A language policy framework for professional and occupational contexts

Abstract

This article proposes a comprehensive framework for describing and analysing language policies in professional and occupational contexts. The discussion avoids Eurocentrism by examining language policies in Asia and Africa as well as Europe. It also avoids a bias towards the professions, by including language policies that impact on employees in mines and marketplaces. The framework that emerges draws on research in five contexts: a tin mine and a university in Indonesia; dentists’ surgeries in the UK; markets in eight West African countries; and schools in Gabon. Making use of evidence from actual language policies in such a wide range of professions and occupations and in such diverse locations and cultures ensures that the framework is robust. This framework has three principal components: Context (location, scope, employment category, stakeholders); Design (policy status, objectives, assumptions); and Power (policy initiator, benefits for stakeholders with power, responsibilities for those without power). Application of this analytical framework demonstrates that language policies in all contexts and all locations must be equally sensitive to the needs of all stakeholders.