Lessons We Have Learnt from Language Planning and Microlinguistics and Directions for Future Research

Abstract

Language policy and planning (LPP) research has long been interested in matters of language policy and planning on the macro level, that is, the level of the state and thus from a top-down perspective. Within this strand of research, investigators have considered the relationship between language policy measures and the ethnic and linguistic makeup of societies, the development of standard languages and their implementation, language revival movements and postcolonial language policies. But, as Spolsky (2004, p. 56) points out, ‘[l]anguage policy studies that focus only on the individual nation state and its centralized language planning are likely to miss many significant features’. This criticism — together with others — has given rise to approaches that focus more on the micro level, investigating actual language use and speakers’ attitudes and attempting to bridge the gap between the macro and micro levels by examining the interaction between the two and trying to ascertain to what extent and in what way the macro level influences the micro level and how micro-level processes contribute to the creation and maintenance of macro-level objectives and processes. This volume follows these new lines of research, which are sparked off by the need for more empirical analyses, bringing the speakers to centre-stage.