Negotiating the politics of language

Abstract

Since 2001, political concerns over social and ethnic cohesion have stimulated new debates over citizenship and belonging in the UK. A central feature of which has been a civic requirement of new citizens to learn English. Such a debate however coincides with concerns around in-migration in Wales, and the highly contested notion that non-Welsh speakers have a civic responsibility to learn Welsh. This article aims to explore the contradictions between these two cases via research with adult language learners in Wales — a group often ignored within literature on language, identity and citizenship. In analysing learners' discourses, the article identifies the ways in which learners come to terms with such notions of responsibility. However, the article argues that by positioning language learning in Wales in relation to the development of Welsh civic institutions, and by locating learning itself as a means of expressing such civic identification to place, so the demands for linguistic accommodation by monolingual English speakers may be increasingly articulated

Language, Imperialism, and the Modern Nation-State System

“…The cumulative result has seen the gradual expansion of separate language and education entitlements within at least some states, despite the (p. 47) broader historical and contextual factors that continue to militate against such developments. This is particularly so for national minority groups and is illustrated clearly by the successful re-instantiation in recent times of previously marginalized national minority languages in, for example, Catalonia (May, 2010a(May, , 2011a, Québec (Oakes, 2004;Oakes and Warren, 2007), New Zealand (May, 2010b), and Wales (Mann, 2007;May, 2000;Williams, 2008). It is far less clear for immigrant groups who continue to be broadly excluded from minority language rights measures in international law, and even in national contexts such as the preceding, where some measure of national minority rights and associated promotion-oriented language rights have already been granted (see May, 2012a: Ch.…”

Across a thick white line: The relationship of a Welsh medium school and a low income neighbourhood in the south Wales valleys

“…Opposition to Welsh medium education and Welsh language promotion, suggests May (2000: 123), is ‘predicated on the long-standing derogation and vitiation of minority languages and … association of so called “national” languages with modernity and progress’. Alternatively, a third common interpretive frame presents disputes over Welsh medium education as identity-based conflicts over how one should effectively and fairly promote the learning and use of the Welsh language in a country that has a native English-speaking majority, extensive in-migration of English-speaking residents from England, and significant ethnic and multilingual minority communities, particularly in the capital city of Cardiff (Coupland et al, 2006; Giggs and Pattie, 1992; Mann, 2007; Williams, 2009).…”

“…over how one should effectively and fairly promote the learning and use of the Welsh language in a country that has a native English-speaking majority, extensive in-migration of English-speaking residents from England, and significant ethnic and multilingual minority communities, particularly in the capital city of Cardiff Giggs and Pattie, 1992;Mann, 2007;Williams, 2009). Though each of these interpretive frames contains elements of truth, none are a particularly good fit for the Slopes.…”

Language, Gender and Citizenship: Obstacles in the Path to Learning English for Bangladeshi Women in London's East End

“…For those living in segregated communities, the ability to speak English may afford them little advantage, or indeed, as in the case of Fultara, lead to them being the object of mirth. Mann's (2007) description of adult learners of Welsh can be applied to Bangladeshi adults attempting to learn English.…”