The principal aim of the European language policy is to increase individual multilingualism (what the EU refers to as ‘plurilingualism’) as is represented in the policy of mother tongue plus two (Weber and Horner, 2012) throughout Europe effectively. Furthermore, the Council of Europe has proposed several policies with regard to languages in Europe including the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) as well as the European Language Portfolio which are applied to promote language education. While they make an effort to spread their own language policies on a supra-national level, this policy fails to take into account the local policies of each European state in order to harmonize with the regional sociolinguistic situations.
Some of the European Member States have national language policies which are different from the supra-national one that can be considered as more flexible. In general, national or regional language policy is rather fixed. On the EU level, there are 24 official languages in 28 member states as well as a concrete policy for protecting the use of indigenous languages. In order to understand the flexibilities in language policies, this article will be illustrating the case of Luxembourg below.
Luxembourg adopted a language law in 1984 which is still in force. According to this language law, Luxembourgish is solely defined as a national language. Moreover, French is solely defined as a legislative language which can be used for drafting regulations. Luxembourgish, French and German can be used as administrative and judicial languages. Also, people who engage in administrative jobs are expected to respond to citizens in these three languages as much as possible (Loi du 24 fevrier 1984 sur le regime des langues).
However, looking at the current multilingual situation in education, this three-language fixed language policy in Luxembourg faces a hard moment in terms of adapting to other language repertoires which have not been included in the language law. In fact, Luxembourg is a country which is very multilingual and has a multicultural environment for several decades. It is always necessary to consider how to deal with other languages besides these three recognized languages in order to live together. There are for instance several articles on news websites concerning Portuguese children in Luxembourg, especially in the school context. The Portuguese population in Luxembourg now makes up around 16% of the total population (Statec). Children often become isolated from other Luxembourgish children when they speak in Portuguese together and they are sometimes punished because of doing so. It is not possible to ignore that Portuguese students should also maintain their mother tongue as emphasized in the news articles. The mother tongue is a basic knowledge that supports the learning of foreign languages as well as an important factor to maintain identity. Moreover, Portuguese children are forced to learn all the other languages that Luxembourgish students usually acquire at school. Obviously, it is rather tough for them to pass all the language tests especially the German one. They are good at French as they speak a Romance language as their mother tongue but not Germanic languages.
In 2015, nearly half of the population in Luxembourg consists of foreigners (Statec). Furthermore, more and more frontaliers (workers who live next to Luxembourg such as in Belgium and France) commute regularly. Not only for Portuguese people but also for other nationalities, language learning in Luxembourg can be an obstacle. This year, there are good news for migrants. A state-owned international school will open in 2016. The language policy in that school will be more flexible than the language law. Students can choose two languages from French, German, English and/or Portuguese while learning Luxembourgish is obligatory. This decision would be a great progress in language policy in terms of providing a Portuguese course in a public school.
As migrants in Europe is a hot topic, each state makes an effort to try to shift from a fixed policy to a flexible policy, which allows people to make decisions about which languages they use in a society. A link would be needed to connect language policies between the state level and the supra-national level. Also, each state should have the possibility to establish a local guideline on language policies depending on needs and situations. In order to achieve this, the insights on supporting from the local level (bottom-up) is more important than the official level (top-down). Language policies are mainly stipulated by governments but also other local institutions can make a decision. Hopefully, one day the aim of the European policy will be achieved more on an individual level.
Sources and References:
Children punished for speaking Portuguese in kindergarten & “maison relais”
École internationale à Differdange
Faut-il limiter la pratique du portugais à l’école?
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR)
MEMORIAL Journal Officiel du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg
New international school to serve the south
Weber, J-J, Horner, K (2012) Introducing Multilingualism: A Social Approach, Routledge, New York
Written by Shunichi Hashikawa
Study Visitor at TermCoord
Student at the University of Luxembourg