Language policies and practices across the Baltic: processes, challenges and prospects
Vihalemm, Triin ; Hogan-Brun, Gabrielle
In: European Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2013, vol. 1, no. 1, p. 55-82
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- We examine actions taken in the three Baltic states to (re-)establish their national languages in de facto multilingual surroundings. The implementation processes and initial impact of language ideology and language regulation on the language practices and socio-political participation of Soviet-period immigrants and their descendants living in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are described. In presenting a comparative cross-Baltic overview of language practices we discuss the national differences in connection with citizenship and political participation, population distribution and labour market surroundings. Our empirical data are draw from sociological surveys, population statistics and labour market segregation analyses. We focus on the interaction between regulations, language practices and social structural surroundings asking: How has the national language establishment shaped labour market practices, citizenship and education expectations? And vice versa: What could be the effect of the social surroundings on the formation of the language practices? We conclude that despite their different structural provisions, Estonia and Lithuania face somewhat similar future challenges in terms of creating a culturally more integrated education system. The minority agents when confronted with existing policy requirements have fewer possibilities to produce their own (alternative) solutions since ethnicity or language-driven social marginalization is perceived more as a problem here. In Latvia, the minority representatives seem to have sufficient resources in the private sphere to "slow down” existing state level language requirements, which enables them to create suitable surroundings for the ongoing maintenance of the Latvian-Russian multilingual environment