"Linguistic human rights and linguistic democracy in the Nordic countries (and the rest of the world) - fleeting entities?

1
"Linguistic human rights and linguistic democracy
in the Nordic countries (and the rest of the
world) - fleeting entities?

• Dr. Tove Skutnabb-Kangas
• University of Roskilde, Denmark
• Åbo Akademi University, Vasa, Finland
• http//www.ruc.dk/tovesk/
• skutnabb-kangas_at_mail.dk

2
Abstract

• We in the Nordic countries often construct
  glorifying images of ourselves as havens for
  democracy and human rights, as compared to the
  rest of the world. Our development cooperation
  and some of our roles in international politics
  as conflict mediators and even preventers
  strengthen the image of us as those who have more
  or less arrived - we are at the most developed
  end of several continua. How does this tally with
  our historical and present-day realities in terms
  of linguistic human rights and linguistic
  democracy? We have a pedigree of imperialist
  assimilatory language policies towards the Saami,
  the Finnish speakers, the Inuits, the Deaf. Both
  indigenous peoples and most linguistic minorities
  in the Nordic countries still have to struggle to
  be granted, even on paper and still more in
  practice, some of those basic linguistic human
  rights that linguistic majorities take for
  granted for themselves. In relation to immigrated
  minorities, there is no linguistic democracy
  whatsoever, and the linguistic genocide (defined
  in terms of the United Nations Genocide
  Convention, Articles 2b and 2e) continues in
  schools. It does not make it better that many
  other European Union countries keep us company.
  Council of Europe is trying hard, with inadequate
  resources and of necessity watered-down
  compromises, to improve the situation. The paper
  will present evidence for these claims but also
  ask what kind of positive openings there might
  be, and present some arguments for why the states
  are in fact working against their own interests
  by not granting full democratic linguistic human
  rights to all residents, and supporting these
  rights globally.

3
Guidelines for USA foreign policy from 1948
Bret-ton Woods, to World Bank IMF to WTO.
George Kennan, main USA BW negotiator in 1948

• We have 50 of the worlds wealth, but only
  6,3 of its population. In this situation, our
  real job in the coming period is to devise a
  pattern of relationships which permit us to
  maintain this position of disparity. To do so, we
  have to dispense with all sentimentality ... we
  should cease thinking about human rights, the
  raising of living standards, and democratisation

4
Link 1944 2002 USA unilateral domination

• Bretton Woods 1944, UN Monetary and Financial
  Conference. Goal to make everybody embrace the
  Unites States' 'elementary economic axiom ...
  that prosperity has no fixed limits', as
  expressed by the president of the conference, the
  U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau,
  in his opening speech

• Hervé Kempf (2002) the fact that the USA has
  stepped up its military spending while rejecting
  multilateral agreements is no mere coincidence.
  There is a structural link between the two. This
  is because, in the US administration's view, the
  American way of life, which is based on a very
  high level of consumption, is not something that
  should be called into question.

5
Global domination of USA corporate, national
interests is legitimate they are universal!!

• The U.S. Council for Foreign Relations, 1944 a
  global economy, dominated by U.S. corporate
  interests
• the USA would need to dominate economically
  and militarily because the U.S. national
  interest required free access to the markets and
  raw materials of this area (Korten 1996 21).

• Condoleezza Rice, President G.W. Bushs foreign
  affairs advisor, in Campaign 2000. Promoting the
  national interest
• The rest of the world is best served by the USA
  pursuing its own interests because American
  values are universal

6
USA savings 19 billion/year 1

• Most European countries teach a lot of foreign
  languages in schools Britain and the USA do not.
  The savings (as compared to Europe) because of
  the very limited foreign language teaching in the
  USA, with some 38 million pupils in elementary
  and secondary schools, are minimally around
• 19 billion dollars per year
• (Grin Sfreddo 1997, Grin 2003).
• They benefit, we pay.

7
USA savings 19 billion/year 2

• These savings are made possible because "people
  in the rest of the world are willing to devote
  time, money and effort in learning English
  (Grin 2003).
• And obviously the USA can then invest this saved
  money (and time) into some other
  human-capital-enhancing activity that gives their
  students an edge.

8
Pierre Bourdieu globalisation is ideological
universalisation of particular models

• France, glorifying the French society as
  the presumed incarnation of the Rights of Man
  saw the inheritance of the French Revolution
  as the model for all possible revolutions.
  Building on this example, Bourdieu (2001 96-97)
  describes today's globalisation as a
  pseudo-concept that is both descriptive and
  prescriptive, which has replaced modernisation,
  that was long used in the social sciences in the
  USA as a euphemistic way of imposing a naively
  ethnocentric evolutionary model by means of which
  different societies were classified according to
  their distance from the economically most
  advanced society, i.e. American society.

9
Bourdieu globalisation the USA universalising
its own particularity covertly as a universal
model

• The word globalisation (and the model it
  expresses) incarnates the most accomplished form
  of the imperialism of the universal, which
  consists of one society i.e. the USA
  universalising its own particularity covertly as
  a universal model.
• Bourdieu (2001, 96-97), translation Robert
  Phillipson

10
Lykketoft, Kurdistan, Denmark and DANIDA

• In his opening speech at the conference The
  Kurds One People - Four States - What Kind of
  Future? 26 May 2004 at the Danish Parliament, the
  former Foreign Minister Mogens Lykketoft,
  defended cultural communities as "fundamental
  parts of our lives as humans" and our duty to
  "protect the right to enjoy each our own culture,
  each history and each our language" (Lykketoft
  2004 5). Who could disagree?
• He also claimed that "it is an infringement of
  the human rights when Kurds are denied the use of
  their mother tongue No matter whether it
  happens in Turkey, in Iraq, in Iran - or in
  Syria" (ibid.) and added, after listing some of
  the other crimes against Kurds, that "there is no
  excuse for these crimes. Only condemnation"
  (ibid.).
• But when it happens Denmark?

11
But when it happens Denmark 1

• Interestingly, Lykketoft did not mention or
  condemn the fact that Kurdish children are denied
  the right to use their mother tongue in Danish
  day care centers and schools. He did not tell the
  participants that it was his party, the Social
  Democrats, which, while in power, suggested that
  the teaching of immigrant and refugee minorities
  mother tongues should be abolished from schools
  and the children should have more Danish instead.

12
But when it happens Denmark 2

• It was one of Lykketofts party fellows (Svend
  Erik Hermansen, Social Democrat Party, chair of
  the Board of Education and Culture in Høje
  Tåstrup) who uttered the following memorable
  words
• 'It is self-evident that refugees who are only
  going to be in Denmark during a short period
  should maintain their mother tongue. But when one
  is born and has grown up in Denmark and will have
  one's whole existence here, then the mother
  tongue is Danish - full stop.' (Said to
  Berlingske Tidende, reported in Information 11
  December 1995, p. 7 emphasis added).

13
Denmark supports ethnic communities but not
in Denmark

• It is also interesting that DANIDA, the Danish
  development cooperation agency, supports the
  right of "ethnic communities" to organize on the
  basis of ethnicity, as something positive, in
  countries like Bolivia or Ecuador
• while the same type of organization in Denmark
  (e.g. by Turks or Pakistanis) is called
  segregation and ghettoization.

14
Denmark supports bilingual education in Latin
America but not in Denmark

• DANIDA also supports bilingual education in
  several Latin American countries, because it is a
  human right for children to develop the mother
  tongue and understand the language of instruction
  but also because it leads to better results in
  Spanish
• while bilingual education for immigrant
  minorities does not exist in Denmark, not even in
  its most elementary early-exit transitional form.
  Children have no right to develop the mother
  tongue or understand the language of instruction,
  and better competence in Danish is attempted
  through methods which have never worked anywhere
  and are against all solid scientific evidence.

15
Denmark linguistic diversity is good - in other
countries - but in Denmark the hegemonic status
of the national language prevails

• Multilingual policies seem to contain
  contradictions, often trying to shore up national
  languages (especially against the threat of
  English) in the name of linguistic diversity but
  dampening linguistic diversity at the local level
  through the hegemonic status of the national
  language
• (Peter Ives 2004a 42).

16
Claim 1

• We in the Nordic countries often construct
  glorifying images of ourselves as havens for
  democracy and human rights, as compared to the
  rest of the world. Our development cooperation
  and some of our roles in international politics
  as conflict mediators and even preventers
  strengthen the image of us as those who have more
  or less arrived - we are at the most developed
  end of several continua.

17
Question 1

• How does this tally with our historical and
  present-day realities in terms of linguistic
  human rights and linguistic democracy?

18
Imperialist assimilatory language policies

• We have a pedigree of imperialist assimilatory
  language policies towards
• the Saami, in Finland, Norway, Sweden
• the Inuits in Kalaallit Nunaat /Greenland
  (Denmark)
• the Deaf in all Nordic countries
• the Roma
• the Finnish speakers in Norway and Sweden

19
CHANGES ?

• There are some big changes, though, mostly for
  the indigenous languages, Kalaallisut
  (Greenlandic) and the Saami languages, but to
  some extent also the Deaf and the Finnish
  speakers in Sweden and Norway. Very few changes
  have happened in relation to the Romany languages
  or languages of later immigrant minorities.

20
Language policies the Inuits in Kalaallit
Nunaat/Greenland 1
The Greenlandic flag was introduced in 1985,
designed by the Greenlandic artist, Thue
Christiansen. The flag shows the symbol of the
rising sun over the polar ice, which stands for
the return of the light and heat at mid-summer.
The colors, red and white like the Danish
national flag, are chosen to express Greenland's
relations to Denmark and Scandinavia.

Kalaallit is the plural form of kalaaleq, which
means 'Greenlander'. The second word, Nunaat,
means 'country'. In old sources the name inuit
nunaat, country of the inuits was used. Greenland
is the Norse name which Erik the Red gave the
country around 985.
21
Language policies the Inuits in Kalaallit
Nunaat/Greenland 2
Constitution

Greenland and the Faroe Islands are part of
the Kingdom of Denmark. All three areas have
the Danish Royal Family, the Constitution,
foreign policy, defence and the judicial system
in common. Both Greenland and the Faroe Islands
have two seats in the Danish parliament. Each of
the three areas has its own language and its own
flag. Both Greenland and Faroe Islands have Home
Rule. Source. http//www.gh.gl/uk/facts/context.h
tm
22
Language policies the Inuits in Kalaallit
Nunaat/Greenland 3
Language

By Greenlandic law, Greenlandic is the official
language. Greenlandic and Danish language may be
used in politics and administration.
Kalaallisut, Greenlandic, belongs to the
East-inuit family of languages and is a
polysyndetic language, which means that
the meaning-forming sentence elements used in
other words are fused into one word which may
stand for a whole sentence. Danish is used
extensively. English is the third
language. Source. http//www.gh.gl/uk/facts/contex
t.htm
23
Language policies Faroese (Denmark)
Section 11 of Act 137, 23 March 1948, on Home
Rule of the Faroe Islands
Faroese is recognized as the principal
language, but Danish is to be learnt well and
carefully, and Danish may be used as well as
Faroese in public affairs. Source
http//conventions.coe.int/treaty/EN/cadreprincipa
l.htm
24
Language policies the Saami, in Finland, Norway,
Sweden
Today there are some 50.000-100.00 Saami in the
Nordic countries (plus
very few in Russia). Nobody knows the
numbers. Probably around a third or fewer speak
one of the ten Saami languages. The legal
situation is fairly good in the Saami
administrative areas in Norway and Finland, less
so in Sweden. Saami outside these administrative
areas have very few rights. The question is to
what extent the revitalisation efforts have come
too late for most of the Saami languages.
25
Assimilationist language policies the Deaf 1

• Users of Sign languages have in all countries
  fewer language rights than users of all spoken
  languages.
• Invisibilation is one of the big problems for
  Sign languages they are often not thought of or
  counted when languages are listed, or when
  minority languages are granted some rights (no
  country has, for instance, signed the European
  Charter for Regional or Minority Languages for
  any Sign language).

26
Assimilationist language policies the Deaf 2

• Stigmatisation and deficiency-based theorising
  are other big problems for Sign languages
  Signers are mostly treated as handicapped only,
  and as suffering from a deficiency, rather than
  being treated as a linguistic minority.
• Enforced oralism in schools (being taught orally
  only, to the exclusion of Sign languages) and
  enforced integration (i.e. submersion) into
  hearing classrooms prevents Deaf students from
  learning the only language through which they can
  fully express themselves, a Sign language.

27
Positive Language policies the Deaf 1

• Sign languages are mentioned in constitutions or
  similar documents and have some at least symbolic
  protection in a dozen countries (the Congo was
  the first country to mention them in the
  Constitution, Finland was the second).
• From 2005 New Zealand Sign language will most
  probably be an official language in Aotearoa, on
  a par with English and Maori.

28
Positive Language policies the Deaf 2

• There are teacher training programmes for
  teachers of the Deaf. The best one is in Finland,
  University of Jyväskylä, initiated and directed
  by Markku Jokinen (President of the World
  Federation of the Deaf). Entry requirement
  native-like competence in (Finnish) Sign language
  and written Finnish. The aim of the 5-year
  programme is that teachers will be able to teach
  the whole comprehensive school curriculum through
  the medium of Sign language.

29
Imperialist assimilatory educational language
policies towards Finnish speakers in Norway and
Sweden and Saami in Sweden

• The Finnish speakers in Norway and Sweden (and
  the Saami in Sweden) have extremely few
  educational linguistic human rights even when
  compared to the rights granted to minorities by
  other European Union member countries

30
Educational linguistic human rights, especially
the right to mother tongue medium education, are
among the most important rights for any
minority. Without them, a minority whose
children attend school, usually cannot reproduce
itself as a minority. It cannot integrate but is
forced to assimilate.
31
Claim 2

• Both indigenous peoples and most linguistic
  minorities in the Nordic countries still have to
  struggle to be granted, even on paper and still
  more in practice, some of those basic linguistic
  human rights that linguistic majorities take for
  granted for themselves.

32
Question 2

• Do we in the Nordic countries grant educational
  LHRs for indigenous peoples and linguistic
  minorities with our ratifications of recent human
  rights instruments?

33
Human rights instruments with LHRs in education
for linguistic minorities

• The European Charter for Regional or Minority
  Languages, 1998
• The Hague Recommendation Regarding the Education
  Rights of National Minorities from OSCE's High
  Commissioner on National Minorities, 1996 (for
  interpretations, see also the UN Human Rights
  Committees General Comment on ICCPR Art. 27,
  1984)
• UNESCO Position Paper Education in a
  multilingual world, 2003

34
Who is included and excluded in the (hard or
soft law) human rights instruments mentioned?

• The European Charter for Regional or Minority
  Languages, 1998, explicitly excludes immigrant
  minority languages. No country has ratified it
  for any Sign language, even when Sign languages
  fulfill all the requirements for being included.

35
Who is included and excluded in the (hard or
soft law) human rights instruments mentioned?

• The Hague Recommendation Regarding the Education
  Rights of National Minorities from OSCE's High
  Commissioner on National Minorities, 1996 (for
  interpretations, see also the UN Human Rights
  Committees General Comment on ICCPR Art. 27,
  1984)
• UNESCO Position Paper Education in a
  multilingual world, 2003
• BOTH (SHOULD) APPLY ALSO TO IMMIGRANT MINORITIES
  AND SIGNERS

36
European Charter, Education Article 8, choices
for primary education (b)

• i to make available primary education in the
  relevant regional or minority languages, or
• ii to make available a substantial part of
  primary education in the relevant regional or
  minority languages or
• iii to provide, within primary education, for
  the teaching of the relevant regional or minority
  languages as an integral part of the curriculum
  or
• iv to apply one of the measures provided for
  under i to iii above at least to those pupils
  whose families so request and whose number is
  considered sufficient.

37
Choices made in Education Article 8 for preschool
(a)
i ii iii iv
Norway Saami X -
Sweden Saami, Finnish Meänkieli X -
Finland Saami Swedish X X -
UK Welsh Scottish-Gaelic Irish X X X -
38
Choices made in Education Article 8 for primary
school (b)
i ii iii iv
Norway Saami X
Sweden Saami, Finnish Meänkieli X
Finland Saami Swedish X X
UK Welsh Scottish-Gaelic Irish X X X
39
Choices made in Education Article 8 for secondary
school (c)
i ii iii iv
Norway Saami X
Sweden Saami, Finnish Meänkieli X
Finland Saami Swedish X X
UK Welsh Scottish-Gaelic Irish X X X
40
Choices made in Education Article 8 for technical
vocational education (d)
i ii iii iv
Norway Saami X
Sweden Saami, Finnish Meänkieli X
Finland Saami Swedish X X
UK Welsh Scottish-Gaelic Irish X X X
41
Choices made in Education Article 8 for
university and higher education (e)
i ii iii iv
Norway Saami X -
Sweden Saami, Finnish Meänkieli X -
Finland Saami Swedish X X -
UK Welsh Scottish-Gaelic Irish X X X -
42
How have these (few) rights been formulated in
the HRs instruments? Do they grant firm rights?
43
Binding educational clauses of human rights
instruments have more opt-outs, modifications,
alternatives, claw-backs, etc. than other Articles
44
Council of Europes Framework Convention for the
Protection of National Minorities and The
European Charter for Regional or Minority
Languages, both in force since 1998.
45
Council of Europes Framework Convention for the
Protection of National Minorities

• In areas inhabited by persons belonging to
  national minorities traditionally or in
  substantial numbers, if there is sufficient
  demand, the parties shall endeavour to ensure, as
  far as possible and within the framework of their
  education systems, that persons belonging to
  those minorities have adequate opportunities for
  being taught in the minority language or for
  receiving instruction in this language (emphases
  added).

46
Framework Convention for the Protection of
National Minorities The European Charter for
Regional or Minority Languages

• as far as possible
• within the framework of the State's education
  systems,
• appropriate measures
• adequate opportunities
• if there is sufficient demand
• substantial numbers
• pupils who so wish in a number considered
  sufficient
• if the number of users of a regional or minority
  language justifies it.

47
Claim 3

• In relation to immigrated minorities, there is no
  linguistic democracy whatsoever.
• Linguistic genocide (defined in terms of the
  United Nations Genocide Convention, Articles 2b)
  and 2e) continues in schools

48
Question 3

• Can what happens in Nordic schools in the
  education of immigrated minorities, be seen as
  linguistic genocide (defined in terms of the
  United Nations Genocide Convention, Articles 2b
  and 2e)?

49
UN International Convention on the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (E793,
1948) has five definitions of genocide. Two of
them fit todays indigenous minority education 
50
 

• Article II(e) 'forcibly transferring children of
  the group to another group' and
• Article II(b) 'causing serious bodily or mental
  harm to members of the group' (emphasis added).

51
Human Rights disappearing? Denmark forcible
transfer of children (Genocide Convention)

• Integration Chair of the governing party Venstre,
  Irene Simonsen suggests in an interview that
  ethnic minority children growing up in Muslim
  homes should be forcibly taken away from their
  homes, to be brought up by Danes. The way their
  parents bring them up, in isolation from the
  Danish society, cannot be accepted in a
  democratic society.
• Morning News on Danish Radio, 15th September 2004
• My comment This would violate the UN Genocide
  Convention there have been several serious
  suggestions by politicians in Denmark that HR
  conventions need to be reconsidered and
  modernised.

52
Agents of linguistic genocide

• Educational systems and mass media are (the most)
  important direct agents in linguistic and
  cultural genocide. Behind them are the worlds
  economic, techno-military and political systems.

53
What exactly do research results say, then?
Summing up two large-scale well-controlled
studies
54
If indigenous or minority children who speak
their mother tongue at home, are to become
bilingual, and learn the dominant/majority
language well, a common sense approach would
suggest that (1) early start, and (2) maximum
exposure to the dominant language would be good
ideas, like they are for learning many other
things - practice makes perfect.
55
In fact, both are false.What we have isan
early start fallacy, and a maximum exposure
fallacy
56
In fact

• the longer indigenous and minority children in
  a low-status position have their own language as
  the main medium of teaching, the better they also
  become in the dominant language, provided, of
  course, that they have good teaching in it,
  preferably given by bilingual teachers.

57
Ramirez et al. study, 1991, 2,352 students
Group Medium of education Results
English only English Low levels of English and school achievement likely not to catch up
Early-exit transi-tional Spanish 1-2 years then all English Fairly low levels of English and school achievement not likely to catch up
Late-exit transi-tional Spanish 4-6 years then all English Best results likely to catch up with native speakers of English
58
Ramirez et al. study, 1991, 2,352 students

• The common sense approach would suggest that the
  ones who started early and had most exposure to
  English, the English-only students, would have
  the best results in English, and in mathematics
  and in educational achievement in general, and
  that the late-exit students who started late with
  English-medium education and consequently had
  least exposure to English, would do worst in
  English etc.

59
Ramirez et al. study, 1991, 2,352 students

• In fact the results were exactly the opposite.
  The late-exit students got the best results, and
  they were the only ones who had a chance to
  achieve native levels of English later on,
  whereas the other two groups were, after an
  initial boost, falling more and more behind, and
  were judged as probably never being able to catch
  up to native English-speaking peers in English or
  general school achievement.

60
Thomas Collier, 210,000 students 1

• the largest longitudinal study in the world on
  the education of minority students,
• with altogether over 210,000 students,
• including in-depth studies in both urban and
  rural settings in the USA,
• included full MTM programmes in a minority
  language,
• dual-medium or two-way bilingual programmes,
  where both a minority and majority language
  (mainly Spanish and English) were used as medium
  of instruction,
• transitional bilingual education programmes,
• ESL (English as a second language) programmes,
  and
• so-called mainstream (i.e. English-only
  submersion) programmes.

61
Thomas Collier, 210,000 students 2

• Across all the models, those students who reached
  the highest levels of both bilingualism and
  school achievement were the ones where the
  children's mother tongue was the main medium of
  education for the most extended period of time.
• This length of education in the L1 (language 1,
  first language), was the strongest predictor of
  both the children's competence and gains in L2,
  English, and of their school achievement.

62
Thomas Collier, 210,000 students 3

• Thomas Collier state (2002 7)
•  
• the strongest predictor of L2 student
  achievement is the amount of formal L1 schooling.
  The more L1 grade-level schooling, the higher L2
  achievement.

63
Ramirez and Thomas Collier 1

• The length of mother tongue medium education was
  in both Ramirez' and Thomas Collier's studies
  more important than any other factor in
  predicting the educational success of bilingual
  students.
• It was also much more important than
  socio-economic status, something extremely vital
  in relation to oppressed indigenous students.

64
Ramirez and Thomas Collier 2

• The worst results, were with students in regular
  submersion programmes where the students' mother
  tongues (L1s) were either not supported at all or
  where they only had some mother-tongue-as-a-subjec
  t instruction. This is known as a subtractive
  learning situation.

65
There are hundreds of smaller studies showing
similar conclusions, with many different types
of groups and many languages, and from many
countries.And the knowledge is not new
66
All these studies show both the positive results
of additive mother tongue medium maintenance
education, and the mostly negative results of
subtractive dominant-language medium education.
67
Dominant-language-only submersion programmes are
widely attested as the least effective
educationally for minority language students
(May Hill 2003 14, study commisioned by the
Maori Section of the Aotearoa/New Zealand
Ministry of Education).
68
If education mainly through the medium of their
own languages, at least during the first 6-8
years, is what research recommends for indigenous
and minority children, is this how immigrant
minority children are being taught in the Nordic
countries today?NO!
69
Most immigrant minority children in the Nordic
countries are in submersion programmes, with the
wrong medium of teaching. They are taught
SUBTRACTIVELY.
70
Subtractive versus additive 1

• SUBTRACTIVE teaching through the medium of a
  dominant language replaces the childrens mother
  tongue. It subtracts from their linguistic
  repertoir.

71
Subtractive versus additive 2

• ADDITIVE teaching through the medium of the
  mother tongue, with good teaching of the dominant
  language as a second language, adds to
  childrens linguistic repertoir and makes them
  HIGH LEVEL BILINGUAL OR MULTILINGUAL. They learn
  both their own language and other languages well.

72
Research results are NOT being implemented.
Nordic states do NOT act in a rational way.
73
There are very large gaps between

• theory and practice,
• research and implementation, and
• rhetoric and realities.

74
To qualify as genocide, an act has to be
intentional. Have states had an intention to

• 'forcibly transfer children of the group to
  another group' and
• 'cause serious bodily or mental harm to members
  of the group' ?
• YES, unfortunately THEY HAVE
• to members of the group'

75
Have the states known? 1

• The negative results of subtractive teaching have
  been known already at the end of the 1800s.
  States and educational authorities (including
  churches) have had the knowledge.
• Modern research results about how indigenous
  and minority education should be organised have
  been available for at least 50 years, since the
  UNESCO expert group book The use of vernacular
  languages in education (1953).

76
Board of Indian Commissioners 1880 77

• first teaching the children to read and write in
  their own language enables them to master English
  with more ease when they take up that study
• a child beginning a four years course with the
  study of Dakota would be further advanced in
  English at the end of the term than one who had
  not been instructed in Dakota.

77
Board of Indian Commissioners 1880 98

• it is true that by beginning in the Indian
  tongue and then putting the students into English
  studies our missionaries say that after three or
  four years their English is better than it would
  have been if they had begun entirely with English.

78
Have the states known? 2

• If states, despite this, and despite very
  positive results from properly conducted additive
  teaching, have continued and continue to offer
  subtractive education, with no alternatives,
  knowing that the results are likely to be
  negative and thus to 'forcibly transfer children
  of the group to another group' and 'cause
  serious bodily or mental harm to members of the
  group'
• this must be seen as intentional.

79
Final question 4

• Are there arguments for why the states are in
  fact working against their own interests by not
  granting full democratic linguistic human rights
  to all residents, and supporting these rights
  globally?
• What kind of positive openings might there be?

80
FOUR REASONS FOR LINGUISTIC HUMAN RIGHTS IN
EDUCATION AND MAINTENANCE OF ALL THE WORLDS
LANGUAGESReason 1

• Prevent linguistic genocide

81
But are there (other) reasons for maintaining
minorities and minority languages? Are there
reasons for maintaining the worlds linguistic
diversity? Would it not be better if all of us
spoke just a few languages or just one?
82
FOUR REASONS FOR LINGUISTIC HUMAN RIGHTS IN
EDUCATION AND MAINTENANCE OF ALL THE WORLDS
LANGUAGESReason 2

• English is not enough

83
Supply and demand theories predict

• When many people possess what earlier was a
  scarce commodity (near-native English), the price
  goes down. The value of perfect English skills
  as a financial incentive decreases substantially
  when a high proportion of a countrys or a
  regions or the worlds population know English
  well

84
Figure 1. The market diagram (Grin 2003 26)
Price
Supply
P
Demand
Quantity
Q
85
Figure 2. The market for high levels of English
what happens when supply is higher than demand?
Consequences for market equilibrium
Price
Supply
2020?
P
2004?
Demand
Quantity
Q
When the supply (number of people with good
English) goes up, the price (its usefulness for
individuals on the job market) goes down
86
FOUR REASONS FOR LINGUISTIC HUMAN RIGHTS IN
EDUCATION AND MAINTENAN-CE OF ALL THE WORLDS
LANGUAGES Reason 3

• Creativity and new ideas are the main assets
  (cultural capital) in a knowledge society and a
  prerequisite for humankind to adapt to change and
  to find solutions to the catastrophes of our own
  making. Multilingualism enhances creativity,
  monolingualism and homogenisation kill it.

87
Industrial Knowledgesociety
society

• Main product commodities
• Those who control access to raw materials and own
  the other prerequisites and means of production,
  do well

• Main product knowledge, ideas
• Those who have access to diverse knowledges,
  diverse information, diverse ideas creativity,
  do well

88
In knowledge societies uniformity is a handicap

• Some uniformity might have promoted aspects of
  industrialisation
• In post-industrial knowledge societies uniformity
  will be a definite handicap

89
Creativity, innovation, investment - results of
additive teaching and multilingualism

• Creativity precedes innovation, also in commodity
  production.
• Investment follows creativity.
• Multilingualism can enhance creativity.
• High-level multilinguals as a group often do
  better than corresponding monolinguals on tests
  measuring several aspects of 'intelligence',
  creativity, divergent thinking, cognitive
  flexibility, etc.
• Additive teaching can lead to high-level
  multilingualism

90
What are the costs involved in people not
understanding the messages (also in education!)
and not being able to fully utilise their
potential and creativity?
91
FOUR REASONS FOR LINGUISTIC HUMAN RIGHTS IN
EDUCATION AND MAINTENAN-CE OF ALL THE WORLDS
LANGUAGES Reason 4

• Linguistic diversity and biodiversity are
  correlationally and causally related.
• Knowledge about how to maintain biodiversity is
  encoded in small languages.
• Through killing them we kill the prerequisites
  for maintaining biodiversity.

92
Ecological diversity essential for long-term
planetary survival

• Uniformity can endanger a species by providing
  inflexibility and unadaptability. As languages
  and cultures die, the testimony of human
  intellectual achievement is lessened.
• (Baker 2001)

93
Strongest ecosystems are most diverse (Baker 2001)

• In the language of ecology, the strongest
  ecosystems are those that are the most diverse.
  Diversity is directly related to stability
  variety is important for long-term survival. Our
  success on this planet has been due to an ability
  to adapt to different kinds of environment over
  thousands of years. Such ability is born out of
  diversity. Thus language and cultural diversity
  maximises chances of human success and
  adaptability .
• (Baker 2001)

94
The role of indigenous peoples

• Most of the worlds megabiodiversity is in areas
  under the management or guardianship of
  indigenous peoples
• Most of the worlds linguistic diversity resides
  in the small languages of indigenous peoples
• Much of the detailed knowledge of how to maintain
  biodiversity is encoded in the languages of
  indigenous peoples

95
Indigenous peoples are/have the key to our
planetary survival

• Indigenous self-determination is a necessary
  prerequisite
• for the survival
• of the planet.

96
Biocultural diversity ( biodiversity
linguistic diversity cultural diversity) is
essential for long-term planetary survival
because it enhances creativity and adaptability
and thus stability.
97
LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY DISAPPEARS MUCH FASTER THAN
BIODIVERSITYEstimates for extinct / seriously
endangered species and languagesaround the year
2100
ESTIMATES Biological species
Languages Optimistic realistic 2
50 Pessimistic realistic 20 90
98
Today we are killing biocultural diversity
faster than ever before in human history
99
FOUR REASONS FOR LINGUISTIC HUMAN RIGHTS IN
EDUCATION AND MAINTENAN-CE OF ALL THE WORLDS
LANGUAGES Reason 4

• Linguistic diversity and biodiversity are
  correlationally and causally related.
• Knowledge about how to maintain biodiversity is
  encoded in small languages.
• Through killing them we kill the prerequisites
  for maintaining biodiversity.

100
Mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians higher
vertebrates

• All these animals are higher vertebrates

101
Endemic languages vertebrates, top 25 countries
(Harmon)
102
Languages and flowering plants

• There is also a high correla-tion between
  languages and flower-ing plants a region often
  has many of both, or few of both
• (David Harmon)

103
Languages and butterflies,also a high correlation

• Where there are many languages there are also
  often many butterflies
• (David Harmon)

104
FOUR REASONS FOR LINGUISTIC HUMAN RIGHTS IN
EDUCATION AND MAINTENAN-CE OF ALL THE WORLDS
LANGUAGES Reason 4

• Linguistic diversity and biodiversity are
  correlationally and causally related.
• Knowledge about how to maintain biodiversity is
  encoded in small languages.
• Through killing them we kill the prerequisites
  for maintaining biodiversity.

105
Conclusions Oviedo Maffi 2002 2

• Correlations between Global 200 ecoregions as
  reservoirs of high biodiversity and areas of
  concentration of human diversity are clearly very
  significant, and unequivocally stress the need to
  involve indigenous and traditional peoples in
  ecoregional conservation work.
• Furthermore, there is evidence from many parts
  of the world that healthy, non-degraded
  ecosystems - such as dense, little disturbed
  tropical rainforests in places like the Amazon,
  Borneo or Papua New Guinea - are often inhabited
  only by indigenous and traditional peoples
  (emphasis added).

106
Indigenous peoples as agents in maintaining
biodiversity through TEK (Traditional Ecological
Knowledge)

• The least biodiversity-wise degraded areas tend
  to be areas inhabited by indigenous peoples only.
  Since the degradation is mainly created by
  humans, a conclusion is that those indigenous
  peoples who have not been colonised by others,
  have been and are important agents in the
  maintenance of biodiversity. The knowledge they
  have when interacting with nature in
  non-degrading ways is part of what has been
  called "traditional ecological knowledge" (TEK)

107
Traditional Ecological Knowledge" (TEK)

• "indigenous and other local peoples' knowledge
  and beliefs about and use of the natural world,
• their ecological concepts,
• and their natural resource management
  institutions and practices
• (Oviedo Maffi 2000 6)

108
Traditional Ecological Knowledge" (TEK)

• "a cumulative body of knowledge, practice and
  belief, evolving by adaptive processes
• and handed down through generations by cultural
  transmission,
• about the relationships of living beings
  (including humans)
• with one another and with their environment"
  (Berkes 1999 8)

109
Traditional Ecological Knowledge" (TEK)

• "in-depth knowledge of plant and animal species,
  their mutual relationships, and local ecosystems
  held by indigenous or traditional communities,
  developed and handed down through generations"
• (Skutnabb-Kangas, Maffi Harmon 2003 Glossary).

110
Traditional backward, non-scientific? 1

• Traditional" to some researchers still seems to
  mean backward, static, non-scientific,
  foreclosing all economic and social mobility and
  opportunities

111
Traditional backward, non-scientific? 2

• TEK "is found to be more complete and accurate
  than Western scientific knowledge of local
  environments" (Oviedo Maffi 2000 6-7). Several
  articles in Maffi (ed., 2002) and Posey (ed.,
  1999) also testify to this.
• Few people seem to know, for instance, that the
  Linnean categories were based on ancient Saami
  categorisation of nature

112
Traditional knowledge is not static

• Four Directions Council in Canada (1996, quoted
  from Posey 1999 4) describes
•  
• What is "traditional" about traditional knowledge
  is not its antiquity, but the way it is acquired
  and used. In other words, the social process of
  learning and sharing knowledge, which is unique
  to each indigenous culture, lies at the very
  heart of its "traditionality". Much of this
  knowledge is actually quite new, but it has a
  social meaning, and legal character, entirely
  unlike the knowledge indigenous people acquire
  from settlers and industrialized societies.

113
Transmission process of TEK in danger 1, ICSU

• Universal education programs provide important
  tools for human development, but they may also
  compromise the transmission of indigenous
  language and knowledge. Inadvertently, they may
  contribute to the erosion of cultural diversity,
  a loss of social cohesion and the alienation and
  disorientation of youth. In short, when
  indigenous children are taught in science class
  that the natural world is ordered as scientists
  believe it functions, then the validity and
  authority of their parents and grandparents
  knowledge is denied. While their parents may
  posses an extensive and sophisticated
  understanding of the local environment, classroom
  instruction implicitly informs that science is
  the ultimate authority for interpreting reality
  and by extension local indigenous knowledge is
  second rate and obsolete.

114
Transmission process of TEK in danger 2

• Actions are urgently needed to enhance the
  intergenerational transmission of local and
  indigenous knowledge. Traditional knowledge
  conservation therefore must pass through the
  pathways of conserving language (as language is
  an essential tool for culturally-appropriate
  encoding of knowledge).
• from The International Council for Science (ICSU
  )
• 2002 report
• Science, Traditional Knowledge and Sustainable
  Development) see www.icsu.org

115
FOUR REASONS FOR LINGUISTIC HUMAN RIGHTS IN
EDUCATION AND MAINTENAN-CE OF ALL THE WORLDS
LANGUAGES Reason 4

• Linguistic diversity and biodiversity are
  correlationally and causally related.
• Knowledge about how to maintain biodiversity is
  encoded in small languages.
• Through killing them we kill the prerequisites
  for maintaining biodiversity.

116
Transmission process of TEK in danger 3

• TEK is necessarily encoded into the local
  languages of the peoples whose knowledge it is.
  This means that if these local languages
  disappear, without the knowledge being
  transferred to other, bigger languages, the
  knowledge is lost.
• Question 1 Is the knowledge transferred to other
  languages? The answer is NO.
• Question 2 Are languages disappearing? The
  answer is YES.

117
Transmission process of TEK in danger 4

• Question 1 Is the knowledge transferred to other
  languages? The answer is NO
• - most indigenous children do not receive
  teaching in and through the medium of their own
  languages - the knowledge is not transferred to
  dominant languages which do not have the
  vocabulary for these nuances
• - school does not have the discourses needed (it
  is formal rather than informal education)

118
Transmission process of TEK in danger 5

• Question 2 Are languages disappearing? The
  answer is YES.

119
Diane Ackerman 1997
We are among the rarest of the rare not because
of our numbers, but because of the unlikeliness
of our being here at all, the pace of our
evolution, our powerful grip on the whole planet,
and the precariousness of our future. We are
evolutionary whiz kids who are better able to
transform the world than to understand it. Other
animals cannot evolve fast enough to cope with
us. It is possible that we may also become
extinct, and if we do, we will not be the only
species that sabotaged itself, merely the only
one that could have prevented it.