Current Issues In Language Planning
Polity Editors: Robert B. Kaplan (University of Southern California), Richard B. Baldauf Jr. (University of Queensland) and Nkonko Kamwangamalu (Howard University)Bob and Dick are also editors of the book series Language Policy and Planning
|
Volume: 8 Number: 2 Page: 208–221
doi:10.2167/cilp112.0
|
|
|
|
|
Yet Another Early-Start Languages Policy in Europe: Poland This Time!
|
Janet Enever
Department of Humanities, Arts and Languages, London Metropolitan University, UK
|
|
The recent decision of Poland to introduce a mandatory starting age for early language learning from the very beginning of schooling can be viewed as part of both a global and a specifically European trend. Current statistics indicate that since 1990 approximately 60% of the nation-states of the European Union have reduced mandatory starting ages by at least two years and in some cases as much as five years. This study interrogates contemporary drivers of Polish language-in-education planning, proposing their essentially political nature as a vehicle for the acquisition of linguistic cultural capital and questioning the extent to which this ambitious project is founded on empirical evidence of the real advantages of an early start.
Keywords: primary, foreign languages, Europe, language planning, globalisation
© 2007 J. Enever
Access this article
|
