{"id":504,"date":"2010-05-18T10:00:21","date_gmt":"2010-05-18T08:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=504"},"modified":"2010-03-09T10:56:29","modified_gmt":"2010-03-09T08:56:29","slug":"language-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=504","title":{"rendered":"Language policy"},"content":{"rendered":"
Language policy:<\/strong> Hidden agendas and new approaches. By Elana Shohamy<\/strong>. New York: Routledge, 2006. Pp. xix, 185. ISBN 9780415328654<\/a>. $35.95.<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Colette M. van Kerckvoorde<\/strong><\/a>, Bard College at Simon\u2019s Rock<\/em><\/p>\n

The way in which we use language on a daily basis is not our own choice. Rather, our linguistic behavior is influenced and heavily determined by a small number of powerful members in our society who regulate and manipulate language to create a fertile ground for their ideologies to thrive. When people are told how to speak, basic democratic rights are violated. Sometimes, language policies are stated explicitly in official documents, but more frequently, policies can only be derived implicitly from a close study of de facto practices. In this volume, Elana Shohamy argues that language policies should be examined from a broad perspective that includes not only formal and declared policies but also mechanisms found in most societies to create desired language practices.<\/p>\n

The book is divided into three parts. In Part 1, S indicates that language is free, dynamic, creative, personal, and without defined boundaries. This view runs counter to the widespread myth that language is stagnated, rule-bound, closed, and finite. This myth, S states, was fostered by the formation of the nation-states in Europe as well as the emergence of the scientific study of language. As the nation-states emerged, they began to define which language their citizens should use and thus made language into a symbol of loyalty and patriotism (i.e. status policy). At the same time, some linguists became interested in establishing the correct forms of the language (i.e. corpus policy).<\/p>\n

Part 2 focuses on the various mechanisms that are used to encourage desired language practices in society. Four categories are distinguished: (i) official laws, rules, and regulations; (ii) language education, including second and foreign language education; (iii) language tests, especially those that determine entrance to educational institutions; and (iv) the linguistic landscape, such as street signs and advertising billboards. S demonstrates that most of these mechanisms should be considered policy devices because they create de facto policies. S frequently uses Israel to illustrate these different mechanisms, although occasionally she also draws on examples from the United States.<\/p>\n

S demonstrates that the encouragement and imposition of certain behaviors has consequences. In Part 3, she summarizes the consequences of overt and covert language policies and proposes strategies to respond to violations of basic democratic rights. Such strategies emphasize the need for a democracy of inclusion: a view of nations based on ethnic unity is outdated. S further argues that people need to become aware of the hidden agendas behind certain language policies; she advocates that commonly accepted myths about language be debunked; and finally, she calls for language activism to change the current situation prevalent in many nation-states.<\/p>\n

S raises interesting questions with regard to language policies and convincingly argues that many mechanisms violate basic human rights. Although her call for activism is appropriate, it remains vague. She neither provides any concrete examples of such activism, nor does she address how disadvantaged groups can find support for their fight.<\/p>\n

This book will appeal to students from a variety of disciplines such as education, sociology, political science, philosophy, and communication studies. Linguists, too, will benefit from this book, since they especially \u2018analyze and define the world in linguistic terms, often not realizing that languages represent only one aspect of identity\u2019 (143).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Language policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches. By Elana Shohamy. New York: Routledge, 2006. Pp. xix, 185. ISBN 9780415328654. $35.95. Reviewed by Colette M. van Kerckvoorde, Bard College at Simon\u2019s Rock The way in which we use language on a daily basis is not our own choice. Rather, our linguistic behavior is influenced and heavily […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":505,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions\/505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}