process of LP can
be highlighted from two angles: either from a “societal” and “language” focus or in
terms of language’s “form” and “function”. Conceptually, Haugen’s model is seen as
“the canonical model of LP” (Bamgbose, (1983) and provides, a good overview of the
planning process in an idealised sense. He suggested the following four elements that
are seen as steps of LP by some, while as types of LP by others:

(a) Selection of norm: identification of language problem(s) at a large level,

associated to the status of a language, i.e. to decide upon which dialect/
language may serve as a standard language for official or national status.
 (b) Codification of form: alleviating and arranging the form of a selected
language by adjusting its systems. It involves standardisation, graphisation,
grammaticalisation, and lexication.

(c) Implementation/Acceptance by the community: matters of implementing

the function of the selected language, to be either accepted, or rejected by the
nation supposed to use it, i.e. to make use of that language and spread it
through education, and other domains, mainly to evaluate the process.

(d) Elaboration of function: or “language cultivation” pointed towards

expanding the function and renovating terminology of the selected language,
to fit modernisation and fields of science, technology and economy.

Other scholars have also developed their theories of language planning. More
about them will be provide later. He is credited for identifying the main elements of
LP. Although his model needs revision to reflect the reality of language development
in states where “planning” sometimes takes place without real planning, it continues to
be influential (G.Ferguson, 2006:23). Haugen incorporated later the process of
“internalisation” to the procedure of “elaboration”, in his revision to the model in
1983. It is worth to note that many scholars see Haugen’s model as ideal, and that
conditions differ from a context to another.
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Suggested readings:
COOPER, R. (1998). Language Planning and Social Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
KAPLAN, R.B. & BALDAUF, R. B. (1997). Language Planning: From Practice to Theory. Clevedon:
Multilingual Matters LTD.
Ricento, T. (2000) Historical and theoretical perspectives in language policy and planning. Journal of
Sociolinguistics 4, 196-213.

Questions for discussion:

- What are the main steps for language planning?
- What steps of language planning can commonly occur in new independent
states where only spoken languages exist?
- Define the following words: language – dialect – vernacular – lingua franca
– standard language – official language – national language