Language Education, Pluralism, and Citizenship

Abstract

This chapter explores the issue of language rights for ethnolinguistic minorities in modern nation-states. It examines why the nation-state system has privileged national languages at the expense of minority languages and why it continues to be preoccupied with the establishment and reinforcement of public mono-lingualism. Drawing on both sociolinguistics and political theory, the chapter argues that recognizing and expanding the rights of minority language speakers allow for the rethinking of nation-states in more culturally and linguistically diverse ways. This better reflects the interests of the increasingly multilingual populations of nation-states, particularly in this era of globalization, while also better acknowledging the postmodernist emphasis on multiple linguistic identities.