Issues of Prestige and Image in Language-in-Education Planning in Australia

Abstract

After providing a brief general framework for language policy and planning, this article examines the case of language policy and planning in Australia with a particular focus on how one of the elements in that framework, prestige planning, might contribute to successful planning implementation, thereby adding to our more general understanding of how language planning operates. It is argued that language-in-education planning in Australia, which has been the major vehicle for improvements in language teaching and learning over the last 25 years, has contributed to both the prestige and the spread of additional language teaching in the country. Thus, while it may not be generally recognised, without the receptive goals emphasised by prestige planning, language planning's productive goals would be much less likely to be achieved.

17 Language policy and planning for language maintenance: The macro and meso levels

“…Where languages have not created scripts, orthographies or specialised lexicon, these may be seen as motivations to exclude such languages from valued contexts, especially education (Liddicoat 2005). Prestige planning may alter how particular languages varieties are seen by speakers and so promote or impede language maintenance (Baldauf 2004). This chapter will; now turn to considering how macro and meso level LPP can influence home language maintenance.…”

A network model of language policy and planning

“…An emphasis on the development of models and typologies of LPP at a national level and the role of Governments in determining language goals and resolving national problems has overshadowed an interest in determining who was/is responsible for influencing the management of linguistic practice at macro, meso or microlevels. Aware of this lacuna Baldauf (1982Baldauf ( , 2004Baldauf ( , 2006Baldauf ( , 2008 and colleagues (e.g. Kaplan & Baldauf, 1997, Zhao & Baldauf, 2012 amongst others (e.g.…”

Home Language Shift and Its Implications for Language Planning in Singapore: From the Perspective of Prestige Planning

“…Early research perceived language planning (LP) as a one-way process, underpinned by the positivistic view that the major problems facing language maintenance and spread could be solved through the application of the scientific method and careful planning by language planners (Baldauf, 2004). This perception continued until the 1990s, when some researchers (e.g., Haarmann, 1990) started a series of studies examining receptive processes in achieving LP goals, with the focus on a more fundamental but hidden agenda -human behavior and the psychological aspect in receiving the planned language product, which gives rise to a theory of prestige and image (Ager, 2005a(Ager, & 2005b planning in the LP research literature.…”