Introduction

When we talk about any aspect of the ‘social life of language’, we are talking, in good part, about markers of broad social attitudes and values. It is true, of course, that in studies of Black English and other nonstandard dialects, there are linguistic and sociolinguistic facts to be ascertained and discussed, facts that demonstrate (for example) the rule-governed and valid nature of such variants. It is true that approaches taken to foreign languages in the classroom can (or should) rest upon clear conceptions of the mechanics of language contact. And it is true that provisions made for bilingual educational accommodations – something I shall turn to in the next chapters – may quite satisfactorily arise from pedagogical imperatives alone. But it is equally true that the very phenomenon of ‘nonstandardness’ suggests something of social stratification, of sociopolitical hierarchy, of prestige and stigma; that it is not so many years ago that speakers of foreign languages in anglophone contexts were routinely treated as if they were educationally retarded; and that bilingual education is always accompanied by heavy social baggage. All of this reflects the fact that, as well as being a carrier of communicative meanings, language is also the bearer of more symbolic and intangible meanings – meanings that, ultimately, have to do with questions of identity, of self-definition and definition by others, of ‘groupness’ and its boundaries. Considerations of languages in contact, then, are almost inevitably considerations of cultures in contact. Bilingualism and multilingualism implicate biculturalism and multiculturalism.

Multiculturalism can be either a de facto description of an ethnically heterogeneous society or a matter of policy, or both. One may find societies that are multicultural on the ground, as it were, but officially monocultural, but it is rare to find formal policies of multiculturalism at governmental, educational and other such levels in contexts that lack any substantial or concentrated ethnic variety. Where official policies do exist, it is not always correct to read into them any great respect for diversity.