The comparison between various language policies that aim to manage multilingual communication ought to rely on some robust methodology for evaluation. This paper discusses the possibility to found such a methodology on the well-established concepts of efficiency and fairness. Assessing efficiency implies comparing how resources are allocated under alternative policy options (or scenarios) in order to identify the policy promising the best overall allocation. Assessing fairness calls for the evaluation of the distributive effects of each scenario on the linguistic groups involved in communication — that is, ascertaining who benefits and who loses (and how much) under alternative policy options.
This paper develops indictors of effective and fair communication, which synthesise some desirable characteristics of communication processes, and which enable us to rank-order, with respect to their relative efficiency and fairness, different ways of handling communication in multilingual settings. In order to assess effectiveness and efficiency, we work with three (not mutually exclusive) definitions of communication, namely, informatory, cooperative and strategic communication, which reflect the different (main) communicational intents of the actors. In order to assess fairness, we establish a distinction between communication in terms of access, process and outcome.
2025. The Monolingual Campus and the Bilingual Campus: Ideological Debates on the Management of Language Diversity at Two Dutch Universities. Diversity & Inclusion Research 2:1
Codó, Eva & Elvira Riera-Gil
2022. The value(s) of English as global linguistic capital: a dialogue between linguistic justice and sociolinguistic approaches. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2022:277 ► pp. 95 ff.
Vermandere, Dieter, Lieve Vangehuchten & Rebecca Van Herck
2019. Language policy evaluation in business settings. European Journal of Language Policy 11:1 ► pp. 25 ff.
Burckhardt, Till
2018. Linguistic Disenfranchisement and Labour Mobility in Europe. In Language Policy and Linguistic Justice, ► pp. 313 ff.
2015. Agir dans la diversité des langues. In Agir dans la diversité des langues [Champs linguistiques, ], ► pp. 267 ff.
Grin, François
2017. Translation and language policy in the dynamics of multilingualism. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2017:243
Gazzola, Michele & François Grin
2013. Is ELF more effective and fair than translation? An evaluation of the EU's multilingual regime. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 23:1 ► pp. 93 ff.
2010. Patterns of language use in polyglossic urban areas and multilingual regions and institutions: a Swiss case study. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2010:205
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 11 january 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.