Abstract
In many language policy and political theory discussions, there is an overt skepticism, and at times outright hostility, towards the ongoing maintenance of private and, especially, public multilingualism, particularly when these include/incorporate the languages of linguistic minorities. For linguistic minority individuals, ongoing multilingualism is seen as delimiting the possibilities of their integration into the national society and the successful acquisition of the dominant (national) language(s). For linguistic minority groups, the maintenance/support of minority languages is viewed as a willful form of communal ghettoization, while any accommodation of public multilingualism—via, for example, bilingual education—is concurrently constructed as both an obstacle to effective communication for these groups in the wider society and a threat to their social mobility. The latter preoccupations with effective communication and social mobility also underlie recent linguistic cosmopolitan arguments in political theory that link globalization, communication and social mobility inextricably with the need for acquiring English as the global lingua franca. In this article, I critique and contest both this ongoing opposition to multilingualism, and the related privileging of English as global lingua franca, drawing primarily on political theory accounts, by way of example. Following from this, I argue that ongoing support for individual and public multilingualism provides not only greater opportunities for linguistic justice but also, counter-intuitively, facilitates wider inclusion and social mobility for linguistic minorities in an increasingly globalized world.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Alexandre, P. (1972). Languages and language in Black Africa. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Archibugi, D. (2005). The language of democracy: Vernacular or Esperanto? A comparison between the multiculturalist and cosmopolitan perspectives. Political Studies, 53(3), 537–555.
Barry, B. (2001). Culture and equality: An egalitarian critique of multiculturalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bauman, R., & Briggs, C. (2003). Voices of modernity: Language ideologies and the politics of inequality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Blommaert, J. (2006). A sociolinguistics of globalization. In N. Coupland & A. Jaworski (Eds.), The new sociolinguistics reader (pp. 560–573). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Blommaert, J. (2010). The sociolinguistics of globalization. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Blommaert, J., Muyllaert, N., Huysmans, M., & Dyers, C. (2006). Peripheral normativity: Literacy and the production of locality in a South African township school. Linguistics and Education, 16, 378–403.
Calhoun, C. (2003). Belonging in the cosmopolitan imaginary. Ethnicities, 3(3), 531–553.
Calhoun, C. (2007). Social solidarity as a problem for cosmopolitan democracy. In S. Benhabib, I. Shapiro, & D. Petranovic (Eds.), Identities, affiliations, and allegiances (pp. 285–302). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Canagarajah, S. (2005). Reclaiming the local in language policy and practice. New York, NY: Routledge.
Carens, J. (2000). Culture, citizenship and community: A contextual exploration of justice as evenhandedness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Carter, A., & Stokes, G. (1998). Liberal democracy and its critics. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Cox, R. (1996). A perspective on globalization. In J. M. Mittelman (Ed.), Globalization: Critical reflections (pp. 21–30). Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Crawford, J. (2000). At war with diversity. US language policy in an age of anxiety. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Dasgupta, P. (1993). The otherness of English: India’s auntie tongue syndrome. London: Sage.
De Schutter, H. (2007). Language policy and political philosophy: On the emerging linguistic justice debate. Language Problems and Language Planning, 31(1), 1–23.
de Swaan, A. (2001). Words of the world: The global language system. Cambridge: Polity Press.
de Varennes, F. (1996). Language, minorities and human rights. The Hague: Kluwer Law International.
Ellison, N. (1997). Towards a new social politics: Citizenship and reflexivity in late modernity. Sociology, 31, 697–717.
Extra, G., Spotti, M., & Van Avermaet, P. (Eds.). (2009). Language testing, migration and citizenship. London: Continuum.
García, O. (1995). Spanish language loss as a determinant of income among Latinos in the United States: Implications for language policies in schools. In J. Tollefson (Ed.), Power and inequality in language education (pp. 142–160). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Graddol, D. (2007). English next: Why global English may mean the end of “English as a Foreign Language”. London: British Council.
Held, D., McGrew, A., Goldblatt, D., & Perraton, J. (1999). Global transformations: Politics, economics and culture. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Henrard, K. (2000). Devising an adequate system of minority protection. The Hague: Kluwer Law.
Henrard, K. (Ed.). (2010). Double standards pertaining to minority protection. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff.
Heugh, K. (2008). Language policy in Southern Africa. In S. May & N. Hornberger (Eds.), Encyclopedia of language and education (2nd ed., Vol. 1): Language policy and political issues in education (pp. 355–367). New York, NY: Springer.
Heugh, K., Siegrühn, A., & Plüddemann, P. (Eds.). (1995). Multilingual education for South Africa. Johannesburg: Heinemann.
Hobsbawm, E. (2008). Globalisation, democracy and terrorism. London: Abacus.
Holborow, M. (1999). The politics of English: A Marxist view of language. London: Sage.
Ives, P. (2010). Cosmopolitanism and global English: Language politics in globalisation debates. Political Studies, 58(3), 516–535.
Joseph, J. (2004). Language and identity: National, ethnic, religious. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kachru, B. (2004). Asian Englishes: Beyond the canon. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Kloss, H. (1971). The language rights of immigrant groups. International Migration Review, 5, 250–268.
Kloss, H. (1977). The American bilingual tradition. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Kymlicka, W. (1989). Liberalism, community and culture. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Kymlicka, W. (1995). Multicultural citizenship: A liberal theory of minority rights. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Kymlicka, W. (2001). Politics in the vernacular: Nationalism, multiculturalism, and citizenship. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kymlicka, W. (2007). Multicultural odysseys: Navigating the new international politics of diversity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kymlicka, W., & Patten, A. (Eds.). (2003). Language rights and political theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Laitin, D., & Reich, R. (2003). A liberal democratic approach to language justice. In W. Kymlicka & A. Patten (Eds.), Language rights and political theory (pp. 80–104). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Language Plan Task Group (LANGTAG). (1996). Towards a language plan for South Africa. Pretoria: Ministry of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology.
Liddicoat, A. (2013). Language-in-education Policies: The discursive construction of intercultural relations. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Macedo, D. (1994). Literacies of power: What Americans are not allowed to know. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Macedo, D., Dendrinos, B., & Gounari, P. (2003). The hegemony of English. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.
May, S. (2000). Uncommon languages: The challenges and possibilities of minority language rights. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 21(5), 366–385.
May, S. (2003). Rearticulating the case for minority language rights. Current Issues in Language Planning, 4(2), 95–125.
May, S. (2005). Language rights: Moving the debate forward. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 9(3), 319–347.
May, S. (2008a). Language education, pluralism and citizenship. In S. May & N. Hornberger (Eds.), Language policy and political issues in education. The encyclopedia of language and education (2nd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 15–19). New York: Springer.
May, S. (2008b). Bilingual/immersion education: What the research tells us. In J. Cummins & N. Hornberger (Eds.), Bilingual education. The encyclopedia of language and education (2nd ed., Vol. 5, pp. 19–34). New York: Springer.
May, S. (2011a). Language rights: The “Cinderella” human right. Journal of Human Rights, 10(3), 265–289.
May, S. (2011b). Bourdieu and language policy. In M. Grenfell (Ed.), Bourdieu: Language and linguistics (pp. 147–169). London: Continuum.
May, S. (2012). Language and minority rights: Ethnicity, nationalism and the politics of language (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
May, S. (2013). Indigenous immersion education: International developments. Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Education, 1(1), 34–69.
May, S. (2014). Justifying educational language rights. Review of Research in Education, 38(1), 215–241.
May, S., & Aikman, S. (Eds.) (2003). Indigenous education: New possibilities, ongoing restraints. Comparative Education, 39, 2.
Modood, T. (2007). Multiculturalism: A civic idea. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Morgan, B., & Ramanathan, V. (2009). Outsourcing, globalizing economics, and shifting language policies: Issues in managing Indian call centers. Language Policy, 8(1), 69–80.
Mouffe, C. (1993). The return of the political. London: Verso.
Ngũgĩ, W. A. T. (1993). Moving the centre: The struggle for cultural freedoms. London: James Currey.
Nussbaum, M. (1997). Cultivating humanity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Pattanayak, D. (1969). Aspects of applied linguistics. London: Asia Publishing House.
Pattanayak, D. (1985). Diversity in communication and languages; predicament of a multilingual nation state: India, a case study. In N. Wolfson & J. Manes (Eds.), Language of inequality (pp. 399–407). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Pattanayak, D. (Ed.). (1990). Multilingualism in India. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Pennycook, A. (1994). The cultural politics of English as an international language. London: Longman.
Pennycook, A. (1998). English and the discourses of colonialism. London: Routledge.
Phillipson, R. (2003). English-only Europe? Challenging language policy. London: Routledge.
Pogge, T. (2003). Accommodation rights for Hispanics in the US. In W. Kymlicka & A. Patten (Eds.), Language rights and political theory (pp. 105–122). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ricento, T. (2000). Historical and theoretical perspectives in language policy and Planning. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 4(2), 196–213.
Ricento, T. (Ed.). (2006). An introduction to language policy. New York: Blackwell.
San Miguel, G., & Valencia, R. (1998). From the treaty of Guadalupe hidalgo to Hopwood: The educational plight and struggle of Mexican Americans in the Southwest. Harvard Educational Review, 68, 353–412.
Schmidt, R, Sr. (2000). Language policy and identity politics in the United States. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2000). Linguistic genocide in education—Or worldwide diversity and human rights?. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Sonntag, S. (2009). Linguistic globalization and the call center industry: Imperialism, hegemony or cosmopolitanism? Language Policy, 8(1), 5–25.
Tollefson, J. (Ed.). (1995). Power and inequality in language education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tollefson, J. (2000). Policy and ideology in the spread of English. In J. Kelly Hall & W. Eggington (Eds.), The sociopolitics of English language teaching (pp. 7–21). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Van Parijs, P. (2011). Linguistic justice for Europe and the world. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wright, S. (2000). Community and communication: The role of language in nation state building and European integration. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
May, S. Contesting public monolingualism and diglossia: rethinking political theory and language policy for a multilingual world. Lang Policy 13, 371–393 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-014-9327-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-014-9327-x