engleski

Immigration Language Policy Practices in English- Dominant Countries – An Insight into Population Censuses and Related Language Ideologies

Research on population censuses usually focuses on the extent of (under)representation of either indigenous languages or languages of minority communities by focusing on those parts of population censuses in which individuals are asked to provide information about their linguistic profiles. The paper focuses on the analysis of the language parts of population censuses in the following English-dominant countries: the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The same methodology is applied to all analyzed countries: after an overview of basic characteristics of their language policies, a detailed account of language parts of their censuses is provided. Such detailed account primarily includes reference to the number and structure (wording) of language questions in the questionnaires, but also to other language-related aspects of conducting population censuses (such as provision of help in filling in questionnaires in additional languages other than English). Analyzed aspects of population censuses will be compared to the United Nations' recommendations concerning the language element in censuses. English-dominant countries are also major immigration countries, which makes them ideal candidates for investigating different aspects of language contact and language conflict. Most language policies reflect dominant language ideologies. However, since population censuses have become a major focus of sociolinguists’ interest only recently, their analysis might point to yet additional characteristics of specific language ideologies to which previous analyses of language policies made no explicit reference. As contexts of frequent language contact and conflict are identified as highly susceptible to formation of different manifestations of language ideologies, analysis of language questions in English-dominant countries' censuses lends itself to conclusions made in light of the concept of language ideology.

population census; English-dominant countries; language policy; language ideology

nije evidentirano