Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Afterword

Language policy and planning processes in post-colonial Timor-Leste: struggles and alliances within and across scales

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Language Policy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The aim of this Afterword is to foreground and discuss some of the key themes emerging from the four studies in this special issue. I first consider the critical ethnographic approach to language policy and planning adopted in the studies, and the attention to language policy processes unfolding on different scales of social and institutional life. This is followed by my reading of the ways the authors present the different actors creating, appropriating, reframing or resisting national and language-in-education policies in Timor-Leste. The last part is devoted to the analysis of discourses and practices of particular social actors taken here as ‘language policy arbiters’ (Johnson and Johnson in Lang Policy 14(3):221–243, 2015).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. These are the three terms that occur most in the sociolinguistic literature. Here I will employ the term ‘scale’, following Blommaert (2007).

  2. Frelimo has been the party in power in Mozambique since Independence in 1975.

References

  • Assembly, C. (2002). Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (Section 13). Dili: Timor-Leste.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bamgbose, A. (2000). Language and exclusion: The consequences of language policies in Africa. Hamburg: Lit Verlag Munster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blommaert, J. (2007). Sociolinguistic scales. Intercultural Pragmatics, 4(1), 1–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blommaert, J. (2013). Policy, policing and the ecology of social norms: Ethnographic monitoring revisited. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 219, 123–140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cabral, E., & Martin-Jones, M. (2008). Writing the resistance: Literacy in East Timor 175-1999. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 11(2), 149–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cabral, E., & Martin-Jones, M. (2018). Paths to multilingualism? Reflections on developments in language-in-education policy and practice in East-Timor. In L. Lim, C. Stroud, & L. Wee (Eds.), The multilingual citizen: Towards a politics of language for agency and change (pp. 120–149). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Chimbutane, F. (2017). Language policies and the role of development agencies in postcolonial Mozambique. Current Issues in Language Planning, 18(4), 356–370. https://doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2017.1331495.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chimbutane, F. (2018). Multilingualism and education in sub-Saharan Africa: Policies, practices and implications. In A. Bonnet & P. Siemund (Eds.), Foreign language education in multilingual classrooms (pp. 57–75). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Heller, M. (Ed.). (2007). Bilingualism: A social approach. London: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heller, M., & Martin-Jones, M. (Eds.). (2001). Voices of authority: Education and linguistic difference. Westport, Ct: Ablex.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heugh, K. (2008). Language policy and education in Southern Africa. In S. May & N. H. Hornberger (Eds.), Encyclopedia of language and education, edition Vol. 1: Language policy and political issues in education (pp. 355–367). New York: Springer Science+Business Media LLC.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hornberger, N. H., & Johnson, D. C. (2007). Slicing the onion ethnographically: Layers and spaces in multilingual language education. TESOL Quarterly, 41(3), 509–532.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, D. C. (2009). Ethnography of language policy. Language Policy, 8, 139–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, D. C. (2013). Language policy. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, D. C., & Johnson, E. J. (2015). Power and agency in language policy appropriation. Language Policy, 14(3), 221–243. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-014-9333-z.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, R. B., & Baldauf, R. B., Jr. (1997). Language planning from practice to theory. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katupha, J. M. (1994). The language situation and language use in Mozambique. In R. Fardon & G. Furniss (Eds.), African languages, development and the state (pp. 89–96). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin-Jones, M. (2007). Bilingualism, education and the regulation of access to language resources. In M. Heller (Ed.), Bilingualism: A social approach (pp. 161–182). London: Palgrave.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Martin-Jones, M. (2015). Multilingual classroom discourse as a window on wider social, political and ideological processes: Critical, ethnographic approaches. In N. Markee (Ed.), The handbook of classroom discourse and interaction (pp. 445–460). Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin-Jones, M., & Martin, D. (Eds.). (2017). Researching multilingualism: Critical and ethnographic perspectives. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ricento, T. (2000). Historical and theoretical perspectives in language policy and planning. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 4(2), 196–213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ricento, T. (Ed.). (2006). An introduction to language policy: Theory and method. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ricento, T., & Hornberger, N. (1996). Unpeeling the onion: Language planning and policy and the ELT professional. TESOL Quarterly, 30(3), 401–427.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tollefson, J. W., & Pérez-Milans, M. (Eds.). (2018). The Oxford handbook of language policy and planning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Feliciano Chimbutane.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chimbutane, F. Afterword. Lang Policy 20, 125–134 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-020-09564-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-020-09564-y

Keywords

Navigation