Macro Levels of Language Policy and Planning - Assignment Example

Macro Levels of Language Policy and Planning Introduction Much of academic research and discussion has been focused on the macro levels of language policy and planning. This is because much of language planning is done by the agencies of government concerned with using language as a policy tool for economic and social development. From this perspective, it just seemed natural that plenty of macro level literature has developed with the neglect of the effects of language policies on the micro or individual level. This preponderance of macro level literature has some adverse effects on the effectiveness of language policies because there are some inherent conflicts which are not being adequately addressed (Baldauf, 2006). This neglect can lead to waste in government resources that result in minimal attainment of the original objectives of language policies. There are four main aspects of macro (large-scale) language planning and these are status planning, corpus planning, acquisition planning and more recently, prestige planning. The last mentioned aspect involves culture and identity as far as language implementation is concerned. The last few years also witnessed a different focus on language planning; that on the micro level where the implementation of policies is made and where success or failure is determined the most. This is also the level at which some resistance is encountered. Baldauf in his paper had likewise emphasized the importance of agency at the micro level which most of the previous academic literature had largely ignored or overlooked. Agency is important as these are the change agents critical for successful implementation of any language policy. This new critical approach to language studies realizes planning can occur in several levels at once and these are the macro, meso (intermediate) and the micro level. Discussion Language is an important distinguishing characteristic of human societies. It is used to convey messages and meaning, to preserve culture and enhance overall communications. An important aspect of language planning is the preservation of national identity as in the cases of France and Sweden (Oakes, 2001). There was legitimate concern about language preservation because for the last fifty years or so, Western Europe has seen the development of a new arena in the areas of economic and trade cooperation. In fact, the European Union has been widely perceived as a threat to some national languages as economic integration will inevitably spill over to the cultural and linguistic spheres. A few countries had taken and re-examined their language policies in view of this covert threat (although not deliberate), convergence will soon have its effect on national languages as one language predominates over the others. To illustrate this situation, the European Union consists of some 43 countries with English and French as official languages. We can compare this situation with that of the United Nations composed of 189 states but has six official languages. Despite being adopted as one of the only two official languages, France is concerned English is often used much more frequently. This seems also to be the prevailing situation in mainland China as it transitioned from a Communist centralized planning economy to one dictated by free market forces but there is a similar concern as Mandarin is adopted in the other remote regions of China which has so many dialects and sub-languages (Friedman, 1995). China suffers from an identity crisis with regards to language problems coupled with its drive to make its citizens learn English quickly. This country is intent on attaining economic superpower status and it views language as one of its weaknesses when it comes to the international arena. Only a very insignificant number of Chinese citizens can speak English fluently and this deficiency is considered as a hindrance to its ambitions of becoming an important player in world affairs. It can be said though that this is a concern not of only China but all countries considering the globalization trend today. On the reverse side is the resurgent interest in some languages which had been in eclipse for some time due to political reasons. Examples given by the author Baldauf are the Irish and Welsh languages where micro level planning and the correct use of agency models had successfully promoted revival in these two languages (Mac Giolla Chriost, 2002). The other example given was that of the Jewish language, this time with the family as agency. The current emphasis on micro level planning has important implications in the areas of business, the educational system, multinational organizations, manufacturing industries, court systems and local communities. In an increasingly global environment, organizations must design their own language policies to better cope with these challenges. An example here would be the ongoing trend of outsourcing. Business process outsourcing has grown rapidly due to the demands for cost reduction and rationalization of business operations as a competitive tool that increases productivity (Corbett, 2004) by up to ten times or more. The BPO industry is a $6-trillion business involving thousands of different firms engaged in all types of businesses and employs millions of workers. A very important aspect of the BPO industry, in fact a very significant part of it, is the call center industry. In the early years of these call centers, many ventures failed due to the complexity of their operations such as the difference in time zones and language problems (Granered, 2005). The failure rate of the joint ventures sometimes reach up to fifty percent and the main reason was that culture and language were significant variables ignored by the managers of these outfits. Although language problem is blamed for the failure, a more plausible reason is that most companies that outsource do not view customer service as their prime activity. In fact, the lure of low wages compounds the problem because the savings in wages mask the real cause. Experts now view the failures as due to lack of a comprehensive training program for the employees who man the phones answering customer complaints and queries who speak a different language (although still English) in terms of intonation, pitch and stress. Language can be defined as consisting of two main distinct parts: the prosodic and segmental in which prosodic pertains to the tones and pitch while segmental refers to the way words and sentences are formed by the pronunciation of vowels and consonants. Call centers located in foreign locations like India, Malaysia and the Philippines have to hire employees who are by necessity natives of these countries and their main characteristic is the presence of a different accent in the way standard English is pronounced (Chun, 2004). This had given rise to the perception of a different English which is Asian English, which could be Chinese, Japanese, Indian or Filipino English. In an industry sector where pronunciation is paramount, call center agents need take intensive voice lessons to remove native accents (Dawson, 2004). When it is hard to acquire new customers and maintain a satisfactory relationship, this aspect of call center outsourcing is crucial in giving customer satisfaction. In fact, customers prefer in-house (meaning located in the US) as opposed to outsourced services. The socio-political climate in the US also determines to a large extent the continued growth of call centers located offshore but a critical factor for sustained growth will be a supply of qualified graduates to hire. The problem here, according to a study done by the John F. Kennedy Center Foundation-Philippines (JFKCF-P) is the marked decline of the graduates in their proficiency with the English language (Friginal, 2009). This general perception has led industry operators, the media, educators, policy planners and even the legislators in the Philippine Congress to consider some measures to address this decline in language proficiency. This has serious implications because a new language policy can help to prevent the Philippines from falling behind India in the call center industry. A failure either in policy formulation or language planning implementation will halt this fast-growing sector from matching the employment levels in India where they have easier facility with the English language from years of British colonial rule but kept their standards. By standards, I mean here the British educational standards. India was under British rule and so Indians speak British English while the Philippines was under American colonial rule only briefly (a little over half a century) and Filipinos speak American English. But the similarities end there. Due to nationalistic tendencies a few decades ago, English was dropped as the official language of instruction in Philippine schools resulting in the perceived decline of English language-proficient Filipino graduates. Here, we can see the effects of politics on language policy where before, Filipinos were bilingual but now trying catch up with the rest of the world in English language acquisition. This language switch can be seen intellectually in colleges and universities (Thompson, 2003) that resulted in a peculiar Taglish or a mixture of Tagalog (the official language) and English. The country realized belatedly English is often necessary to stay competitive in global markets. The emphasis especially during 1946-1973 was marked by disputes on which official language to use besides both English and Spanish (Baldauf & Luke, 1990) with the country settling on Pilipino as one of its 3 official languages. In sum, language planning has other important national implications such as levels of literacy and women's rights as was the case with India (Fierman, 1991). India achieved economic progress through a combination of factors in which language planning played a significant role (Pattanayak, 1990). It developed a language policy based on a congruence of goals, resources, strategies (both at macro and micro levels) and the expected outcomes. Most of language policies were left to the individual states to implement with the result that India today is multilingual and probably helped it attain a trillion-dollar economy. China had pursued language policies differently by mandating Mandarin as official language to promote primarily domestic unity among many dialects but still attained economic progress through export manufacturing and a shift in market philosophy. In India's case, language was a factor in progress but in China's case, it was not. Both nations now belong to BRIC group. The call center industry in the Philippines brings in much-needed foreign revenues but its rapid growth had been eclipsed by other countries lately due to dearth of supply of English speaking graduates as previously mentioned. It is estimated only 3 out 100 new graduates are qualified to work in call centers when before, rate was about 10 for every 100 (Franco, 2008). Of the estimated 500,000 call center jobs outsourced by US companies, only 30% went to the Philippines with majority of it going to India (especially Hyderabad). The importance of these call center jobs to the country is calculated to be between $4.5 billion to $5.5 billion to reach $7 billion by next year. The Philippine government's drive to corner this lucrative $180 billion global BPO market is hampered by its lack of English-proficient graduates. Besides the language factor, Filipino employee turnover in call centers is very high. As a result, its share of the global BPO market is very small (Pasadilla, 2006) as measured by the number of call center seats. However, a number of cultural factors negate this aspect and these are affinity with the American culture (movies, consumer products, fashion, etc.) and loyalty among Philippine workers (company size and culture became a factor in employee turnovers). Most of the early call centers in the country were established by American corporation drawn by low wages and the American culture orientation of Filipino youth. These call centers were managed by American expatriates who provided language training such as speech patterns, a correct intonation and even geography and history lessons to prospective employees so these call center agents can even converse intelligently with the American callers (Blokdijk, 2008). For those Filipino employees lucky enough to be hired, their language proficiency has been put to other but related uses. Now, call centers in the country also accept British-English language clients like consumer-products giant Unilever (Freeland, 2003) to help implement its customer-relationship management initiatives. However, a majority of the call centers are still owned by American corporations or operated by their parent companies (Akpedonu, 2006). Conclusion Language study had primarily been focused on policy and planning at the national or macro levels with some disregard of the benefits of extending that planning down much lower to the micro levels. Language policy and planning had also been associated with the cultural identity and economic development of its speakers. In a way, language is much different from the usual economic definition or perspective and that is the more it is used, the more valuable it becomes. Some academics had termed language as a “super-public or hypercollective” good which can direct researchers to a new area of study – language economics (Ricento, 2006). It is however, fraught with danger as this justification has been used to choose one particular majority language to the exclusion of other minority languages on economic grounds. The importance of language planning on the micro level has been amply demonstrated by the decline, and even complete disappearance, of certain minor languages and dialects. The case of Native American languages is an example as well as that of Gaeltacht closely related to economic reasons like the lack of local employment opportunities and mass migrations for well over a century due to poverty in Ireland (Hindley, 1991). However, the effectiveness of using language policies at the micro level have been shown in the recent modest revival of the Welsh and Irish languages as well as Jewish at the family levels. In this case, both macro and micro levels had the same change agent – individuals in a family setting. Global trends like business process outsourcing, mass migrations and export process zones also require business managers to implement their own unique language policy plans so they can obtain and retain competitive advantages. In the case of contact centers of which the call centers are a main component, learning a language properly is crucial to success. Contact centers refer to other forms of client or customer service such as e-mail correspondence and lately, chat support on Internet. Knowledge of a language is vital via good language policies. Reference List Akpedonu, C. S. (2006). Possible Worlds in Impossible Spaces: Knowledge, Globality, Gender and Information Technology in the Philippines. Manila, Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press. Baldauf, R. B., Jr. (2006). Rearticulating the Case for Micro Language Planning in a Language Ecology Context. Current Issues in Language Planning, 7 (2). 1-24. Baldauf, R. B., Jr. & Luke, A. (1990). Language Planning and Education in Australasia and the South Pacific. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Blokdijk, G. (2008). Outsourcing 100 Success Secrets: 100 Most-asked Questions. Raleigh, NC: Lulu.com Chun, E. W. (2004). “Ideologies of Legitimate Mockery: Margaret Cho’s Revoicings of Mock Asian.” International Pragmatics Association, 14 (23). 263-289. Corbett, M. F. (2004). The Outsourcing Revolution: Why It Makes Sense and How to Do it Right. New York, USA: Kaplan Publishing. Dawson, K. (2004). The Call Center Handbook. Maryland Heights, MO: Focal Press. Fierman, W. (1991). Language Planning and National Development: The Uzbek Experience. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter. Franco, E. P. (2008). Leading Philippine Organizations in a Changing World: Research and Best Practices. Manila, Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press. Freeland, J. G. (2003). The Ultimate CRM Handbook: Strategies and Concepts for Building Enduring Customer Loyalty and Profitability. Dubuque, IA: McGraw-Hill. Friedman, E. (1995). National Identity and Democratic Prospects in Socialist China. New York, USA: M. E. Sharpe. Friginal, E. (2009). The Language of Outsourced Call Centers: A Corpus-based Study of Cross-Cultural Interaction. Amsterdam, the Netherlands. John Benjamins Publishing Company. Granered, E. (2005). Global Call Centers: Achieving Outstanding Customer Service Across Cultures and Time Zones. London, UK: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. Hindley, R. (1991). The Death of the Irish Language: A Qualified Obituary. London, UK: Taylor & Francis. Mac Giolla Chriost, D. (2002). Language Planning in Northern Island. Current Issues in Language Planning, 3 (4). 425-476. Oakes, L. (2001). Language and National Identity: Comparing France and Sweden. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Pasadilla, G. (2006). The Global Challenge in Services Trade: A Look at Philippine Competitiveness. Makati City, Philippines. Philippine Institute for Development Studies. Pattanayak, D. P. (1990). Multilingualism in India. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Ricento, T. (2006). An Introduction to Language Policy: Theory and Method. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. Thompson, R. M. (2003). Filipino English and Taglish: Language Switching from Multiple Perspectives. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Read More