The Social Context of Language Learning
and Teaching
Language planning and policy
The social context of language learning and teaching is greatly impacted by a
nation’s political decision to give special status to a particular language or languages.
This status can be achieved either by making the language an official
language of a country or by giving special priority to the language by requiring
its study as a foreign language. Today there are over 75 countries in which English
has been or continues to be an official language of the country, with many more
nations requiring the study of English in the public schools (Crystal, 1997). This
situation provides tremendous incentives for the learning of English.
The political choice of designating an official language is fully discussed in
Chapter 3. What is important for our purposes is how this choice affects the
social context of language learning and teaching. Three ways in which the designation
of an official language has consequences for language learning and teaching
are (a) the insight the designation provides into prevalent social attitudes
toward particular languages, (b) the effect of the language policy on the stated
language-in-education policy, and (c) the setting of linguistic standards.
The designation of an official language can foster a great deal of political
tension that polarizes social attitudes toward particular languages. Malaysia’s
decision, for example, to recognize Bahasa Melayu as the country’s sole official
language was strongly opposed by the ethnic Chinese and Tamil populations,
who preferred giving English equal status. The debate in South Africa over which
languages to designate as official was also based on ethnic lines. In both cases the
decision of whether or not to give special status to a particular language became
a rallying point for social and ethnic groups. Such social attitudes obviously can
affect an individual’s motivation to learn or not learn a particular language.
A second consequence of a language being designated as one of the official
languages of the country is that in most cases the country’s official language or
languages are used, or at least designated to be used, as the medium of instruction
in the schools. The National Educational Policy of South Africa is a case
in point. In 1997, the former Minister of Education argued that South Africa’s
national language-in-education policy was integral to the government’s strategy