Linguistic Minorities, Policies and Pluralism: Applied Language Studies

by John R. Edwards (Editor)

Linguistic Minorities, Policies and Pluralism examines the position of some linguistic minority groups, including policies that affect them.

This book provides a useful perspective on group relations, emphasizing the aims, purposes, and values held by the societies in which linguistic minority groups exist. The structure of society and perceptions of pluralism and assimilation are also described.

This text demonstrates that there is not a simple opposition between pluralism and assimilation, there are difficulties with educational programs intended to support minority group language and identity, minority views are not themselves homogeneous, and advocates of cultural pluralism often hold over-simplified and unrealistic ideas.

This publication is a good reference for students and researchers conducting work on pluralism, assimilation, language maintenance/shift, and ethnolinguistic identity.

332 pages, Paperback

Published September 19, 2014

About the author

John Edwards teaches in the Department of Psychology at St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada.