Making Languages an Object of Public Policy

Abstract

This article explores key issues involved in making language an object of public policy with particular reference to the relation between the multilingual competence of Australians and the perceived national need for competence in the languages of key trading partners. The theoretical framework that dominates in this field of making policy around language issues emerges from applied linguistics and sociolinguistics and is generally known as language planning. These branches of scholarship locate the systematic study of language within either a pedagogical framework or a sociologically oriented framework. Within these frameworks many language planning scholars locate the practice of public policy-making on languages under three broad categories. 'Status planning', which addresses the relative position and role of different languages (or varieties of a single language) within a single administrative or political unit. 'Corpus planning', which involves technical work to the internal resources of a language (its words, grammar, sounds, writing system etc) usually aimed at permitting the target language to handle technical or advanced scientific discourse. Finally, 'acquisition planning' which refers to the policies that public authorities adopt towards the learning and use of new languages or of new forms of language. This article concerns itself only with aspects of status and acquisition planning in the Australian context. [Author abstract, ed]