Short Introduction –
In the process of writing my dissertation, I will be investigating language policy and planning in Switzerland, and how this is implemented at the third level, regarding tertiary education. As Switzerland is a country with four official national languages (French, German, Italian, and Romansch), I will attempt to investigate how the French-speaking region of Switzerland (known as Romandie) at the primarily French University of Geneva (Université de Genève) accommodates for the other three languages, and what educational policies are in place for this. In order to discuss this topic, I have researched relevant journal articles that discuss Swiss multilingualism and how this has been adapted into their education system. I will first give background on multilingualism in Switzerland, and how each canton (a subdivision of the country that has been split for a political purpose) has used their own federal laws to decide on their own policies, in both language and education, followed by going into detail about the obstacles that this system faces, and how it is implemented.
Annotations –
Morrison, T. (2013). Switzerland: A Country of Multilingualism [online] Available at: https://prospectjournal.org/2013/07/08/switzerland-a-country-of-multilingualism-3/ [Accessed 19 Oct. 2016].
Morrison begins this article by discussing in multilingualism in Switzerland in detail, by discussing that the country is split up into “cantons”, each of which has their own identity. Morrison goes on to say that not only that, but because of the devolved system of governance, these individual 26 cantons are able to implement their own language policies as long as they continue to encourage the country’s linguistic communities, as stated by the Swiss constitution.
The article explains that all federal laws are published in the national languages of French, German, and Italian (Romansch is not included as the speakers of this language tend to simply use German in all formal situations). In regards to the specific topic of multilingualism in Swiss education, Morrison explains that, because of each canton being able to implement its own policies, as previously mentioned, most universities go by the language of the canton that they are in, but, in order to maintain the country’s multilingualism, these institutions will offer courses in the other native languages.
This article on Swiss multilingualism is likely to be very useful as it covers all aspects of my dissertation topic, going into great detail about the background of Switzerland and its cantons. Morrison’s article was written in 2013, making it the most recent and up-to-date article I have researched, and will be excellent for making comparisons. Morrison has also used a great deal of references, so there is a lot of information. However, in comparison to the other articles I have researched, Morrison’s article tends to be very descriptive, giving facts without really analysing them or including opinions on the topic.
Stotz, D. (2006). Breaching the Peace: Struggles around Multilingualism in Switzerland. Language Policy, 5(3), pp.247-265.
Stotz’s article, in comparison to the last, is far more critical of the multilingual system in Switzerland. He goes into great detail about how multilingualism in Switzerland began, and how each canton was formed. He does however follow the same idea of the last article, in that he discusses that each canton has “linguistic territoriality”, and that therefore each canton can choose whichever national language it sees fit to use in federal and educational situations. Stotz concludes that English is the main struggle regarding Swiss multilingualism, as the majority of Swiss people would simply prefer to use what they perceive as being the most useful language to gain employment etc., instead of the three other national languages of Switzerland which they do not deem to be useful.
This article is extremely useful as, when discussing the concept of multilingualism in Switzerland, the advantages and disadvantages of said concept must be included, and Stotz’s paper is excellent for covering the latter. The article is full of well-sourced data, including translations of Swiss federal papers to convey lost meanings. It is also reliable as the author is a lecturer at a university in Zurich so is extremely knowledgeable regarding the Swiss education system and its language policies.
However, a limitation of this article is that said data could in some parts be considered inaccurate, as it has been ten years since this information has been gathered, and opinions could have easily changed since then.
Grin, F. (1998). Language Policy in Multilingual Switzerland: Overview and Recent Developments. [online] Available at: http://edoc.vifapol.de/opus/volltexte/2009/1988/pdf/brief_2.pdf [Accessed 21 Oct. 2016].
This article very clearly discusses the obstacles that a multilingual Switzerland faces, regarding discrimination against native speakers of a certain national language in another national language-speaking canton; the struggle to maintain linguistic diversity; and the constant perception that English is considered a more suitable language to learn than the country’s other national languages. This paper also gives an extremely relevant example of the uproar caused when the German-speaking canton of Zurich attempted to reduce the teaching level of French in schools, and increase English instead.
There is a clear and detailed reference list from reputable authors and sources at the end of the text, and as it covers a number of points regarding language policy in Switzerland, this text will be very useful in researching this topic.
Grin’s paper has limitations in that the paper is titled “Recent Developments”, however, as it was published in 1998, the developments can no longer be considered recent. With that being said, as the article is an overview, it is very concise in conveying the challenges that a multilingual Switzerland faces in implementing its language policies. An additional potential pitfall with this paper could be that Grin very often gives his own opinions throughout the text over offering the opinions of others, and therefore could be considered biased.
Grin, F. and Korth, B. (2005). On the reciprocal influence of language politics and language education: The case of English in Switzerland. Language Policy, [online] 4(1), pp.67-85. Available at: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10993-004-6565-3 [Accessed 22 Oct. 2016].
Grin and Korth’s paper begins by going back to the very beginning, investigating how language came to be in Switzerland – a point which is not incredibly useful in researching language policies. The authors do however also discuss the reasoning behind the number of speakers in each national language, and the key factors behind the introduced language policies.
This article is extremely reliable as both Grin and Korth are published authors in the field of Swiss language policies, and their papers have been cited numerous times.
On the other hand, the article does have limitations. The paper was published 11 years ago, so some of the opinions given in the surveys may no longer be the general consensus with the Swiss population, and some of the data may be outdated.
Hega, G. (2001). Regional Identity, Language and Education Policy in Switzerland. Compare, [online] 31(2), pp.205-227. Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy1.hw.ac.uk/doi/pdf/10.1080/03057920120053210?needAccess=true [Accessed 22 Oct. 2016].
This article gives great detail about how the population splits into each national language, and why this is determined by each canton. As this article skews towards the political side of this topic, Hega goes into a lot of detail around reforms that have been introduced to aid language policies in Swiss education and why this is affected by the decentralised system of the government in Switzerland.
Hega’s paper is abundant with figures and data regarding Swiss language policy and will therefore be excellent to reference. The article is reliable as the author has been cited a vast number of times in many articles that he has published regarding education policies in Switzerland. This paper is also useful as it is a much more detailed study of the topic as opposed to just an introduction.
This article, however, was written in 2001, therefore it is limited as all figures and data will not be totally up-to-date and could thus be inaccurate. Whilst this article gives excellent background on Swiss multilingualism and cantonal autonomy, another clear limitation is that it gives greater focus to education at the first and second level, as opposed to university-level education. However, enough information regarding the latter is still provided so that the article can still be used for research purposes.