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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 425

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Language policy in private sector businesses in Wales

Authors: Haidinger, Elisabeth
Submitted by: Haidinger, Elisabeth (Vienna University, Austria)

Debates about language policy comprise more than just the language in question. It is mainly the political, economic, social, ideological and cultural contexts that nurture the discussion and shape the need for policies as well as their practical implications (Ricento 2006). As language policy is concomitant to choice (Spolsky 2004), language choices between the minority and the majority language are affected by top-down pressures, e.g. government aspirations, and bottom-up needs and desires.

The juxtaposition of explicit and implicit Welsh-English bilingual scenarios and language policy mechanisms (Shohamy 2006) gives thus rise to issues of language legislation and language policy, language ideologies, power struggles and conflicting discourses surrounding the promotion of Welsh in an ever more globalising world, where languages become increasingly commodified (Heller 2010). Recently, Wales has experienced a marked shift in language policy and planning, with the language being pushed into new areas of use, moving beyond the more traditional fields such as the public sector, the media or the field of education. With a new legislative framework in place and the Welsh Assembly Government’s ambitious strategy of creating a ‘truly bilingual Wales’, private sector businesses have become identified as a germane space of bilingualism.

Taking cognizance of the complex issue at hand, the proposed paper considers how the discursive strategies in a set of policy documents are used to promote Welsh in the private sector and how these policies and inherent ideologies inform language choice in Welsh businesses.Specifically, this contribution seeks to examine what factors are conducive or counter-conducive to the use of Welsh in a business context, against the background of the concept of language choice and the disparate views on language as a need and/or language as a preference. The central research questions which the study sets out to address are the following: Which experiences and ideologies shape the use of Welsh in businesses? How is the promotion of Welsh in the private sector realised and discursively constructed in language policy documents? How do policies and ideologies inform language choice and vice versa?

In this talk, I first provide a contextual framework for examining the discourse on promoting Welsh in the private sector. Cardiff – the political, cultural, and economic hub of language planning activities – and Bangor – one of the ‘heartlands’ of the Welsh language – are the contexts for my empirical research. I then analyse examples of policy documents by drawing on Critical Discourse Analysis. Finally, I report specific findings from my empirical study based on questionnaires and qualitative interviews with firms located in Cardiff and Bangor in order to uncover how this language policy discourse, characterised by promotion and persuasion, compares with the stakeholders’ perceived practices and beliefs.

 

References:

 

Heller, Monica. 2010. "The Commodification of Language". Annual Review of Anthropology 39: 101-114.

Ricento, Thomas (ed.) 2006. An Introduction to Language Policy: Theory and Method. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.

Shohamy, Elana. 2006. Language Policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches. London: Routledge.

Spolsky, Bernhard. 2004. Language Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.