Description
Book SynopsisThis book explores individual language policy among bilingual youth who belong to different ethnic minority groups in Vietnam, through vivid stories detailing their life with multiple languages. It examines the youth’s daily language behaviours through the unique theoretical lens of individual language policy, and the ways in which this policy interacts with and is influenced by language policies at macro, meso and micro level. It contributes to research on language and identity, and language policy in non-Anglophone societies and will appeal to a broad international readership, including researchers in sociolinguistics, teachers working with ethnic minority students and policymakers concerned with minority language maintenance around the world.
Trade ReviewIn this fascinating book Trang Thi Thuy Nguyen analyses how Vietnamese Indigenous bilingual youth, in the face of discouragement, creatively deploy various language strategies. These are highly innovative and admirable, but they also constitute an individual language policy. In this respect and because of the excellence of the research, this volume constitutes a significant conceptual advance in language policy studies. * Joseph Lo Bianco, Professor Emeritus, University of Melbourne, Australia *
Trang Thi Thuy Nguyen’s innovative study of individual language policy in Vietnam is a pleasure to read and a welcome contribution to the field. With this book she has cemented her standing among a small cadre of experts studying Vietnamese language policy and planning. The in depth examination of the experiences of ethnically and linguistically minoritized youth provides an important lesson for us all. * David Cassels Johnson, University of Iowa, USA *
This book makes an important and valuable contribution to the field, broaching how minority youth in Vietnam manage competing goals: the maintenance of a minority language and the acquisition of a majority language. A multidimensional analysis is offered of how an individual's language policy is practiced, perceived and negotiated in the multiple spaces of daily life. * Patricia Lamarre, University of Montreal, Canada *
Trang’s research monograph can be regarded as a pioneering attempt to launch a new dimension of language policy research—to examine how individuals’ language ideologies and practices can impact language policy development and implementation [...] It presents a compelling argument for the need to understand individuals’
desire to construct their own identities as a driving force underlying their efforts to adopt particular language ideologies and manage their language practices.
-- Shuyun Zheng, Quanzhou Medical College, China and Xuesong (Andy) Gao, University of New South Wales, Australia * Current Issues in Language Planning, 2022 *
[This book] is a pioneer work on top-bottom language policy that explores Individual Language Policy (ILP) among indigenous Vietnam bilingual youths [...] the content and structure of this book are commendable, especially with highlighting vivid examples of individual language practices and the importance of these language practices for their identity. Additionally, taking a bottom-up approach to language policy is vital because it helps to understand the personal struggle and identity tensions, which will eventually help in language policy at other levels, from family to school, state, and nation.
* Yetunde S. Alabede, Michigan State University, USA, Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 2023 *
Table of ContentsForeword. Bernard Spolsky
Chapter 1. Individual Language Policy: An Introduction
Chapter 2. Conceptualisation of Individual Language Policy
Chapter 3. External Forces on Bilingual Youth
Chapter 4. Practised Language Policy
Chapter 5. Perceived Language Policy
Chapter 6. Negotiated Language Policy
Chapter 7. Individual Language Policy: Identification, Contextualisation and Interaction Perspectives
Transcription Convention
References
Index
