Literature Review of Language Planning and Language Policy since 21st Century review

Literature Review of Language Planning and Language Policy since 21st Century review

1.      Title                 : Literature Review of Language Planning and Language Policy since 21st Century

2.      Author             : Ningning Hao

3.      Journal              : Vol. 8, No. 7, pp. 888-892

4.      Publication      : July 2018

     5.      Abstract          : As a major part of sociolinguistics, language planning has become a major research topic for many scholars. As a branch of Applied Linguistics, language planning is not a theoretical field of academic research, but mainly based on solving language problems in society. In the past 50 years, language planning research has been deepened and the coverage has gradually expanded. Especially, since 1990s, language planning has become a subject of rejuvenation, which has increasingly highlighted its importance and research prospects. This paper will review and analyze the general situation of language planning research in the past 20 years at home and abroad, and look forward to the future trend of language planning research.

6.      Goals                : to review and analyze the general situation of language planning research in the past 20 years at home and abroad, and look forward to the future trend of language planning research.

7.      Problems          : the general situation of language planning research in the past 20 years at home and abroad, and look forward to the future trend of language planning research. 

      8.      Theories           : language planning, language policy, linguistics

9.      Methods           : research

10.  Findings  & Conclusion :

As a major part of sociolinguistics, language planning has become a major research topic for many scholars. As a branch of Applied Linguistics, language planning is not a theoretical field of academic research, but mainly based on solving language problems in society. In the past 50 years, language planning research has been deepened and the coverage has gradually expanded. Especially, since 1990s, language planning has become a subject of rejuvenation, which has increasingly highlighted its importance and research prospects. This paper will review and analyze the general situation of language planning research in the past 20 years at home and abroad, and look forward to the future trend of language planning research.

Language policy and planning research is an evolving discipline. Like all areas of dynamic change systems, it must adapt to change, not only to discover new phenomena and new problems, but to reassess past practices and existing theories based on new knowledge. Language policy theorists and practitioners not only need to explain the current observed facts, but also provide necessary guidance for those who want to resolve conflicts, improve communication efficiency, and respect language variants. Because of this, they often need to avoid too simple models and solutions.

Scholars generally do not directly put forward clear recommendations, but rather reveal the complexities of understanding the challenges of understanding language policies, describing socio-linguistic ecology, recognizing many opposing views, and proposing language planning and management methods (Spolsky, 2012, p 15).  The social process has three major characteristics: globalization, migration, and regional management. The theoretical model of language policy and planning undoubtedly must comply with the needs of the times.

Although new research issues are constantly emerging, the old issues will still be noticed. These are the essential features of language policy and planning disciplines. Of course, there are still some problems in the domestic language planning research, and It seems that there still exists a long way for Chinese LPLP research to go to link up with the international standards. Zhao Ronghui pointed out that three aspects of the book, such as the lack of interdisciplinary perspectives, the lack of theoretical construction, and the inadequate research methods, are the areas in which the book is in short supply."

And in fact, this is also some serious problems of language planning that the domestic researchers are facing. Chen Zhangtai considers that:"...... The scientific research is not adequate and strong enough, and the language planning theory is relatively weak, and some language planning activities and practices are not scientific enough." In recent years, the study of language planning focuses on practical research. Many scholars use the theory of language planning to analyze language planning and language policies of one or several countries or a political and economic union from an academic perspective.

Krzyanowski and Wodak (2011) discuss the relationship between politics and multilingual policy, deeply exploring EU multilingualism during Lisbon strategic period. They believe that the economic factors of language policy and multilingual policy mainly depend on the EU strategy deployment on the overall economic development. Georgiou (2011) discussed the standardization of geographical names in Cyprus. Nolan (2010) conducted a detailed study of the French language policy and multilingual status, and explored many language events from 1992 to 2004.