Whilst a range of previous studies of language policy and planning (LPP) have focused on the implementation of top-down macro-level policy, this edited volume attempts to link the micro and the macro levels of LPP by examining how the two interact and influence each other. The volume aims to stress the importance of individual language users and discuss the rationale behind their decisions to adopt or resist sociolinguistic norms and macro-level policies in practice.
Preceded by an introduction by editors Winifred V. Davies and Evelyn Ziegler, the volume is divided into three parts: ‘Education’, ‘Practice’, and ‘Ideology and attitudes’. The first part, ‘Education’, analyses the link between macro-level policy-making and what language users actually do in educational settings. It starts with Astrid Rothe & Katarina Wagner's study of the top-down policies and bottom-up influences of bilingual kindergarten education in Germany. In chapter 3, Raphael Berthele analyses the top-down implementation of a standard variety of Romansh and the resistance that it encountered in Graubünden, Switzerland. Chapter 4, by Melanie Wagner, discusses the consensus and divergences between policy documents produced by the education ministry and secondary school teachers’ actual beliefs and practices in teaching German in Luxembourg. In chapter 5, Vít Dovalil uses the framework of language management theory to investigate teachers’ metalinguistic activities at Czech universities.
The next part, ‘Practice’, focuses on local linguistic practices outside the educational domain. Chapter 6, by Damien Hall & David Hornsby, looks at the interaction between macro and micro processes in facilitating the diffusion of supralocal norms in France. Based on a corpus analysis of spelling norms of Luxembourgish, Peter Gilles in chapter 7 reveals ‘tacit language norm implementation’ in which the media play an important role and provide model texts for direct imitation. In chapter 8, Anne Kjærgaard investigates the way in which polices based on plain language ideology are implemented and affect actual practice in two Danish public institutions.
The last part of the volume is entitled ‘Ideology and attitudes’. Chapter 9 reflects on the linguistic definition of standard language as evidenced in the conceptions and usages of language users at micro level. In chapter 10, Lisa Fairbrother analyses the tension between language policy at headquarters of multinational corporations and micro-level reaction in local branch offices in Tokyo. In chapter 11, Laura Carmel Diver examines the national, regional, and local levels of language policy in France, and how they impact on the revitalization of the minority language, Occitan. The volume closes with a multi-perspective evaluation of empirical and theoretical aspects of existing LPP research, in which the two editors call for further interdisciplinary approaches to better understand the micro practices and macro processes involved in LPP and their cross-level interaction.
In sum, this volume covers various contexts (the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, and Switzerland) and includes a wide range of individual language users (secondary-school teachers, local branch managers, plurilingual employees, national education ministries, etc.). By bringing language users to center-stage and highlighting the microlinguistic perspective, this volume is an invaluable and major contribution to LPP research.
