An international perspective on language policies, practices and proficiencies. Festschrift for David E. Ingram

An international perspective on language policies, practices and proficiencies. Festschrift for David E. Ingram

[Abstract]: The contributors to this volume come from countries in Europe, Africa, Australia, Asia and the U.S.A. to offer insights into selected themes of applied linguistics organized under the letter ‘P’: Policies, Practices, Proficiencies, Parity, Presence and Prosperity.

The major theme underlying the volume is the question of how effective national language policies are and whether language-in-education policy is possible (Robert Kaplan. The volume poses further questions: How can language proficiency achieved and assessed more effectively? How can language communities maintain their linguistic and cultural heritage? Richard Lambert (USA) provides a succinct overview of language policy across the globe, Colin Power (Australia) considers the linguistic needs in an increasingly globalised world. Some other papers focus on language policy issues in the European Union, (see e.g. Guus Extra, The Netherlands) and the English Only Policy in the United States (see Zeynep Beykont). Other contexts include the Fiji Islands (Francis Mangubhai) and Senegal (Ibrahima Diallo).

The second section of the book addresses the issues of language teaching practices. Some of the main themes include intercultural language teaching (Tony Liddicoat, Australia and Svetlana Ter-Minasova (Russia), leaner independence (Terry Lamb, U.K and Hayo Reinders, New Zealand). An interesting addition to the volume is the theme of peace education through language education (Reinhold Freudenstein, Germany) cooperative learning and teacher professional development (Indra Odina, Latvia), a case study of an Internet-facilitated exchange program (Shirley O’Neill, Australia Chen Nian-Shing, (Taiwan) Li Min-Lee,(Taiwan) Mokoto Kageto (Japan), computer assisted language learning (Laurence Quinlivan and Denis Cunningham (Australia))and the concept of communicative competence (Indra Karapetjana, Latvia).

The third section deals with language proficiencies. Sabine Doff and Jan Franz (Germany) analyse the Common European Framework of Reference (CEF). Ieva Zuicena (Latvia) considers developments and the evolution of the language proficiency levels in learning Latvian.

The fourth section of the volume titled “Parity, Presence and Prosperity” deals with the retention of linguistic diversity. Contributors to this section identify solutions for the maintenance of linguistic diversity in the world and in various ethnolinguistic communities. Alan Hedley (Canada) uses a web analysis of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Anikó Hatoss (Australia) reports on a sociolinguistic study of the Hungarian community of Queensland. Marie-Claire Patron (Australia) discusses language maintenance the context of Franco-Mauritians in Australia. Francisco Gomes de Matos, (Brazil), discusses linguistic rights and peace linguistics.

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