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Transcript of Mother Tongue
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Speaking of Mother Tongue
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Speaking of Mother Tongue
Group members:
Sanne Kok
Mette Frost Bertelsen
Jocelyn Sacopayo Schmidt
Assia Khan
Niels Uni Dam
Supervisor:
Tove Skutnabb- Kangas
House 3.1.2 - Cluster A - H.I.B
Autumn Semester 1995
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Table of contents
1. Introduction 8
2. Problem Formulation 10
3. The Process of Limitation 12
4. Presentation of Methodology 16
5. Definition of Concepts 20
5.1 Introduction to Definition of Concepts 20
5.2 Ethnic Identity 20
5.3 Assimilation 20
5.4 Integration 21
5.5 Linguicism 21
5.6 Mother Tongue 22
5.7 A minority 23
5.8 Bilingualism 23
6. Language Learning in Education 25
6.1 Early Theories of Bilingualism 25
6.2 The Way towards the Contemporary Theories 26
6.3 Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills and
Cognitive/Academic Language Proficiency 26
6.4 The Development of BICS and CALP 26
6.5 Adult Second Language Learning 27
6.6 Separate or Common Underlying Proficiencies 27
6..7 Risks and Problem when a Child is Taught through Its
Second Language Only 28
6.8 Sum Up of Why We Find Bilingualism the Desirable Goal 29
7. Ethnic Identity and the Role of Language in the Integration Process 33
7.1 Delimitation 33
7.2 Language and Culture, Symbol/Marker of Ethnicity 33
7.3 Mother Tongue and Identity 34
7.4 A minority as an Ethnic Group 37
7.4.1 Ethnic Group 37
7.4.2 Minority 39
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7.4.3 Ethnicity 41
7.4.4 Ethnic Identity 43
7.5 The School in Relation to Language learning and Integration 44
8. Bilingual Educational Models & the Rights of the Child 48
8.1 Introducing the Theories and Treaties 48
8.2 Baker’s Ten Types of Models of Bilingual Education 49
8.2.1 Baker’s Table 49
8.2.2 Submersion Education 50
8.2.3. Submersion with Withdrawal Classes 51
8.2.4 Segregationist Education 51
8.2.5 Transitional Bilingual Education 51
8.2. 6 Mainstream Education (with Foreign Language Teaching) 52
8.2.7 Separatist Education 52
8.2.8 Immersion Education 53
8.2.9 Maintenance Bilingual Education 54
8.2.10 Two-Way/Dual Language Bilingual Education 55
8.2.11 Mainstream Bilingual Education 55
8.3 Model of the Development of Minority Education 57
8.3.1 Table of Development of Minority Education 57
8.4 Conventions 61
8.4.1 UN Convention of the Rights of the Child 61
8.4.2 The Copenhagen Document 62
9. Investigation of 3 Official Danish Documents 63
9.1 Introducing the Three Documents 63
9.2 Investigation of the Official Danish Policy on Integration and
Language 65
9.2.1. Background 65
9.2.2. The Working Group 65
9.2.3. The "Co-operation" with the Immigrant Council 65
9.2.4 The people concerned 67
9.2.5 Goals 68
9.2.6 Diagnosis 69
9.2.7 Measures 70
9.2.8 Integration ? 70
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9.2.9 School 71
9.2.10 Means 71
9.2.11 BICS and CALP 73
9.2.12 Mother Tongue 74
9.2.13 Mother Tongue Education 74
9.2.14 Critics of Mother Tongue Education 76
9.2.15 Human Rights 77
9.2.16 The quality of the Mother Tongue Education 77
9.2.17 Official Statements 78
9.2.18 Summary 79
9.2.19 Model 79
9.3 Mother Tongue Education (Undervisningsministeriet 1994) 81
9.3.1 The development of the Guide 82
9.3.2 Terminology 82
9.3.3 The Factor of Need 84
9.3.4 Bilingualism as a Goal 84
9.3.5 Theories of Deficiency 85
9.3.6 The Importance of Mother Tongue 85
9.3.7 Seemingly more Positive Goals 87
9.3.8 Comparing the Means 87
9.3.9 CALP and BICS 88
9.3.10 Sum up of the Goals 89
9.4 Report from the Working Group Appointed by the
Immigrant Council Concerning the Integration of
the Ethnic Minorities (1990) 90
9.4.1 The Six Basic Principles 90
9.4.2 An Alternative Integration Program for Children 93
9.4.3 The Danish Integration Policy According to I.R 94
9.4.4 The Role of the Danish Language in the Integration Policy 96
9.4.5 The Integration of Ethic Minority Children in the age 0-6 Years 97
and in the School Age.
9.4.6 The Mother Tongue and the Second Language 98
9.4.7 The Linguistic Conditions in the Integration Process 99
9.4.8 Conclusion 101
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9.4.9 The Placement of the Education Program in Model of
“The Development of Minority Education” 102
9.5 Investigation of whether the I.I.D. Falls into one or more of
Baker’s Models. 104
9.5.1 Typical Type of Child 104
9.5.2 Language of the Classroom 104
9.5.3 Danish Policy - Submersion Education 105
9.5.4 Submersion Education with Withdrawal Classes 105
9.5.5 Societal and Educational Aim 105
9.5.6 Aim in Language Outcome 106
9.5.7 Summary 107
10. Conclusion 109
11. Process of Group Work 110
12. Danish summary of the Report 113
13. Bibliography 116
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1. Introduction
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” and are entitled to all the
rights and freedoms set forth in the Declaration" without distinction of any kind, such as
race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin,
property, birth or other status". (UN, 1948: Article 1 & 2)
Over the last decades, Denmark has been host to a number of people coming from different
parts of the world in search of work, and a refuge for quite a number of political refugees.
In many cases, they have stayed (to live) permanently and become immigrants in the
country.
Denmark has never been a totally ethnically homogeneous culture and society but with the
influx of the immigrants and refugees, Denmark is compelled to address the issue of
integration of the ethnic minorities into the rest of the Danish society. Being a democratic
country, Denmark is expected to address this issue in a way that the minority (both adults
and children) has a fair chance of participating in the democratic process. Education is
considered to play a vital role in ensuing this participation.
The motivation behind the conception of this project report is the need to examine the
educational responses of the Danish government towards the increasing number of ethnic
minority children in Denmark. Is there a sufficient educational provision for minority
children? We will also try to shed light on the aims behind and the basis of the Danish
educational policy towards ethnic minorities which we believe play an integral part in the
integration of the 2nd generation minorities in Denmark.
An issue that continues to persist, when discussing the most desirable form of education for
minority children, concerns the role played by the mother tongue in the schooling process.
Is the mother tongue a hindrance or a resource/help in learning Danish? Another issue of
concern is what the right approaches or models of education are in educating a diverse,
multi-cultural and multilingual populace: Monolingualism or bi-/multilingualism? We, in
the group, believe that education leading to bilingualism/multilingualism is the ideal model
of education, also because the model respects linguistic human rights.
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"Bilingualism is necessary for minorities in order to allow them to have full access to all
resources (education, employment, social welfare etc.) and to participate in government and
administration. Bilingualism is essential in a democratic and pluralist society. A state
which does not adequately provide support towards making minorities bilingual is, in
practice, denying full human rights to minorities. Similarly, a state which does not provide
at least some degree of official recognition towards a minority language is denying minority
identity" (Minority Rights Group Profile Leaflet, 1990).
As a group, we find it essential to emphasise the principle behind writing this report. We
had, from the very beginning when writing the report, kept in mind the basic human right of
an individual. We have chosen this principle because we believe that every human being's
rights should be uphold, whether one is adult or child.
The declaration of children's linguistic human rights as proposed by Skutnabb-Kangas
(1990) has played a prominent role in our process of investigation and discussion.
Therefore, we find it important to present the demands here, as a credo to introduce the
report.
1. Every child should have the right to identify positively with her original mother
tongue(s) and have her identification accepted and respected by others.
2. Every child should have the right to learn the mother tongue(s) fully;
3. Every child should have the right to choose when she/he wants to use the mother
tongue(s) in all official situations (Skutnabb-Kangas,1986:160)
4. Every child has the right to learn fully at least one of the official language in the
country where she/he is resident according to her own choice
(Skutnabb-Kangas & Phillipson 1987)
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2. Problem formulation
Cardinal Question:
To what extend does the official Danish policy support the linguistic development of
second generation ethnic minorities, and how does this effect the integration process.
To investigate this cardinal problem, we have formulated a number of supportive sub
questions, which we will elaborate on to the extend we choose.
1. What is the role of language in the development of an ethnic identity and in the
process of integration, and what how are the concepts related.
1.1 What is integration?
1.2 Why should an ethnic minority be integrated in a linguistic perspective?
1.3 What is the role of language in integration?
1.4 What is an ethnic identity?
1.5 How are identity and integration related?
1.6 What is the role of language in the creation of an ethnic identity?
2. How are languages learned, and what role does education play?
2.1 How is your mother tongue learned and developed?
2.2 How is your second (third etc.) language learned and developed.
2.3 What importance does the mother tongue play in the learning of other
languages?
2.4 How does it effect a child to be educated through the medium of his/her second
language only?
2.5 Is bilingualism a desirable goal?
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3. How is the official Danish Policy using the learning of language in education for the
purpose of integration.
3.1 How are the concepts of integration and ethnic minority defined in the Danish
integration policy?
3.2 What are the goals and means of the policy?
3.3 Can the goals be reached through the means suggested?
3.4 What are the results of the educational program described in the policy?
3.5 How are the goals and results criticised, are there alternative/additional
suggestions?
3.6 How do the alternatives differ from the policy?
4. What type of education is described in the policy in relation to international covenants
and theoretical models?
4.1 What are the relations of the policy to the international human right covenants?
4.2 What type of education is described by the policy in relation to recognised
theoretical models?
4.3 At what stage/level is the program compared to the defined stages for
development for minority education with the aim of bilingualism
4.4 Are the alternative/additional suggestions at a higher or lower stage?
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3. The Process of Limitation
When we first got interested in the process of integration and the forming of an ethnic
identity, we tried to work out a framework showing different influential factors and
indicators within these areas (see table of framework 3.1). We decided at an early stage that
in our project we would concentrate on the second generation of ethnic minorities in
Denmark (see definition chapter 5.7). Our reasons for doing that were mainly personal, as
we all in our childhood have been in contact with second generation ethnic minorities. On
top of that we have a group member who has grown up in Denmark but came originally
from another country. This fact was of great importance as we have used her as a source of
information to get another angle on the subject - "see it from the inside". Further more our
group was enriched with two representatives of the first generation of an ethnic minority -
one representing an immigrant minority and one a national minority. Both representatives
have children who then again are members of the same groups but second generation. The
large variety of different groups of ethnic minorities represented within our group made it
very clear to us that ethnic minorities are not a homogeneous gathering which media and
politicians often tend to give the impression of by omitting to differentiate between the
nationalities, ethnicities and individuals were reminded that needs and wishes are different
within ethnic minorities not only on an and individual level but also at a group level
depending on generation nationality, language and culture. We have, though, only to use
the experiences indirectly to broaden our horizon and as inspiration, as we wanted to make
our project more theoretical and general. Also the second generation was an interesting case
within the context of identity forming and integration because they during their upbringing
and through the rest of their lives will be under a strong influence of two cultures,
nationalities and languages. Their situation can be unique compared to the surrounding
society i.e. both the first generation and the Danes because they do not have one specific
culture to relate to. Many of the parents may come from minorities in their country of
origin, though (e.g. Curds from Turkey), or from multilingual and multicultural countries.
It very soon became clear to us that we would have to narrow down our project if we
wanted to cover our topic satisfactory. We therefore decided to work with the factors of
education and language learning in relation to integration of second generation ethnic
minorities in Denmark.
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We chose to emphasise language learning for a number of reasons. Language is essential in:
-The development of relations to other human beings i.e. to establish, maintain, deepen and
deny contact.
-Exchanging knowledge, information and experience with others, i.e. to learn, teach,
receive and send messages, plan communal actions and establish communal attitudes.
-Influencing others and being influenced i.e. to perform certain actions or give rise to
specific feelings and opinions.
-Constructing a social identity and belonging to a group.
-Thinking i.e. to solve problems, plan, analyse, appraise and to maintain, sort and recall
knowledge and acknowledgement.
Language is socially the most powerful means of interaction and communication and
culturally a symbolic way of expressing a group's values, traditions, history and community
(see chapter 7) discussing the role of language in integration and the forming of identity. In
the context of the second generation ethnic minorities we chose the learning of the mother
tongue/original language and the learning of Danish. We believe that it is important to
know your mother tongue (see definition chapter 5.6) in order to define yourself in relation
to the surrounding society. Knowledge of your mother tongue plays an important role in
the forming of an ethnic identity and therefore also in your mental as well as structural
integration. In order to function in your close environment i.e. home family friends etc., you
need to develop the above mentioned relations and skills in which the mother tongue is the
medium to obtain this. The learning of Danish is essential to your structural incorporation
but also to your social integration in the rest of the society. Without knowing the official
language of the country one is living in, the participation in social, economic and political
matters becomes limited if not non-existing. On the individual level your skills in the
official language determine your possibilities of getting a job, higher education, developing
personal connections and relations and maintaining your independence. Furthermore
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learning Danish means getting introduced to another culture and to other ways of thinking,
which could add to your ethnic identity and influence your degree of integration.
From this point of view it seemed natural for us to choose education, meaning the school, to
investigate our subject. The educational system influences people while they are still young
and therefore easy to "shape". The educational system furthermore influences the individual
through many years. The educational system has many functions in society. Through
learning and education "qualification", "sorting”, and socialisation of youngsters are carried
out. "Qualification" points to the development of children’s academic skills and potentials
but also to a general acknowledgement of some of their skills. "sorting" refers to the way
the system contributes to placing the youngsters in hierarchised slots in the society, e.g. to
jobs. "Socialisation" influences the children to embrace a common cultural way of thinking,
acting and feeling.
A considerable part of your cultural awareness is created through education. Through
school many ethnic minorities experience the most drastic culture clash, for some it might
even be the first serious clash. They are as all other pupils faced with new demands, social
conventions and circles of acquaintances. But they also have to combine the home realities
with the school realities. The values, norms and traditions of their background matched
with those of the school. Language is in this context a very important, perhaps the most
visible means to investigate and "measure" how the children cope with the situation i.e.
develop. The school is able to influence the children’s' development linguistically but
thereby also in many other ways (see above) through the medium of the mother
tongue/Danish learning.
From hereon the interest moved in the direction of how school uses (abuses?) its powerful
influential means. As the school is controlled by the government and receives its orders
from it, we decided to take point of departure in the part of the Danish integration policy
which deals with the educational system. We wanted to investigate how the policy actually
handles the needs of the ethnic minorities.
We acknowledge that there are other factors than the school which influences the learning
of language, such as family and friends and that we by emphasising the school's role in this
process will not be able to present a complete picture of the linguistic situation of second
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generation of ethnic minorities in Denmark. But we believe that the school, being an
institution that everybody has to attend in a certain period of their lives which is of
enormous importance to the development of identity represents a most significant factor. In
relation to integration, the school is also an indicator of how the majority society wishes to
see and form the minorities' future role and incorporation in the rest of the society.
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4. Presentation of Methodology
Introduction
To approach such a broad area as the one we chose to look into it was vital for us to start
reading in order to acquire sufficient background knowledge and to be able to limit
ourselves. In the beginning the selected material covered a variety of areas within the topic
of integration of ethnic minorities, consisting of theoretical treatises and descriptions and
empirical analyses. We read books and articles about the general situation and background
of ethnic minorities(e.g. Hammer 1979, Liep 1994); empirical studies e.g. about young
members of ethnic minorities from Pakistan , Turkey and Yugoslavia (Jeppesen 1989),
about the Danes attitudes towards ethnic minorities(Körmendi 1986), interviews e.g. with
2nd generation ethnic minorities (Røgild 1995) and 1st generation ethnic minorities
(Østergaard 1993), articles written by members of ethnic minorities in Denmark about their
situation (e.g. Dehmir 1995) etc. (see bibliography chapter 13)
After the process of limitation, our spectrum of primary in-depth theoretical reading was
narrowed down to include only a few main pieces, being:
“Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove 1990b. Minoritet, sprog og racisme, Tiden”
“Baker, Colin 1993. Foundations of bilingual education. Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual
Matters Ltd.”
“Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove & Petersen, Birgitte Rahbek 1983. God, bedre, dansk? -om
indvandrerbørn integration i Danmark . København: Forlaget børn og unge”
“Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove & Cummins, Jim 1988. (eds.) Minority education: From
Shame to Struggle: Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.”.
Since it would have been impossible anyway to make any sort of empirical studies of any
representative kind and since three of the group’s members were ethnic minority
representatives themselves, possessing valuable experience, it was deemed that the group’s
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time was better used reading some additional interviews and descriptions rather than going
out making interviews ourselves.
5. Definition of Concepts
To ensure maximum understanding of the project, there are certain concepts we need to
define, as these can be and are being interpreted in different ways. We do not feel that we
are in the position to create our own definitions, and therefore we choose already written
definitions. The criteria we will use to select the definitions, are that these are the most
suitable ones in this context, and the most similar to our personal opinions.
6. Language Learning in Education
In this chapter we present acknowledged theories about bilingualism and how people learn
languages, the connection between the development of a mother tongue and the learning of
2nd languages. We will moreover explain our views on bilingualism.
7. Ethnic Identity and Integration
In this chapter, we discuss the concept of ethnic identity of the 2nd generation ethnic
minorities in relation to language and culture in the context of the school.
8. Bilingual Educational Models & the Rights of the Child
In this chapter we present two types of models and two treaties. The models are Colin
Bakers ten types of models of bilingual education and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas´
“Development of minority education” model. The treaties are the CSCE Copenhagen
Document and two articles from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
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9. Investigation of three Official Danish Documents
We investigate three official documents and relate them to Skutnabb-Kangas model and the
two treaties presented in chapter 8. The three documents are:
Indenrigsministeriet 1990. Integration af indvandrere i Danmark. Beskrivelse og forslag
til bedre prioritering. København: Indenrigsministeriet.
Undervisningsministeriet 1994. Modermålsundervisning for tosprogede elever,
undervisningsvejledning for folkeskole. København: Undervisningsministeriet.
Indvandrernes Repræsentantskab 1990. Rapport fra arbejdsgruppen nedsat af
Indvandrernes Representantskab vedrørende integration af indvandrere. København:
Inderigsministeriet
We emphasise the first document, and investigate the two others on the background of it.
Moreover, we will see whether the type of education presented in the main document falls
into one or more of Bakers models.
10. Conclusions
We will on the basis of the investigations in chapter 9 and the theories put forward in
chapter 7, try to answer the Cardinal Question posed in chapter 3.
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11. Process of group work
In this chapter we describe how our group work has been working out. We tell about the
problems we have had, how we have been working together and whether we have been able
to fully use the resources within our group. We see whether we have learned anything in
the process and mention what we will do differently the next time. We thank those who
made it happen.
12. Danish summary
We will sum up the main features of the report in Danish.
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5. Definition of Concepts
5.1 Introduction to the Concept Definitions
We have chosen the following concepts for our project as we found them being relevant to
our topic. Through our project we are going to use these concepts definitions to avoid any
misinterpretations and to make the use of the concepts coherent through out the report.
5.2 Ethnic Identity (ethnicity)
Common cultural identity with a number of behaviour and linguistic traits which are
carried on from generation to generation through the upbringing"
(SOS Racisme 1995, p.9, our translation)
5.3 Assimilation
(To assimilate) In the debate about ethnic minorities in Denmark, assimilation means a one-
sided Danish translation: that immigrants and refugees shall resign their own culture and
language and replace it with the Danish language, Danish norms and way of living, way of
dressing etc. The concept is often discussed in relation to "integration"(SOS Racisme 1995,
p.4, our translation)
"The disappearance of distinctive ethnographical features: that is , objectively, on the one
hand, the loss of specific elements of material and non-material culture and, subjectively,
on the other hand, the loss of the feeling of belonging to a particular ethnic group (loss of
what Soviet scholars call "samosoznani");simultaneously, there is the acquisition of traits
belonging to another culture which replace those of the former culture accompanied by the
subjective feeling of belonging to the second culture" (Skutnabb-Kangas & Robert
Philipson 1986, p. 488)
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The second definition is our main definition and the first is merely an addition concentrated
on the Danish conditions.
"Formation of a series of common features in an ethnically heterogeneous group"
(Skutnabb-Kangas & Robert Philipson 1986,p. 488)
5.4 Integration
In this report Integration is not seen as a final product, or as a characteristic in the minority
individual/group, or as something only the minority has to do. Instead it is seen as a process
and a socially constructed relation which the minority and the majority have to negotiate
between themselves, and where both have to change. A majority can prevent integration by
refusing to change itself, regardless of how ready a minority group is for integration. Is the
degree of integration (and wish to integrate) of the whole society that has to be assessed.
The results of the negotiation process about integration depend crucially on the power
relationships between those who negotiate, the majority and the minorities"
(Skutnabb-Kangas,1990 p 12.)
5.5 Linguicism
Is akin to the other negative -isms: racism, classism, sexism, ageism .Linguicism can be
defined as ideologies and structures which are used to legitimate, effectuate and reproduce
an unequal division of power and resources(both material and non-material) between
groups which are defined on the basis of language (on the basis of their mother
tongues).(Skutnabb-Kangas 1988, p.13)
5.6 Mother tongue
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Definitions of mother tongue
The four most used definitions of mother tongue are:
Criterion Definition
1. origin the languages one learned first
2. Identification
a. internal the language one identifies with
b. external the language one is identified as a native speaker of by others
3. competence the language one knows best
4. function the language one uses most
Skutnabb-Kangas
The definition of function is the most primitive, as the individual does not always have the
possibility to chose which language to speak. In the case of a minority child, spending time
in a majority language speaking kindergarten or school, the language the child uses the
most often is the majority language, thus making this definition subject to possible
justification of linguistic imperialism.
The definition of competence is also primitive, as an underdeveloped knowledge of the
minority language often is a result of lacking or poor mother tongue education, and by
using this definition one legalises further mistreatment of the minority languages, another
problem with this definition is how to measure competence, as the competence in language
can be a very complex matter (See chapter 6)
We have chosen to use the definition of origin together with the definition of internal
identification: Mother tongue is the language one learns first and the language one
identifies oneself with: Mother tongue is the language/languages one learns first and the
language one identifies oneself with. We have chosen this definition as it is the one most
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coherent to the Declaration of children’s linguistic human rights (see Chapter 1), and thus
the most suitable to the basic point of view of our project.
5.7 A Minority
1. For the purposes of this Convention, the term "minority" shall mean a group which is
smaller in number than the rest of the population of a State, whose members, who are
nationals of that State, have ethnic, religious or linguistic features different from those of
the rest of the population, and are guided by the will to safeguard their culture, traditions,
religion or language.
2. Any group coming within the terms of this definition shall be treated as an ethnic,
religious or linguistic minority.
3. To belong to a national minority shall be a matter of individual choice and no
disadvantage may arise from the exercise of such choice.
( Skutnabb-Kangas & Phillipson 1994, 401).
5.8 Bilingualism
Some comments on table Definitions of bilingualism (Skutnabb-Kangas,1984:91): The
different definitions on bilingualism are grouped according to which criteria used. The
definitions vary a lot. The definitions of competence show the most variation. The reason
for this is that even very little competence in the other language has been defined as in
some extent enough to be regarded as bilingual. “Either the competence definitions are too
broad, so that according to them almost all human beings become bilingual. Or they place
such high demands that even languages which we speak very good are not included"
(Skutnabb-Kangas 1990, page 47, our translation). Another problem is that they do not
specify sufficiently, what one should be enabled to within the different fields. All the other
definitions, except some of the competence definitions claim high demands on a person
before he/she is regarded as bilingual. Also the criterion of function is problematic as it
24
only gives limited information of the degree of bilingualism. The individual does not
always have a free choice of which language to speak in which situation and one will use
the different languages he/she speaks depending on the context. We have chosen to focus
on the criteria of origin and identification, as we think that these two give the most
elaborated picture of bilingualism. The criterion of origin is not the ideal for the purpose in
our project, because we want to use it as a desirable state and as a goal. If you use the
definition of origin then you exclude all individuals who do not fulfil point a and b under
the criterion of bilingualism. Moving on to the criterion of identification we acknowledge
that point b (the external identification) is not always useful as the individual may not
identify with the language imposed upon him/her externally. The last criterion of
identification(point a) is also problematic to use as it only shows the individual's own
perception of what bilingualism is and not in any way limit the spectra of the definition.
In order to get a more useful definition which sums up the content of the criteria we will
choose the following definition as the final in the further work with our project:
"A speaker is bilingual who is able to function in two (or more) languages, either in
monolingual or bilingual communities, in accordance with the sociocultural demands made
on an individual's communicative and cognitive competence by these communities and by
the individual herself, at the same level as native speakers, and who is able positively to
identify with both (or all) language groups (and cultures) or parts of them" (Skutnabb-
Kangas, 1984:90)
In this definition the term "native speakers" can be interpreted in different ways, as the
native speaker is going to use the language in various ways according to his/her socio-
economical status in the society, gender, age, education etc.
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6. Language Learning and Education.
We think that it is important to mention that we in this project take our point of departure in
bilingualism as being the desirable goal for all children. In the following we will try to
explain why. We would also like to take a look at some general theories about language
learning and the importance of mother tongue. We have based this chapter mainly on;
Tove Skutnabb-Kangas "minoritet, sprog og racisme" 1990, Colin Baker "Foundations of
bilingual Education and Bilingualism" 1993 and Jim Cummins "Bilingualism and Special
Education: Issues In Assessment and Pedagogy" 1984.
6.1 Early Theories of Bilingualism
Western theories from the early nineteenth century and up to the 1960'es often saw
bilingualism as being something negative that had disadvantages for the individual as well
as for the society. This attitude was maybe especially common in America where the goal
was for all immigrants to assimilate via the melting pot and become "English only"
speaking Americans. Bilingualism was seen as the negative period where the immigrant
went from being monolingual in his/her own language to being monolingual in the new
language - English. This period was often associated with poverty and being bilingual to
many people meant not speaking a sufficient English. Much research from that time
showed that monolinguals did better in tests (of intelligence) than did bilinguals. There are
some explanations to these results one of them being that the tests were simply conducted
in an "invalid" way. The criteria for being bilingual were often questionable, the groups of
children used for research often did not match on other factors such as socio-economic
class, gender, age, urban/rural background etc. and the IQ tests where mostly conducted
only in English.
26
6.2 The Way towards the Contemporary Theories
In the middle of this century there was a period where research showed no significant
difference between monolinguals and bilinguals and then in the 1960'es research started to
report about how balanced bilinguals did better than their monolingual peers in various tests
(Pearl and Lambert 1962, from Baker 1993). Apart from ordinary IQ tests researchers also
started testing for divergent thinking, cognitive flexibility and metalinguistic awareness and
bilinguals did better than monolinguals here too.
6.3 Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills and Cognitive/Academic
language proficiency
Cummins has made a distinction between two levels of language competence which helps
explain the complexity of bilingualism; the basic interpersonal communicative skills
(BICS) and cognitive/academic language proficiency (CALP). BICS is the ability to speak
a language fluently in face to face "context embedded" situations, whereas CALP is the
ability to use the language as a tool for thought in "context reduced" academic situations.
Cummins uses the image of an iceberg to describe the two levels where we have BICS
above the water surface with the language skills of comprehension, application,
pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, whereas under the surface lies CALP and the
skills of analysis, synthesis, evaluation and semantic and functional meaning(see figure 1).
6.4 The development of BICS and CALP
BICS is developed reasonably fast and a normal monolingual child will at the age of 5 be
able to carry out a conversation on concrete everyday subjects. CALP however is
developed considerably slower and a monolingual child will not reach an "adult level" until
the age of 15-16 from where it will increase a little gradually for the rest of the person's life.
Cummins finds that it takes about 2 years for a second language learning child to acquire
the same level of context embedded second language fluency as a monolingual, whereas it
takes five to seven years or more to reach the same level of context reduced fluency. See
graphs next page. (See figures 2.a,b,c)
27
When second language learners so relatively fast catch up with the monolinguals in BICS,
they may seem as if they have learned the new language completely and are capable of
fully understanding everything in the second language in the classroom. Cummins' theory
however suggests that they do not yet have the sufficient level of context reduced language
proficiency to participate in the cognitive activities of the classroom with evaluation,
discussion etc., as their CALP is not developed to the same level as their BICS. The period
where the second language learner master the BICS of the new language but has not yet
developed the CALP, Skutnabb-Kangas calls the "risk period". (See figure three)
6.5 Adult Second Language Learning
One of the reasons why it may seem as if the second language learners have already
reached the level of the monolinguals in the second language is according to Skutnabb-
Kangas that when adults learn a second language, their CALP might be developed to a high
level while their BICS is still reasonably low - when adults learn a second language late the
pronunciation for example rarely ever takes the form of that of a native speaker. So when a
child speaks the second language fluently and without a foreign accent it might seem from
an adult language learning point of view that the child master the language completely.
Such a misjudgement of a second language learning child may often occur during the
earlier mentioned risk period. The consequences of this will be considered later in this
chapter.
6.6 Separate or Common Underlying Proficiencies
In the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century when researchers saw bilingualism
as a disadvantage, a common theory was that the brain contained two balloons or barrels -
one for each language. Then one could only expand at the expense of the other and what
you learned in one language could not be transferred into the other. BICS and CALP were
not separated but both were seen as residing in the same language barrel. Cummins calls
this theory the separate underlying proficiency model of bilingualism. It has now been
rejected by most researchers but might still be how many "ordinary" people think of
bilingualism. Toukomaa and Skutnabb-Kangas' 1977 and Cummins' 1978 (Taken from
28
Baker 1993) alternative to this is the common underlying proficiency model. Again is used
the iceberg to illustrate; above the surface we have two separate icebergs representing the
first and the second language surface features. Underneath the surface the two icebergs are
connected and the two languages function through a central operating system.(see figure 5)
Skutnabb-Kangas explains it with the barrel analogy where the brain has a common barrel
with different channels for each language. Inside the barrel is CALP common for both (all)
languages. BICS is separated from CALP and BICS in each language has its own barrel in
the brain i.e. people need to learn separately for each language how to speak it fluently,
with a native-like accent, whereas they can transfer s lot of the linguistic cognitive-
academic capacity from one language to another. (See figure 4).
6.7 Risks and problems when a Child is Taught Through Their Second
Language Only
When a child is taught through the second language only, everything that should fill up the
"brain barrel" with CALP has to go through the channel 2 which the child in the so-called
risk period does not have sufficient competence in yet. Thus when the minority child is
taught through the medium of the second language it will have to concentrate more in order
to be able to work with the input than if it was listening to the mother tongue. When
concentrating more, the child will be tired faster than the fluent second language speakers
and will need more and longer breaks in order not to loose concentration. This means that
less information will enter the brain barrel. The minority child might also at a very early
age be exposed to an unreasonable amount of stress.
Even though a child speaks a language (e.g. the mother tongue) fluently, there will always
be some words that she/he does not know or understand, but when knowing the language
well it is usually possible to construct the meaning of the sentence anyway and thereby
guess the meaning of the unknown word. This, however, will be much more difficult in a
second language. Besides, there will usually be more words that the second language
learner does not understand, so the minority child, being taught through the second
language, is likely to loose a lot of information due to that. The child might start to feel that
29
it is more or less helpless in trying to listen, as she/he does not understand anyway, and
therefore she might cut off mentally and not engage herself in the teaching.
When the child does not always understand what is being said in the classroom, he/she
might also have difficulties expressing herself and never get to say anything demanding in
the second language. If the child has learned the BICS, it will seem to the other pupils and
maybe to the teacher, that the child has learned the second language fluently, and so the
reason why the child never participates must be because he or she is stupid. The child itself
might easily start to believe that also and thus the self esteem will suffer. It is therefore very
relevant to call the period were the child has learned the BICS but not the CALP of the
second language a risk period. During the first years of exposure to the second language
when the child is still developing the BICS, progress will usually be fast, noticeable and
measurable and as the child has just started learning the language, the surroundings (fluent
second language speaking children, teachers etc.) will often be tolerant when the child
makes for example grammar- or pronunciation mistakes. Later however, when the child
superficially seems to have learned the second language but still cannot answer the teacher's
questions or understand a difficult text, the tolerance may not be as considerable. That is
when the minority child will often have problems in school, the surroundings will stop
believing that the child is capable of much, the child's self confidence will be damaged, this
will affect his possibilities of learning negatively and so it easily a bad circle for the
minority child being taught through his/her second language only.
6.8 Sum up of Why We Find Bilingualism the Desirable Goal
When on the other hand bilingualism is fostered in the school the child will have two
channels through which to fill the brain barrel and develop CALP. The development of the
first language of the child is important in order for the CALP to reach a sufficiently high
level for the child to solve intense cognitively demanding problems. When the teaching of
the mother tongue has been effective and competence in the first language is high, the child
will have the best chances of developing a significant level of CALP. When being taught a
second language, the child will then have to learn the BICS of the new language but will be
able to use a lot of her CALP developed through the mother tongue in cognitively
30
demanding context reduced situations in both languages. This is one of the reasons why we
in our report when discussing bilingualism see this as the most desirable goal for all
children although we have chosen to deal specifically with minority children. We have in
this chapter tried to show why it from a language learning point of view is so important for
the minority children to be taught through their mother tongue with additional good second
language teaching. We will bare this in mind in our further work in the report. In chapter 7
we will discuss how the learning of your mother tongue is also important in the
development of your ethnic identity.
31
table
32
table
33
7. Ethnic Identity and the Role of Language in the Integration
Process
7.1 Delimitation
What role do language and culture play in the development of an ethnic identity? What
is ethnic identity and what kind of ethnic identity can be formed in the integration
process of the 2nd generation ethnic minorities in Denmark. Does the identity formed
signify integration of the 2nd generation ethnic minorities in Denmark and why? But
before these questions can be discussed, it is important for us to emphasise that we are
not going to try to answer the questions but rather present or infer various existing
theories and draw conclusions out of these theories. We will also site some
definitions/theories on the subjects seen as integral part of ethnic identity; these are
theories on minorities, ethnic group and related topics.
We will limit our discussion on the role of language and culture in the development of
the ethnic identity of the 2nd generation ethnic minorities of Denmark into the context of
the school. This means that we will not discuss the parental/home environment or the
historical and societal context. One must remember that when using ethnic identity, we
are referring specifically to linguistic identity. Cultural identity is for our purposes
included in linguistic identity, because "the basis of a minority in most cases is the
language, and the culture transmitted through the language" (Nissen, Der
Nordschleswiger, Nov. 1982 in Byram ,1986).
7.2 Language and culture, symbol/marker of ethnicity
Language and culture are seen as two parts of a whole. Culture can be defined as a
generic way of life consisting of values, beliefs, behaviour patterns, symbols and
institutions unique to a particular group or society while language is a culture's
primordial institution. Language establishes the bond (between individuals, and between
individuals and groups) which makes group life possible and without it, group life is
34
inconceivable. Language as an organised social institution serves at least three
functions: (1) intergroup communications; (2) transmission of the group's ethnicity and
culture; and (3) the systematic recording of the group's ethnicity, culture and history,
which serves to give a group identity (Banks, 1981: 160). The fundamental role played
by a language (or a dialect) is group communication. Although language is not the only
way of communication, language is of overarching importance because it is the
fundamental medium through which knowledge and ethnicity are transmitted and
shared. It serves as a tool to categorise, interpret and share experiences. This also
makes language a marker of ethnicity, language being the medium and ethnicity the
message.
7.3 Mother tongue and Identity
In his work, Jean Piaget (1983), a child development psychologist, shows that formative
development of a child starts at the first month of life. Cognitive development, language
ability, growth of vocabulary, concept formation, begin to develop and take shape while
the child is still in his or her "pre-formal" education period. Parents and family play an
important role in the formative development of the child, especially in the language
development. In the case of a child living in Denmark who has minority parents, the
probability of the parents using their mother tongue as medium of communication in
their home is quite high. Starting formal education, where the medium of instruction is
Danish and the learning of the mother tongue is in the best case relegated to a few hours
of studying it as a subject, could be a dilemma, resulting in the child's linguistic
competence/command of both the mother-tongue and Danish being less than ideal! This
phenomenon is described in the work of Cummins (1979:228, quoted in Andersen,
1992:20)): "There is strong evidence that some groups of minority language and
migrant children are characterised by...less than native-like skills in both languages with
its detrimental cognitive and academic consequences".
The role of the mother-tongue in the education of minorities has been a very
controversial issue for decades. In Denmark, quite a number of people (writers,
researchers, etc.) have written about this topic. Sometimes the information given
35
contradicts each other, viz.: "Until today the Danish Government has offered up to five
hours of mother-tongue teaching per week throughout the whole period of schooling
which is more than in most other countries", Andersen states in introducing one of the
chapters in her book (1992:56). Both parts of this statement are in fact false. No
immigrant minority child in Denmark has had 5 hours of mother tongue teaching
throughout her/his entire schooling, and both the regulations covering mother tongue
education and the implementation are more progressive in many countries. In fact,
Denmark has actively prevented discussion on racism in education in European Union
contexts, according to Glyn Ford, the European Parliament Official Rapporteur on
Racism and Xenophobia ( Report drawn up on behalf of the Committee of Inquiry into
Racism and Xenophobia 1990. Glyn Ford said this at two hearings in Copenhagen,
2.12.1991 and 18.6.1993).
Skutnabb-Kangas (1995:16) defines the mother tongue by using 4 criteria, viz.: Origin
(i.e. the language(s) a child learns first), Competence (the language(s) the speaker knows
best, Function (the language(s) she/he uses most and Identification (i.e. the language(s)
one identifies with (see our definition of concepts).
Furthermore, Skutnabb-Kangas (ibid.: 16-18) present four theses about the definitions.
They are:
"A person can have two mother tongues, especially according to definitions by origin
and identification, but also according to the other criteria;"
• "The same person can have different mother tongues, depending on which
definition is used;"
• "A person's mother tongue can change during her lifetime, even several times,
according to all other definitions except the definition by origin." This phenomena
may arise through emigration, marriage, work;
• "The mother tongue definitions can be organised hierarchically according to the
degree of linguistic human rights awareness of a society."
36
From the point of view of "linguicism", the third thesis about the definitions is the most
interesting one, as the use of definition by function pre-empts most minority children to
use L2 because there are no facilities in their mother tongue. Linguicism can be defined
as "ideologies and structures which are used to legitimate, effectuate and reproduce an
unequal division of power and resources (both material and non-material) between
groups which are defined on the basis of language (on the basis of their mother tongue)"
(Skutnabb-Kangas, 1988:13).
Until the 1960s, a child’s first language was strongly seen as causing the difficulties
facing the learning of L2. Today researchers within this field generally agree that the
mother tongue is not a source of interference in second language learning (Ellis, 1990:6).
On the contrary, the mother tongue is believed to function as a resource in second
language acquisition, as new concepts can be elaborated and instruction can be clarified
through the mother tongue (Andersen 1992:23). According to Marilyn Martin Jones,
"second language learning involves building on the knowledge of the first language and
on the experience of first language acquisition" (1989:15). In addition, the discussion on
BICS and CALP in chapter 6 shows that CALP is a cross-linguistic dimension of
competence which if acquired in the mother tongue can be transferred to the learning of
another language (see 6.4). Thus the mother-tongue is not a hindrance but rather a help
in learning Danish.
Furthermore, according to the U.N. Convention on Rights of the Child, minority children
have a certain right to their mother-tongue: "Children of minority and indigenous
populations shall freely enjoy their own culture, religion and language" (The Rights of
the Child 1989:9, see 8.4). Thus, as Skutnabb-Kangas and Cummins (1988:393-4) put
it when concluding their book Minority Education, "the dilemma when emphasising the
learning of the minority mother tongues (and second languages)... is that it can be done
with at least three completely different purposes. Firstly, the mother tongue can be
emphasised to the exclusion of the learning of both the second language and other skills,
as is done in segregation programmes. Secondly, the mother tongue can be emphasised
as a part of ethnicity, to the exclusion of societal questions of economic and political
power, as is done in most of the multiculturalism discourse. This is a therapeutic
approach, which builds on deficiency theories, and is used as a form of pacification..."
Or thirdly, in the view both the authors, "the mother tongue can be emphasised partly in
37
its own right, as a self-evident human right, and partly in order to be able to give a better
instrument for coping with both the learning of the second language and the learning of
other skills, and to include analysis, understanding, evaluation and action in relation to
societal questions of economic and political power."
"On a cultural level, language is the symbolic expression of community, encoding a
group's values, its folkways and its history. Socially, it is the most powerful means of
interaction and communication, and it is through language that an individual or a group
seeks and attains participation in society. The denial of a people's development and use
of its native tongue is thus a denial of its participation in society and of its very
peoplehood", says Eduardo Hern ndez-Ch vez (1988: 45).
7.4 A minority as an Ethnic Group
Before discussing the concept "ethnicity", we find it important to discuss the concepts
"minority" and "ethnic group".
7.4.1 Ethnic Group
There are a number of definitions of "ethnic group". An ethnic group can be defined as
a group of persons who share, in part at least, a common origin, as well as cultural,
language and racial characteristics, and feel that they belong to the group (Allardt and
Starck 1981). Eric Allardt, a sociologist (ibid.: 43) uses four criteria an ethnic group
should have: (a) self-categorisation (self-identification); (b) descent; (c) specific cultural
traits, e.g. the capacity to speak a specific language; and (d) a social organisation for
interaction both within the group and with people outside the group.
According to Allardt (1981, in Skutnabb-Kangas 1990:91), "there are no criteria for
inclusion in an ethnic group that all the members should fulfil. But it is necessary that
some members fulfil all the criteria before one can speak of an ethnic group, and every
member must fulfil at least one criterion. Often most members fulfil all the criteria. But
there are also some ethnic lukewarm and ethnic self-haters who do not categorise
themselves as members despite being categorised as members by others."
38
Skutnabb-Kangas points out in her article "Legitimating or Delegitimating New Forms
of Racism - the Role of Researchers" (Gorter, 1990:91), that "one problem in such
situations with cognitive dissonance is that 'forced other-categorisations' are seen by
many researchers (e.g. Liebkind, 1984:19) as violations of basic human rights.
According to human rights oriented argumentation, it should be the right of every
individual and group to have their own definition of their ethnic group membership (or
mother tongue) accepted and respected by others".
However, according to Allardt (Skutnabb-Kangas 1990), self-categorisations and other-
categorisations have different logical structures for other-categorisations imply reference
to other superficial criteria (like cultural traits, language or organisation) whereas self-
categorisation only presupposes a wish to identify or categorise as a member of the
group. Therefore, Allardt sees it as unnecessary to have exo-categorisations as a part of
the definition, but on different grounds from the human rights-oriented argument of
Liebkind and others.
In contrast, Skutnabb-Kangas (ibid:92) stresses that ethnicity can also be treated as a
socially constructed relation rather than treating ethnicity as an inherent or acquired
characteristics of an individual or a group. For her, ethnicity is also a relation and
relations cannot be decided by one party alone, they have to be negotiated.
"Ethnic groups which represent the object of some of discrimination are sometimes
accepted and tolerated by dominating groups at the cost of their having to abandon
completely their cultural identity. It should be stressed that the effort of these ethnic
groups to preserve their cultural values should be encouraged. They will thus be better
able to contribute to the enrichment of the total culture of humanity" (UNESCO
Statement on Race and Racial Prejudice. Paris, 1967)
7.4.2 Minority
There are also numerous definitions of "minority", both in international law and in
sociology. Often the notion of ethnic group is confused with that of the minority.
39
However, "minority group" in most definitions implies minority status not only in
numerical terms but also in power terms. The term "minority" connotes inferior or lesser
status vis-à-vis the majority. Minority is often equalised to numerical minority. But a
numerical minority may also control a numerical majority, as manifested in South Africa
before Nelson Mandela came into power, where white minorities held political and
economic control, despite the larger numbers of Black South Africans.
From a sociological perspective, whether or not an ethnic group is also a minority group
depends, according to some views, on whether or not it holds a subordinate status in the
society (Bennett, 1986:34) Louis Wirth (1945, in Bennett 1986:34) defined a minority
group in terms of subordinate position, as "a group of people who, because of their
physical or cultural characteristics, are singled out from others in the society in which
they live for differential and unequal treatment and who therefore regard themselves as
objects of collective discrimination." Joe Feagin (1978, in Bennett 1986:35) asserts that
Charles Wagley and Marvin Harris have provided the most comprehensive definition of
minority groups as "suffering discrimination and subordination within a society; set
apart in terms of physical or cultural traits disapproved of by the dominant group;
sharing a sense of collective identity and common burdens; having membership
determined by the socially invented rule of descent; characterised by marriage within the
group".
We use here the following definition of a minority for purposes of linguistic human
rights:
"A group which is smaller in number than the rest of the population of a State, whose
members have ethnic, religious or linguistic features different from those of the rest of
the population, and are guided, if only implicitly, by the will to safeguard their culture,
traditions, religion or language.
"Any group coming within the terms of this definition shall be treated as an ethnic,
religious or linguistic minority.
To belong to a minority shall be a matter of individual choice.
40
The definition is based on our reformulation of the definition used by Council of Europe
Commission for Democracy through Law (91) 7, Art. 2; see Appendix). We have in our
definition omitted the requirement of citizenship ("who are nationals of that State"),
because a forced change of citizenship to our mind cannot be required in order to be able
to enjoy basic human rights. As long as many immigration states practice a fairly
restrictive policy (for instance residence requirements which are more than 3-4 years,
and/or linguistic requirements often based on evaluations by non-linguists) in granting
citizenship, it also seems to us that especially children may suffer unduly if they are only
granted basic linguistic rights after upwards of 5 years in the new country.
If an individual claims that she belongs to a national minority, and the State claims that
there are no national minorities in that State (e.g. Curds in Turkey or Finns in Sweden),
there is a conflict, and the State may refuse to grant the minority person/group rights
which it has accorded to granting to national minorities. In most definitions of minority,
minority rights thus become conditional on the acceptance by the State of the existence
of a minority in the first place, i.e. only exo-definitions (definitions by outsiders, not by
the individual/group concerned) of minorities are accepted. According to our definition,
Minority status does NOT depend on the acceptance of the State, but is either"
objectively" ("coming within the terms of this definition") or subjectively ("a matter of
individual choice") verifiable. Many of the definitions of indigenous minorities have this
combination of "objective" characteristics and self-identification (e.g. the definitions of
Sami for the purposes of voting rights to the Sami Parliaments in Finland and Norway,
see Magga, this volume). The trend seems to be towards self identification only, for
numerically small groups. Minority definitions can be compared to definitions of ethnic
groups - see the discussions in Stavenhagen 1987; Skutnabb-Kangas 1987, 1991c; Riggs
1985.
The degree to which an ethnic group retains minority group status depends on how it is
received by and/or receives the host society (Bennett, 1986:36). Does it experience
long-term segregation? Is it quickly absorbed into the mainstream? Does it wish to wish
to retain its own cultural traditions? (ibid) Does the host country, in this context
Denmark, in developing language policies regard its minority language as a "problem", a
"resource" or as a "right"?(Ruiz 1984 in Andersen, 1992)
41
7.4.3 Ethnicity
Everybody agrees that the term "ethnicity" is difficult to define, and many researchers do
not even try to define it (Lange & Westin 1981, quoted in Liebkind 1984:1983).
Definitions have varied constantly over time and across disciplines. As a term,
"ethnicity" has its scientific roots primarily in anthropology and ethnology (Dasdamirov
1977, quoted in Liebkind 1984:23).
According to Skutnabb-Kangas et.al. (1993:137-138), ethnicity is a complex concept,
which does not have a definite content. Through history, researchers have varied
suggestions on which characteristics and conditions are important to define the concept.
The importance of language for ethnicity is one of the conditions which is often
emphasised. Skutnabb-Kangas et al present viewpoints/opinions of selected researchers
on this relation and use several distinctions in discussing the various theories. The first
distinction is that between primordialism and instrumentalism.
According to the primordialistic researchers of ethnicity, language is something the
individual was born to and not acquired, the members of the ethnic group inherit it in the
sense, that it is not something they choose, but something they have been ascribed.
Language therefore gets a character of something original and determined by fate.
Primordialism is basically founded on emotional arguments, and is often seen by the
instrumentalist as pre-rational (in contrast to instrumentalism which is seen as rational).
Many primordialists support the Whorf-Sapir hypothesis, either in its strong form, as the
language determining our conception of the world, or, mostly, in the weaker form where
language as the beginning/starting point influences the way the world is experienced.
In contrast, the instrumentalists perceive language as something acquired, socially
constructed, and manipulable in the situation. When an ethnic group puts emphasis on
the language, it is, according to the instrumentalists, (only) because the elite of the
group, in order to achieve advantages, manipulates the group and uses all the
characteristics, including language, which are effective in the mobilisation of the group.
Therefore, language itself has no particular importance for the instrumentalists, but only
acquires importance when it is used as a means to acquire a certain goal, in the same
42
way as any other ethnic characteristics. Most researchers are not pure primordialist or
instrumentalists, but unite characteristics from both theories.
Another related theoretical distinction is between survivalists and evolutionists.
Ethnicity is perceived by the survivalists as the basis for a categorisation/grouping of
people, which is historically permanent (but dynamic and therefore changeable). It is
tied to deep emotional needs for the individual, which the state or other types/levels of
organisations cannot meet.
In contrast, the evolutionists consider ethnicity as a non-existing, old- fashioned kind of
social organisation which, with the development of the societies, is replaced by other,
more "modern" kinds of social organisation. For example, many Marxist evolutionists
perceive ethnicity as a non-developed kind of class-consciousness, which disappears in a
stratified industrialised society or in a socialist/communist society. For the liberal
evolutionists, ethnicity is a primordial phenomenon which, as time goes on, must give
way to more rational kinds of (democratic) organisation.
Since individuals choose an identification, which they perceive as the most useful for
upward mobility in society, many (mostly evolutionist) researchers also consider class
and ethnicity as alternative ways of categorisation/grouping. In a situation wherein it is
not possible to use class or ethnicity as the basis/foundation of categorisation, the
individual may choose a religion-based identification to secure mobility.
43
7.4.4 Ethnic Identity
The concept of identity is hard to define and evades many ordinary methods of
measurement. Psychological theories on identity models tend to ignore the social context
in which the identity develops while sociological models tend to ignore intraindividual
factors and therefore fail to explain the differences in identity found within the same
social category of people (Lange and Westin 1981 in Liebkind 1984:42). Identity can be
defined in various ways. It can be defined through a positivistic approach; an existential
phenomenology approach; cultural approach; among others.
Identity literature operate with concepts such as identity content, identity structure and
identity processes. The components of identity content can be ascribed, achieved or
adopted. (see details Liebkind 1984).
In this paper, ethnic identity is understood more in terms of what kind of linguistic
identity the 2nd generation ethnic minorities have been given the conditions of forming:
monolingual or bi/multilingual. According to Skutnabb-Kangas, "monolingual is a
person who "knows" only one language, whatever that means. And for an individual,
monolingualism almost inevitably means monoculturalism and monoculism, being able
to see things with one pair of glasses only and having a poorly developed capacity to see
things from another person's or group's point of view. It mostly means knowing not
more than one culture from inside, and therefore lacking relativity. For a country,
official monolingualism in the majority of cases means that all minorities are oppressed
and their linguistic human rights are violated." Further, she states that to her
monolingualism, both individual and societal, is not so much a linguistic phenomenon
(even if it has to do with language). It is rather a question of a psychological state,
backed up by political power. Monolingualism is a psychological island. It is an
ideological cramp. It is an illness, a disease which should be eradicated as soon as
possible, because it is dangerous for world peace. It is a reflection of linguicism."
(1988: 11-13).
A development of a bilingual (see our concept definition) ethnic identity of an ethnic
minority is important for the following reasons: a good command of the mother tongue
44
is necessary for communicating with the family and extended family within and outside
the country of origin and; re-integration in the country of origin should they wish to
return. It is also necessary for cognitive development and a sound identity development.
A good command of the second language is necessary for further education, for the
labour market and in general for participation in the larger society. Since the
development of a bilingual/bicultural ethnic identity (which is seen as a relation between
the child and the rest of society which must validate this identity and create conditions
for its development) is dependent on all the parties negotiating the conditions for the
development of this identity, it is important to look at what the Danish society does in
order to fulfil its part in creating good conditions in the educational system.
7.5 The School in Relation to Language and Integration
Schooling through the medium of mother tongue is advocated in 1953 by UNESCO,
(known as "vernacular advantage" theory). UNESCO states that "it is axiomatic that the
best medium for teaching a child is his mother tongue" (UNESCO, 1953:11). "Every
child is born into a cultural environment. Thus, the acquiring of this language plays an
important part in moulding the child's early concepts... pupils should begin their
schooling through the medium of the mother tongue, because they understand it best and
because to begin their school life in the mother tongue will make the break between
home and school as small as possible" (ibid.).
According to Skutnabb-Kangas (1984:135), L1 generally seems to be best medium of
instruction for minorities. However, it is not necessarily the only possibility for all. By
pointing to the need to look at the goals of different forms of provision, Skutnabb-
Kangas argues that "it is not axiomatic... that L1 is always the best possible medium of
instruction. It seems that those programmes whose goal is bilingualism (and not
monolingualism) namely immersion and maintenance, (can) succeed in making children
bilingual, either now, or in some cases with the help of minor improvements which can
be made inside the school system". "The important question is ... what kind of society
give bilinguals the greatest chance of satisfying their communicational needs". (ibid:39).
This is also what is shown in 8.2, in Baker's models.
45
Integration can be discussed in different perspectives (sociological, psychological,
philosophical and other field of disciplines) and dimensions (personal, relational-as
small group integration or macrosociological level).
Integration can be seen as a goal; as a means (individual and by group); and as a link
(segregation-acculturation-integration and assimilation) (Rahbek-Pedersen and
Skutnabb-Kangas 1983).
In this context, we will discuss integration based on a combination of the
conceptualisation introduced by Skutnabb-Kangas (1983) and by Ruiz (language as a
"problem", language as a "resource" and language as "right") (1984).
Rahbek Pedersen and Skutnabb-Kangas (1983) claim that integration as a goal is defined
as being an absolute opposite to assimilation (see our concept definition), meaning to
keep one's own culture and language and complementing it with the new language and
culture which to us means that this definition is additive. Another approach to
integration as a goal has been to see it as very similar to assimilation (adopting to new
culture and language by giving up the culture and language of origin), which we see it as
being subtractive. Assimilation is seen as a process of interpenetrating and fusion in
which persons or groups acquire sentiments and attitudes of other persons or groups,
and, by sharing their experience and history, are incorporated with them in a common
cultural life (Horst 1988 quoted in Andersen, 1992)
Integration as a means can be divided into two level: individual and group. At an
individual level, the individual wants to attain equality, with the same status as the
majority, and with this goal, the minority uses structural integration (to learn the
language; to have education at the majority school; to participate in the majority's
institution in terms of economic, political and administration) as a means to attain this.
The strategy is mainly use by minority individuals that do not differ from the majority
by looks. For a minority that does not look similar to the majority, it would be more
difficult to integrate in individual level hence they tend to integrate as a group. Looking
at integration as a group strategy, is often seen as an opposition to segregation, for
members who by appearance are so different from the majority that they cannot be
46
integrated or assimilated as individuals. Therefore, the only possibility is to integrate
them as a group, the individual then attains high status and resulting him/her accepted
by society. But then the status (whether low or high) of the group is of high importance
in the acceptance by the rest of the society of the group.
Historically, integration as a link can be seen as a process in immigration wherein the
ethnic minority faces segregation in the sense that they have just arrived and do not
know the structure of the society; acculturation is seen to be the second level which
means that the ethnic minority is perceived as being structurally adapting to some extent
to the society of the majority; then comes the third level where one possibility is
integration where in some norms and attitude of the majority are added to the ethnic
minority's original ethnicity; while they maintain much of their own. Another possibility
is assimilation: the ethnic minority is taking over the language, norms and attitudes of
the majority at the cost of their own. At the same time they give up their own ethnicity.
The "reason" behind the development of language policy for ethnic minorities is seen to
influence the result of the goal. "Reason" is the way a host country treats or see minority
languages. A host country that sees minority languages as a "problem" because it sees it
as serving as an impediment in the acquisition of the majority language, will in effect
use assimilation in dealing with the problem .This would then lead to a transition, a shift
to" monolingualism." (or a strong dominance of the majority language)
On the other hand, minority languages can also be seen as a "resource", that is second
language acquisition is seen as a process of building on the first which means that a host
country encourages the maintenance and development of the first language and culture.
This results to a development of a bilingual/multilingual oriented educational policy.
Minority languages as a "right" mean that learning of the languages of the ethnic
minorities are regarded as a linguistic human right. The fact that a well developed
minority language also supports the learning of the majority language is a positive side-
effect but not the main reason for supporting the mother tongue.
Moreover, according to Bernard (1973), "Integration is achieved when migrants become
a working party of their adopted society, take on many of its attitudes and behaviour
47
patterns, and participate freely in its activities, but at the same time retain a measure of
their original cultural identity and ethnicity/assimilation passes beyond this point... and
takes place when migrants or their descendants have merged themselves so fully with
the native inhabitants, have adopted new folkways and a new culture (a blend of their
old culture and that of the host society) so thoroughly, and have abandoned their original
ethnicity so wholly that they are indistinguishable from the natives and have attained a
social invisibility" (1973:87 quoted in Hjarno 1995:200).
48
8. Bilingual Educational Models & the Rights of the Child
8.1 Introducing the Models and Documents
We have chosen to include 2 types of models (educational and developmental) and one
treaty to support our investigation of the Danish policy on education. In order to be able to
assess the education suggested for immigrant minority children in the Danish documents
that we have analysed, we have looked at several typologies of education for both minority
and majority children. Many of them are similar and partially based on or building on each
other. We decided to use the typology from Colin Baker's book; "Foundation of Bilingual
Education and Bilingualism" which is a development of Skutnabb-Kangas' models (1984,
1988, 1990). Baker's typology has been further developed by Skutnabb-Kangas and García
(1995) but this typology is too detailed for our purposes. Baker has made a scheme in
which he has developed categories within each type of education that gives a clear
overview and makes the forms easy to compare.
The next model shows the stages of the development of minority education and was
developed by Skutnabb-Kangas partly on the basis of a report by Stacy Churchill for the
OECD, CERI. (Skutnabb-Kangas 1990). We have chosen to use this model because we
think that finding out which stage the Danish educational policy has reached will clarify the
picture of it. We can put all our documents into the model and thus have a basis to compare
them as the model, like Baker’s scheme use categories. It moreover shows the different
types of education as stages in a development which means that a wider context is given
and the possibility of moving on to the next stage is presented.
The treaties of the rights of the child and the “Copenhagen Document” we have chosen
because we believe that they are very important and should be naturally incorporated in
every law and policy. Unfortunately this cannot always be taken for granted and therefore
we find it crucial to compare the Danish policy to the treaty especially as this has been
ratified by Denmark. We have chosen §29 and §30 from the Rights of the Child and § 34
from the “Copenhagen Document” because they specifically deal with the linguistic rights
of the minority children.
49
8.2 Types of Bilingual Education
8.2.1 Bakers Table
50
Baker presents ten types of models of education for bilingualism. The first six models for
bilingual education are weak forms which lead to monolingualism or limited bilingualism
with very strong dominance in one language. The last four models are strong as they have
bilingualism as an intended outcome. In the descriptions we have added some details from
Skutnabb-Kangas 1995.
8.2.2 Submersion Education
This is the label to describe the education for language minority children who are placed in
mainstream education. The language minority child will be taught in the majority language
only, among classmates who are fluent in the majority language. Neither the teachers nor
the pupils will be expected to speak the language of the minority child. The minority
language is not developed and will eventually be replaced by the majority language. Baker
and other researchers thus believe that the submersion education aims at assimilation of the
language minority speakers. Furthermore it might "disable" the minority child as he or she
has to learn the curriculum through an underdeveloped language which demands such an
effort that there will be less time for the child to concentrate on the curriculum content
itself. The self confidence of the minority child might suffer as they will have only fluent
majority language speakers to compare themselves to (see our report chapter 6.7 ). As the
minority language is not "allowed" in the school the child may easily feel that she/he, the
parents, the native language and the home culture is disparaged and thus start to feel
ashamed of her/his background.
The analogy of this education is of a swimming pool where the minority child is thrown in
and is supposed to learn to swim by themselves without getting any help or instruction.
"Pupils may either sink, struggle or swim" (page 154)
51
8.2.3 Submersion with Withdrawal Classes
Some places the submersion education is used with the addition of withdrawal classes or
"pull out" classes. The language minority children are withdrawn to have "compensatory"
lessons in the majority language in order to keep them in mainstream schooling. This
however might mean that the minority children fall behind in the curriculum content
compared to the majority children not in withdrawal classes and also that they might be
judged as being "disabled" or "limited in e.g. English" and thus get or feel excluded by the
society.
8.2.4 Segregationist Education
This form of education is monolingual through the medium of the minority language only
and could be for apartheid (e.g. earlier in South Africa) so that the ruling power can prevent
the ethnic minorities from getting a common medium of communication needed to revolt
and for obtaining more power. In this form, there is no (or only poor) teaching of the power
language. It is important to differentiate between this model and the strong maintenance
models which teach the power language well as a second language and which are voluntary
for the child, whereas the segregationist classes are obligatory - the child is not offered any
alternative.
8.2.5 Transitional Bilingual Education
As it is the case with the submersion education, the transitional bilingual education aims at
assimilation but in the transitional model the language minority children can use their
mother tongue temporarily until they are expected to be (superficially, orally) proficient
enough in the majority language to cope in mainstream schooling. In that way the use of the
majority language is gradually increased while the use of the mother tongue decreases.
There are two forms of transitional bilingual education in the USA; early exit and late exit.
In early exit the mother tongue is being used two years at the most, while in late exit the
mother tongue can be used in up to 40% of the classroom teaching until the 6th grade.
52
When we think of the two levels of language proficiency, BICS and CALP, it seems likely
that minority children may be judged by the teachers to be good enough in the majority
language after grade 6, to be put in mainstream schooling when in reality only the BICS of
the new language has developed. Therefore even they are likely to get almost as many
problems with learning both the majority language CALP and the mother tongue CALP,
even if they are in a somewhat better position than children who are put in submersion
schooling right away.
8.2.6 Mainstream Education (with Foreign Language Teaching)
The term "drip-feed" is used to describe the learning of second (foreign) language in
mainstream schooling. The pupils for instance have half an hour of drip-feed a day of a
foreign language as a subject in the curriculum or they might have 2-4 hours per week for
some years, as most Danish children have in relation to English, German and French. This
could lead to bilingualism. Experiences in many countries however, show, that even many
years of drip-feed (for example 12 years of French drip-feed language teaching of English
speaking students in Canada) has not made the pupils fluent in the second/foreign language
so in reality the mainstream education with foreign language teaching leads only to limited
bilingualism. The situation in many small countries in Europe, for instance in Scandinavia,
is better than in North America, in relation to the first foreign language (i.e. mostly
English), but even here those who become really fluent develop the language also outside
school, through television, music, travel, etc.
8.2.7 Separatist Education
This is an education that a language minority can use in order to protect itself from being
overrun by the majority language or it could be for religious, political or cultural reasons.
The education would be fostering monolingualism in the minority language, but it is not
usual that such a school will separate itself purely on linguistic grounds.
53
Now we have come to the four "strong" forms of education, so called because they have
bilingualism as an intended outcome unlike the 6 previous forms which do not foster
bilingualism in school.
8.2.8 Immersion Bilingual Education
This education policy started in Canada in 1967 as a wish from some middle-class English
speaking parents to send their children to an experimental kindergarten. The aim was for
the children to become competent in speaking, reading and writing French at the same time
as reaching normal achievement levels in English and the rest of the curriculum content and
learning to appreciate the culture of the French-speaking Canadians. The outcomes of the
education has been that by the end of the school period the immersion pupils were equally
good or even better English language speakers than the youngsters having gone through
ordinary English-medium schooling. Furthermore they had learned French almost up to the
level of native French speaking children.
There are various forms of immersion education differing in the age at which the child
commences the education and the amount of time spent in immersion a day. There is the
early immersion where the child is at kindergarten or infant stage when starting, the middle
immersion where the child is 9-10 years old and the late immersion at secondary level.
Regarding time, there is total immersion starting with 100% in second language later going
down to 80% and ending the school period with 50%. Partial immersion uses about 50%
second language all through the schooling period.
The experiment in Canada shows that this form of education is very efficient as it seems to
reach its aims of bilingualism and biliteracy. More than 1/2 million children have already
been through immersion. There can be different reasons for the success of the immersion
policy; first of all it is optional for the parents unlike the earlier mentioned submersion
education for example and that might help to motivate the pupils. Among other reasons
could be that all the pupils start at approximately the same level in the second language
with the same lack of experience so that the self-confidence of the pupils will not be
damaged in the same way as it might be for some in the mainstream education. At the same
54
time it will be easier for the teacher to teach pupils at the same level. All teachers are
bilingual. The pupils can see that they are improving without having to compare themselves
to fluent language speakers as in the submersion education.
8.2.9 Maintenance Bilingual Education
The maintenance education is the education of language minority children through the
medium of their minority language in a majority language society with good teaching of the
majority language as a subject throughout the schooling. All the pupils will have the same
mother tongue and the teachers are bilingual. The parents have the choice of whether to
send their children to "mainstream" schools or to maintenance language education. The
maintenance language education is often used in situations where there is a danger that the
minorities may loose mother tongue and the justification given is that "a minority language
is easily lost, a majority language is easily gained" (page 164) as the children are
surrounded by the majority language through television, advertisements, shops etc. And
thus by concentrating on the minority language in school bilingualism will be achieved.
The most important difference between Maintenance education and transitional programs is
not the number of hours through the mother tongue or when (or if) the transition happens,
but the status of the minority mother tongue. In transition the minority language is only
being used in order to learn the majority language and has no status, whereas in
maintenance education being taught through the medium of your mother tongue is seen as a
linguistic human right and an enrichment process.
Baker and Skutnabb-Kangas mention that he education has been tried successfully through
the medium of Navajo and Spanish in the U.S, Catalan and Basque in Spain, Ukrainian,
French, Inuktitut and Cree in Canada, Gaelic in Scotland, Finnish in Sweden, Swedish in
Finland, Frisian in Holland, Russian in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania etc., Greek in Germany,
Hungarian in Romania and Slovakia, several languages in Africa and many Asian countries
notably India, and Welsh in Wales.
8.2.10 Two-Way/Dual Language Bilingual Education
55
In this education there is an approximately equal number of language majority children and
language minority children (from one minority only) in the class and both languages will be
used in the classroom initially mainly the minority language. The aim is both bilingualism
and biliteracy for all children maybe with a small emphasis on native language literacy for
both. Two-way programs have four characteristics:
1) A minority language is used for at least 50% of the instruction.
2) In each period of instruction, only one language is used.
3) Both minority and majority language speakers are present in preferably balanced
numbers.
4) The minority and majority language speakers are integrated in all lessons except mother
tongue lessons and, in good programs, second language lessons.
The placement of children in this education is voluntary for the parents. Experiments with
the education in other countries suggest that the language minority parents may be
supportive of such a programs, while the majority language parents may need more
persuading.
8.2.11 Mainstream Bilingual Education
In Europe this education is mainly being used in the ten special schools for employees of
the European Union. Younger children use their native language as the medium of learning
in their own subsections but also receive second language learning (English, French or
German) from grade 1. From grade 3 they will also get some hours through the medium of
this "vehicular" language which will be the child's "majority" second language. To
encourage pluralism and multiculturalism the children also get "European Hours" were they
are mixed from different language backgrounds. Here they do context embedded,
cognitively undemanding projects together in their second language where they have to co-
56
operate. From grade 8, several cognitively demanding decontextualised subjects will be
taught through the second language but the mother tongue continues to be used for several
subjects throughout the hole education. Furthermore the pupils are taught a third language
chosen among the languages present in the school, in the different subsections for at least
360 hours. The difference between this form of education and the Canadian immersion
education is that in this the second language is taught as a subject before being used as a
medium of instruction and it will continue to be taught as a subject thus leading to a high
level of biliteracy. Research show that this education has been extremely successful in
creating bilingual, bilateral and multicultural students. This however could partly be due to
the fact that the children attending the education often come from bilingual, literacy-
oriented middle class bureaucrat homes which makes them privileged in the bilingual
process.
57
8.3 Presentation of the Model of the Development of Minority
Education
8.3.1 Table of the Development of Minority Education
58
The model showing the stages in the development of minority education consists of three
categories: 1) the reason for problems, 2) measure and 3) goal. Each stage is inserted in
these categories, developing from the first category to the next and finishing with the third.
The first category shows the problems which arises in minority education, as they are
recognised by the majority. The next category shows the measure which is used to solve the
problems also suggested by the majority. Finally the third category shows the goals aimed
at with this education.
The first stage, first category describes in short the theory of the problems as being purely
linguistic. The child does not know the majority language, referred to as L2, well enough, is
linguistically handicapped. The child cannot cope with the demands of the school because
of its limited skills in the language in which the lessons are taught and therefore have lower
scores in tests and participate less in the lessons. The corresponding measure, category two,
is more teaching of the majority language (here MaL) through for example introduction
classes. The children are offered extra lessons in MaL to support the normal education.
What is actually happening here is that the BICS of the child is developed while the CALP
is lacking behind. All the sides of the language learning are not included here. The goal,
category three, is to make the minority (here MI) MaL speaking as fast as possible, so that
they can return fully to the normal classes. What is happening here is that the children will
lack some basic knowledge to base further language learning on. Moreover the children
will only develop the MaL language as that is the only one represented in the teaching.
The second stage, first category the problem introduced are based on a social handicap. The
parents come from the lowest social classes which may results in not enough support from
the home in shape of intellectual stimulation and challenge. The measure to be used,
category two, is more social and pedagogical help meaning psychologists, social workers
etc. The goal, category, is like in the previously mentioned stage to get the concerned
children on a level equal to that of the other children. This stage is not only directed
towards the minority children but can be used on all children.
The third stage, first category, is a cultural handicap. The child comes from a different
culture and is therefore discriminated against and looses his/her self-confidence. What is
probably thought of here is the lack of insight in the majority culture caused by the
upbringing in the minority children have already been formed in the picture of one culture
59
through the up-bringing and some of the cultural traits such as norms, traditions and ways
of thinking are contradicting the surrounding society’s norms and ideas. This causes
problems for the child when it is placed in between two contradicting cultures and is forced
to live with the demands of both of them. The discrimination caused is perhaps more due to
the appearance of the child than to the culture itself especially in the lower grades. The
measure (category two)suggested is more information to the majority (MA) about MI.
Multicultural / intercultural programmes should be carried out and the teachers should
attend additional courses. When concerned children and discrimination this might be a good
idea, as they are open and easy to influence especially if the information is presented in a
way which makes it easy for them to relate to their own life and feelings. When we talk
about the racism performed by adults in connection with for example politics more than
information is needed to change this attitude. The goal of this stage (category three) is to
maintain MiL in a short period of time (one to two generations) until a high level of MaL
has been reached and ousted MiL. Until this goal is reached the children are offered
minimal help to support their knowledge of their own culture and language e.g. through
mother tongue lessons.
The fourth stage is the last of the deficit theories which means that a theory is based on a
problem, a lack. That this is how the theory is recognised. Category one contains a
linguistic problem same as in stage one but this time it is concerned with a lack of skills in
L1. The child’s limited knowledge of her own mother tongue leads to a limited knowledge
of L2 as the theory of CALP is used here as an argument. The measure, category two, does
not follow this theory through as it suggests L1 used as a medium of teaching but only
temporarily, until L2 has been developed satisfactorily. The minority language (MiL) has
no intrinsic value but is merely therapeutic and to ensure self-confidence and a better co-
operation with the home of the child in addition to functioning as a bridge to learning L2.
The goal, category three, is the same as in stage three. The bilingual situation is only a
phase before the skills in L2 have reached a high level then MiL is ignored.
The fifth stage is an enrichment theory which means that it is recognised by positive
characteristics and not by problems. Category one states that a high level of bilingualism is
beneficial for the individual but difficult to achieve and demands much work and energy.
The primary goal though, as it is already mentioned in this category, is to learn MaL
properly. Value of bilingualism is here only a measure to learn L2 and not a goal in itself.
60
Category two starts with teaching through the medium of L1 parallel with additional
teaching of MaL. A transition to teaching of MaL is carried out after a couple of years.
Category three states that MiL is allowed to be maintained for private use only.
Bilingualism is necessary, but MiL should only exist as long as there is demographic basis
for it, as long as the language is “alive”.
The sixth and last stage belongs to the enrichment theory and the first category says that
bilingualism enhances development and that the problems which might arise are similar to
those of the monolingual children, apart from those caused by racism. The second category
suggests separate schools for MI and MA which are equal apart from the fact that the MI
children should be taught in smaller units. Both groups of children should be taught in their
mother tongue but the learning of L2 should be obligatory. The existence of MI is seen as
an enrichment for the whole society and MiL has at least some official status. The use of
MiL is encouraged for everybody. Here bilingualism is seen as a goal, the highest level one
can reach within this area and neither as a mean nor as a problem.
61
8.4 Conventions
8.4.1 UN Convention of the Rights of the Child
19th of July 1991 Denmark ratified the UN Convention of the Rights of the child as state
number 94.To ratify a convention means that a state must change its policy so that it does
not violate the contents of this specific document. A state though can claim that it cannot
stand behind parts of the convention as it is against the national law or tradition. A state can
also choose to make a declaration on parts of the convention to clarify that a certain way of
understanding/interpreting the document has been selected.
The Convention was passed by the UN general assembly 20th of November 1989 after ten
years of work . Two years after the convention had been ratified by 100 countries and
furthermore signed by 42 more. The Convention contains both political, social , economic
and cultural rights and is therefore more expanded than the previous documents concerning
human rights. The Convention is an expression of the development of an acceptance of the
children as an independent group with its own interests and need of protection. Children are
not forming a strong and effective group of interest which is able to make the statesmen
stick to their promises, therefore is the this Convention of enormous importance. The
following articles are a step in the right direction of acknowledging the minority children as
being a special group with special needs but is unfortunately a bit vague formulated.
Article 30 for example only states that the children should not be denied the right to their
own culture and language, not that they have the right to it. This formulation only demands
of the state that it does not suppress the minorities directly and nothing is said about
supporting or at least offer access to the development of ethnic provinces.(CSCE 1990,both
articles have been taken from Skutnabb-Kangas and Phillipson, 1994)
Article 29,1. In the Convention states as follows: "States Parties agree that the education of
the child shall be directed to":
c) "The development of respect for the child's parents, his or her own cultural identity,
language and values, for the national values of the country in which the child is living, the
62
country from which he or she may originate and for the civilisations different from his or
her own."
Article 30 states:" In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or
persons of indigenous origin exists, a child belonging to such a minority or who is
indigenous shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of his or her
group, to enjoy his or her own culture, to profess and practise his or her own religion, or to
use his or her own language."
8.4.2 The Copenhagen Document
The "Copenhagen Document" was created in 1990 on a CSCE meeting concerning the
Human Dimension of the organisation in Copenhagen. We have chosen to emphasise the
article 34, as it specifically is directed towards language and minorities and therefore highly
interesting.
Article 34 states:" The participating States will endeavour to ensure that persons belonging
to national minorities, notwithstanding the need to learn the official language or languages
of the State concerned, have adequate opportunities for instruction of their mother tongue
or in their mother tongue, as well as, wherever possible and necessary, for its use before
public authorities, in conformity with applicable national legislation..."(CSCE,1990 taken
from Skutnabb-Kangas and Phillipson 1994)
Until recently the 6. April this article only covered national minorities, but this has now
been changed. Article 27 in the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Right was added
following comment :"Protecting all individuals on the States territory or under its
jurisdiction (i.e. also immigrants and refugees),irrespective of whether they belong to the
minorities specified in the article or not...(U.N. document 1994, taken from Skutnabb-
Kangas and Phillipson, 1994)
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9 Investigation of Three Official Danish Documents
9.1 Introducing the Three Documents
To construct a picture of the means and goals and their internal relations, the balance
between the two involved languages in relation to importance and emphasis, and the
possibilities of obtaining the described goals through the suggested measures, three official
documents will be dealt with. Those are: the policy of the Ministry of Interior
(Indenrigsministeriet) on integration of ethnic minorities in Denmark "Integration af
indvandrere i Danmark", hereafter referred to as I.I.D., the guideline in mother tongue
education by the Ministry of Education (Undervisningsministeriet) for bilingual pupils in
comprehensive school "Modersmålsundervisning for tosprogede elever", hereafter referred
to as M.T.E. and the responding report from the Immigrant Council(Indvandrernes
Repræsentantskab) "Rapport fra arbejdsgruppen nedsat af Indvandrernes repræsentantskab
vedrørerende integration af indvandrerne" hereafter referred to as I.R.
The first document the I.I.D. was chosen because it is the latest attempt to summarise the
different efforts done within the area of integration and to make suggestions of change. The
report was developed by a group from allocated to different ministries appointed by the
Ministry of Interior. Incorporated in the analysis of this cross-ministerial report is the
declaration of the education of pupils with a foreign mother tongue "Bekendtgørelse om
folkeskolens undervisning af fremmedsprogede elever"(Undervisningsministeriet 1984) as
this document contains the laws corresponding in topic (education of ethnic minorities) to
that of the report.
The second document M.T.E. was chosen because it shows a different approach to the
subject as it was made by people who are more directly connected with the area
concerned(integration and education of ethnic minorities). The fact that this document was
developed four years later than the cross-ministerial report: I.I.D. gives an idea of the
development of the use of concepts and the attitude towards the ethnic minorities through
time.
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The third document the I.R. is a reaction to the first mentioned report I.I.D. developed by a
working group appointed by the Immigrant Council. The Immigrant Council contains
representatives from different ethnic minority organisations and the purpose of the Council
is to inform the Danish society about the minority organisations, their activities, opinions
and attitudes. The Council is furthermore used as consultants and as a source of information
for the different ministries in connection with matters concerning the ethnic minorities in
Denmark. We found it important to investigate the opinion of the ethnic minority
representatives as the policy is going to influence their present and future position in the
society. It is vital to give an alternative suggestion to that of the Ministry, especially when
the source of this suggestion has an angle which is motivated by being in a different
situation than that of the group who developed the I.I.D. report.
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9.2. Investigation of the Official Danish Policy on Integration and
Language
9.2.1. Background
The central document in the integration policy is "Integration af indvandrere i Danmark-
beskrivelse og forslag til bedre prioritering" (Indenrigsministeriet 1990),(hereafter referred
to as I.I.D.)which is why we have chosen to deal with it as the first. It is a report which was
written in 1989-90, after a suggestion from the Social Democratic Party, by a Cross-
ministerial Working Group whose members were selected by the Ministry of Interior. The
purpose of this document was to describe the present integration efforts and to put forward
suggestions of how to make the process more effective. In the examination of this
document, the Declaration (Undervisningministeriet 1984) will be incorporated and
commented on as the two documents are connected to and refer to each other.
9.2.2. The Working Group
One of the first things which strikes one while reading through the I.I.D. is the composition
of the Working Group; it includes no linguists, researchers, psychologists or teachers
whatsoever among its members. One would assume that such an important and complex
area as integration would demand a certain professional expertise within the fields
concerned, at least in the suggestion and planning process.
9.2.3. The "Co-operation" with the Immigrant Council
It is pointed out that the "Immigrant Council" (Indvandrerrådet) and possibly other
immigrant representatives should be incorporated in the compilation of the I.I.D (I.I.D. p.4).
This sounds very promising as more and involved opinions and ideas would then have the
possibility to be brought out in the open. The original plan was to let the Immigrant Council
comment on the report and make suggestions and then include a chapter in the finished
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report containing these. But at the first meeting between the Group and the Immigrant
Council, the Council expressed a wish to be directly represented in the Group. This resulted
in an election of three representatives from the Council who were then connected with the
Working Group. At the meeting the 5 May 1989 between the Group and "Indvandrernes
repræsentantskab" the Group was criticised for not incorporating the immigrant
representatives directly in the work and also for not giving the Council enough time to read
and discuss the material handed in. The meeting ended without any results and a further
representation in the work of the Group was postponed until autumn to give the council
more time for examining the report. Then on the 22 May it was decided (at an extra
ordinary meeting between the two parties) that instead of including a chapter dedicated to
the proposals of the council in the report, these should be collected in a separate
supplementary document. The co-operation hereafter ended and the Immigrant Council was
not introduced to the final report as "they did not wish to take a stand on the present report"
according to this cross-ministerial report: "ikke har ønsket at tage stilling til nærværende
rapport" (I.I.D.p.6).
According to the commenting report (I.R.) written by the Immigrant Council (I.R.p.7) the
Council representatives were allowed to participate in some of the meetings of the Working
Group but did not have any influence on the elaboration of the report (I.R.)or the possibility
to comment on it before the publication. Despite several requests to participate in the
elaboration of the report (I.R.) and requests to get the cross ministerial report in vain, the
Council was denied both and in addition the above mentioned comment was included in the
report (Indenrigsministeriet 1990). Therefore the Immigrant Council elaborated a
supplement to the I.R. Very limited secretarial assistance (as the request for this was also
turned down by the Ministry of Interior) and the lack of insight into the details of the I.D.D.
led the Immigrant Council to feeling forced to limit its own work to only drawing up some
fundamental principals and considerations as a base for an overall and well defined Danish
integration policy, and also to proposing several concrete suggestions for integration
programmes and how to organise them.
One might believe that the co-operation between the Ministry of Interior and the Immigrant
Council could have been more smooth, as it is the ethnic minorities who are going to be
influenced by a reformulated immigration policy. The ethnic minorities are often blamed
for not being active participants in the Danish society, but the question is whether they are
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given any real possibilities for making choices in their lives in the Danish society or
whether they feel that they are only given symbolic rights, without the power to participate
in the crucial decisions of Danish immigrant and integration policy.
9.2.4 The people concerned
Moving on to the content of the report itself, we started by investigating what the group of
people which this policy considers is namely the ethnic minorities or "immigrants" as they
are called in this context. In the I.I.D. this specific group is defined (Indenrigsministeriet
1990, p.7): " ...udlændinge, som ikke kommer fra de nordiske lande, fællesmarkedets lande
og Nordamerika, og som ikke har politisk asyl her i landet, dvs. Ikke er flygtninge."
(Translation) :"...Foreigners/ foreign nationals who do not come from the Nordic countries,
the EU-countries and North America and who do not have political asylum in this country
i.e. are not refugees. " This group is further defined and it is argued for the definition
(Indenrigsministeriet 1990, p.15) :" Vor indvandrerpolitik tager navnlig sigte på de
indvandrere, der kommer fra lande med sociale, Økonomiske og kulturelle forhold, der er
meget forskellige fra vores forhold, da indvandrere fra de nordiske lande, fra
fællesmarkedet og fra Nordamerika stort set forventes at kunne klare sig selv."
(Translation) :" Our Integration policy aims especially at the immigrants who come from
countries with social, economic and cultural conditions which differ a lot from ours, as
immigrants from the Nordic countries, from EU- countries and from North America are
largely expected manage themselves". This way of categorising people can hardly be said
to be scientific or well-considered. What the definition does is to stigmatise the immigrants.
They are described as persons who cannot cope on their own and are not even given the
chance to prove that they are actually able to. According to this definition, people from the
mentioned countries have a culture and a domestic social structure which is closer to ours
than people from the rest of the world and it is therefore less complicated for them to
integrate. In practise it means that a person from a Nordic country for example from
Finland is not in need of being helped to integrate i.e. he does not need any special
language courses, job training, advice etc. as he comes from an EU- country. A person
coming from Eastern Europe for example Estonia whose language, like that of the Finn, is
non-indo-European will on the other hand be affected by this policy as her/his country is
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not among the mentioned. Geographical borders and international unions are here deciding
who is in need of special treatment and who is not. A nation is according to this definition a
homogeneous group of people who have exactly the same requirements. They are being
judged and measured according to their nationality and culture, which is here seen as
something static (one country has one eternal culture), and not according to their individual
background, needs, skills, norms and character. This is an example of ethnicism, a concept
similar to racism, where people are discriminated against not because of biological
differences but because of cultural indicators (Mullard 1988 from Skutnabb- Kangas 1988)
9.2.5 Goals
If this is the group which is aimed at by the policy what are then the specific goals?
"Integration of Immigrants in Denmark" the report is called. As we have already seen when
we defined the concepts there are several ways of understanding the concept "integration".
Already on one of the first pages (p.4) in the I.I.D. we get a sense of how the Working
Group behind this report have chosen to interpret this concept. By only mentioning the
demands om the "immigrants" regarding the learning of Danish and the parents`
responsibility for teaching their children Danish, "integration" is understood as a one way
process. Only the "immigrants" are expected to contribute to reach the goal. On page 7
(I.I.D.) the concept is more directly defined: the "immigrants" should participate in the
Danish society on equal terms with the Danes. At the same time it is pointed out that the
individual "immigrant" should not lose her/his identical cultural traits against his will. Here
the definition starts to show some coherence with our understanding of the word. The
Working Group also recognises that the process should be a co-operation between the
minority and the majority, but the demands which they have chosen to put forward to the
two groups differ considerably. The minority is expected to engage in the integration
whereas the majority only has to display understanding. The responsibility for a successful
integration is then mainly placed on the minority. On page 16 the working group states that
it is unrealistic to think that an "immigrant" can participate fully in the Danish society and
still keep her or his culture and way of life intact. The person who has immigrated must
accept certain losses to suit the norms of the Danish society. Culture is here seen as an
unstable changeable concept which contradicts the former mentioned definition from page
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15. Again it is the minority which has to participate actively while the majority only has to
act with understanding for the remaining cultural traits, a passive participation. On page 15
the concept "integration" is indirectly defined in a quotation from a statement made by the
Ministry of Interior, as it is explained here what the concept does not cover, or rather what
has to be prevented if integration is to be fulfilled. It is to be prevented, it says, that the
"immigrants" develop into a minority group, which under the worst circumstances is in
opposition to the surroundings. We agree that if opposition characterises the relationship
between the two groups then the co-operation has failed and so the integration. But by
using the word "minority group" in a negative context, one could interpret that being aware
of your belonging to an ethnic group on a social and identical level and even being proud of
it, is to be prevented by means of integration. This and the earlier mentioned examples of
the concept definition indicate that it is rather assimilation (see chapter 5.3) than integration
which is the goal.
9.2.6 Diagnosis
To reach the goal put forward in the I.I.D. certain obstacles are to be recognised and
removed. The working group makes a diagnosis according to which the poor Danish skills
among immigrants has caused a lack of integration (see page 8) especially on the structural
level (page 11). The lack of Danish furthermore leads to inferiority (page 48). The group
also claims that the children of an ethnic minority have limited experiences in almost all
areas in comparison with the Danish children when they start in school because they have
been isolated in the family (page 48).
From the point of view of the Group's, the "luggage" that the children carry with them in
shape of cultural and practical knowledge, personal experiences and skills are worthless.
The background of the child is not seen as an enrichment for the child and for the society in
general but merely as a problem because it has made the learning of "more important
matters" such as the Danish language and general knowledge about the Danish way of life
problematic. Danish and Danishness is glorified at the expense of the original values.
Exactly such a point of view is the root of the evil little weed called inferiority. It is correct
70
that the majority language is important to learn but to make it the solution to all the
integration problems, is perhaps to exaggerate its meaning.
9.2.7 Measures
Several means and measures are suggested to treat the problems. On page 8, page 11, page
48 and page 18 the Working Group recommends that the children should start learning
Danish already before starting school and continue throughout their education. Furthermore
the exchange of information between Danes and "immigrants" should be expanded. On
pages 10 and 11 it is implied that it is especially the parents, who are responsible for
teaching their children Danish but that immigrant organisations should also take part in the
treatment of the problem by handing out material informing about the possibilities of
learning Danish in kindergartens and other pre-school institutions and by being in contact
with Danish children. To encourage the children to attend pre-school institutions would not
only solve the linguistic problem, it is claimed, but also the problem with isolation and the
so-called lack of experience. It is also stressed that the minority children should use the
institutions :"as the Danish children" ( page 11) and avoid absence for example in
connection with travel to the homeland of the parents".
9.2.8 Integration ?
The suspicion about the use of the word "integration" covering the concept of
"assimilation" is here further confirmed. The question which now can be posed is why there
is no policy dealing with the Danish children’s absence from the same institutions in
connection with for example skiing trips ? The travels to the land of the parents` origin
could be of identical importance for the child - it could be to strengthen the ethnic bonds
between the child and the parents - the values and the culture they stand for. However a
positive statement from the Group though, is found on page 12 where it is recommend that
the educationalists in the kindergartens should be bilingual, so that not only Danish but also
the mother tongue would be given the opportunity to be developed.
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9.2.9 School
When the children then start going to school the teaching of Danish should be followed up.
Since 20 November 1984 children who are "foreign speaking" have the right to receive
special lessons in Danish (page 38) from grade 1. The lessons can be given parallel to the
normal education in so-called "reception classes" where the children can attend this special
program from 6 months to 2 years or at smaller teams used as supportive education.
Normally the children are placed in the grade which corresponds to their age and if possible
children of the same nationalities are also gathered in the same classes. After finishing the
"reception education" the children can be offered additional lessons in various subjects to
bring them up to a technical level which corresponds to that of the Danish children. The
children can also be given additional lessons to ensure continued progress in the
development of Danish. The function of these lessons is to clarify more abstract notions in
connection with the subjects of physics, biology, geography, history and Danish literature.
The purpose of these supportive instruments are to make sure that the pupils achieve skills
in the Danish language and that they become capable of following the lessons of the
"normal" classes (Undervisningsministeriet 1984 § 7).
9.2.10 Means
To improve the learning of Danish the Working Group recommends that the number of
children in the reception classes is reduced from 12 to 8 and also that more lessons are
reserved for the above mentioned additional Danish education (page 47). The "foreign
speaking children" should attend school one to two more hours a day to receive Danish
teaching in a separate group. The themes of these lessons should be the same as those of the
"normal" class lessons but relevant and abstract concepts should be deepened and
illustrated.
The group emphasises the communities Albertslund and Farum as good examples of how to
make the first period of the children’s school days more gentle. The children are placed in
groups of five to seven according to their mother tongue, and each group is connected to a
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Danish class. After the end of grade 2 the children should be able to participate in "normal"
classes but should be offered extra support in Danish.
Another important point when discussing integration and the learning of Danish is, the
group claims, to recognise that the children not only learn through language lessons but also
through intercourse with native speaking children in situations where the school is
indirectly (in breaks, on camps etc.) or not present. The group therefore prescripts that the
number of "immigrant" children in each class is limited for "their own sake", to insure that
they have plenty of native speakers around them. The means to obtain this is to disperse the
"immigrant" children to the different schools within the borders of each community. If the
dispersing cannot be accomplished voluntarily "ad frivillighedens vej"
(Indenrigsministeriet 1990,page 50) quotas should be considered as means. The teachers
teaching "mixed" classes should receive some education in the culture of their pupils. The
group suggests courses or even teaching of the most spoken mother tongues at the seminars
where the teachers are educated. This could lead to more bilingual teachers who would be
needed in the "receiving classes" and groups like those mentioned in the example of Farum
and Albertslund.
Using quotas is not only contradicting the goal of the policy (which is to get two groups of
children on equal terms) it also violates the Danish school law, saying that the goal of the
teaching in general should among other things (translation)" The school should contribute
to the pupils understanding of own and others cultural basis and for the co-operation
between man and nature. The everyday of the school should prepare the pupils for
developing independence and responsibility for common tasks; the education must
therefore be based on intellectual liberty and democracy" :" Folkeskolen skal bidrage til
elevernes forståelse af egne og andres kulturelle forudsætninger og for menneskets samspil
med naturen. Skolens hele dagligliv skal forberede eleverne til selvstændighed og
medansvar for fælles opgaver; undervisningen må derfor bygge på åndsfrihed og
demokrati"(Folkeskoleloven, 1990 § 2.1. piece 3). Quotas means a limited number of
minority children in a class and thereby also a limited possibility for them to influence and
colour the education with their culture and opinion. There has so far been no documented
experiments or experiences shoving that a certain number of an ethnic minority present in a
class would ease or impede the general learning. To limit the number of minority students
in a class will also mean that their influence on the education form, the choice of topics and
73
the attention for their special needs according to a democratic tradition will also be reduced.
The goal of integration can then no longer be achieved as the minority will have to submit
to the majority totally. Again we are talking assimilation but this time extremely organised
and well planned- even in numbers.
9.2.11 BICS and CALP
As we already know from the previous chapters being surrounded by only majority
speaking teachers and pupils and being taught in your second language only is not the most
effective way of learning. Your BICS is quickly developed but your CALP lacks behind
and that is going to give you problems in the future when more abstract methods and
concepts will be used. To give the children more Danish lessons added to the normal
education which is already in Danish means that their development of CALP is further
slowed down as the roots to their present CALP in the mother tongue, a very useful tool, is
being repressed. The child does not receive the same amount of information when taught in
L2 as a native speaking child because of the breaks needed more often, the
misunderstandings, the psychological isolation and stress (see chapter 6.7.). It can also be
questioned how motivated the children will be to receive this education when they will
have to wave good by to their class mates every day knowing that they themselves will
have to stay for two more hours. Children do not tend to look ahead and see how they will
benefit (maybe!) from those two more hours- for them it is time which could have been
spent playing. The suggestions of the Group can therefore not be said to make the learning
process more efficient or support the overall goals of the policy.
9.2.12 Mother Tongue
But what about the mother tongue of the children then, is that a totally neglected area ? § 12
in the Declaration runs as follows: "Det påhviler kommunen at tilbyde fremmedsprogede
elever, der er optaget i folkeskolen som undervisningspligtige, undervisning i deres
modersmål (nationalsproget), medmindre de undervises heri på anden
måde."(Undervisningsministeriet 1984). The municipality has the duty to offer "foreign
74
speaking" children education in their mother tongue or the national language of their land
of origin as a subject.
The goal of this specific education is, according to § 13 in the above mentioned
Declaration, to secure that the pupils maintain and develop their awareness of the mother
tongue or the national language and of the conditions in the country. It is at the same time
added by the Working Group that many linguists are of the opinion that a well developed
mother tongue is the best basis for acquiring a new language (I.I.D. page 42). But who is
allowed to receive this education and how is it carried out?
9.2.13 Mother Tongue Education
(Indenrigsministeriet 1990, page 43): " Berettiget til at deltage i undervisningen er
undervisningspligtige elever, der er børn af fremmedsprogede forældre, dvs. børn, der er
opvokset i et hjem, hvor sproget er et andet end dansk, idet forældrene er tilflyttet fra
udlandet. Betingelsen er dog også opfyldt, selv om den ene af de fremmedsprogede
forældre er født og opvokset her i landet, når blot den anden af forældrene er tilflyttet fra
udlandet , og når det pågældende fremmedsprog er forældrenes indbyrdes talesprog eller
fælles kulturelle sprog." (Translation) :"Entitled to participate in the education are
compulsory pupils who are children of foreign speaking parents i.e. children who have
grown up in a home where the language used is different from Danish, as the parents have
immigrated from abroad. The condition is though also fulfilled even if one of the foreign
speaking parents are born and have grown up in this country as long as the other parent has
immigrated from abroad and the foreign language concerned is the internal language used
between the parents or their common cultural language". To limit the group like this is
problematic as it excludes people who might be in need of linguistic support. Let us take an
example: a Danish man marries a Polish woman. They settle down in Denmark and have a
child. In the home only Polish is spoken as the mother's skills in Danish are limited or
because the parents have chosen deliberately to speak the minority language to support it.
This child's mother tongue will be Polish, but as the father is not "foreign speaking" this
child will not be offered mother tongue education. One might suggest that the father would
start speaking Danish with the child but it is experienced by many that it is not that simple
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to carry out when the other parent does not understand this language. Even more important
is that the third generation and the following generations of ethnic minorities are prevented
from receiving mother tongue education as they do not fulfil the category. That means that
they will never have access to their own language and culture which will therefore slowly
die out, not because of a natural evolution but because of missing opportunities to get in
contact with and develop the mother tongue. In the long run this loss of languages will also
be a loss of resources for the majority society and for the country itself. Bilinguals are
useful in a number of situations in connection with external affairs for example trading and
exchange of information.
The education can according to § 14 (Undervisningsministeriet 1984) apart from the
language itself include the original country's history, geography and social conditions. The
education is to take starting point in the child's skills in the language concerned and
knowledge of the country. The Group mentions that a considerable number of the children
have limited mastery of their mother tongue and a casual knowledge of homeland culture.
This is due to the fact that most of them are now born in Denmark whereas previous pupils
had gone to school in the original country. The mother tongue education consists of 3 to 5
lessons a week and is placed outside of the normal schedule of the child readily on a
Saturday. If there are at least 12 pupils signed up for the lessons, a qualified teacher will be
connected and otherwise the school is not obliged to establish the course but has the duty to
refer to other municipalities within the county where it is possible to get the education
(Undervisningsministeriet 1984 § 12).
The Group finds it important that Danish is taught from an early age but that mother tongue
education is given as a supplement. The teaching of the two languages should be closely
connected in terms of content and pedagogic. The Group suggests that in the third to fourth
grade the mother tongue education should end and the responsibility of teaching the
language should now totally rely on the parents themselves. The reason is, the Group
explains, that children of this age have reached a suitable/ sufficient linguistic level and are
therefore capable of continuing the remaining part of their education in Danish. The further
development of Danish will no longer be depending on a corresponding development in the
mother tongue (I.I.D.page 53 ). The Group furthermore finds it unfavourable that the
mother tongue education can take place in other municipalities within the county as the
municipality council is to take care of the expenses connected with the transportation
76
(Folkeskoleloven, 1994 §26). The Group's suggestion is that the community should only be
obliged to offer the education within the municipality border.
9.2.14 Critics of Mother Tongue Education
If the mother tongue education is stopped after grade 4 or sooner the goals of these special
lessons are certainly violated, as they are said to be to maintain and develop the original
language. If the child does not receive any educational support in this language it will only
be poorly developed, if at all. When we reach a certain age and state of mind we need a
more advanced and academic way of using our language to have it further developed. Most
parents are not capable of supplying their children with these challenges and especially not
if they have no formal education themselves and not enough money to pay for private
lessons. Kept in mind should be that the ethnic minorities pay tax too and thereby
contribute to financing the majority education. It should be only fair that they would also
get a piece of the cake. To stop the mother tongue education contradicts the advise which
has been given by linguists and which the Group itself has included in the report. They
firstly recommend to give lessons in the mother tongue as a basis for learning other
languages and later on suggest to eliminate the exactly same basis. When they further more
state that most pupils need to have their mother tongue developed as they lack skills within
this area, the coherence between facts and suggestions has disappeared. It is worrying that
the linguistic and educational research science is not taken seriously in such an important
matter. By also reducing the actual geographical area wherein the children can be offered
mother tongue, the number of children who will have the possibility of reception these
lessons will be further reduced. This policy will not lead to a fulfilling of the proposed
goals but to a low competence in the one if not in both languages concerned and (if
anything) to a linguistic assimilation into the majority language.
9.2.15 Human Rights
The Group clearly expresses that the mother tongue is only to be thought of as a means to
the learning of Danish and not as an independent language with values within itself and a
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status equal to that of the Danish language. As we see this statement, it violates the Rights
of the Child § 29 c) (see the introduction chapter 8.4) by not showing respect towards the
child's parents, cultural identity, language and values. Furthermore the next article, § 30 is
indirectly violated as the child is not denied the right to use his or her own language in
society but is prevented from doing so in school (only Danish is the medium of teaching
and some teachers seem to get annoyed if the children tend to speak a mother tongue
different from Danish during the lessons) and by neglecting the development of their skills
completely. Additionally , a violation of § 34 in the "Copenhagen Document", which was
created in 1990 on a CSCE meeting concerning the Human Dimension of the organisation,
is being accomplished.
9.2.16 The quality of the Mother Tongue Education
Moreover the quality of the mother tongue education can be discussed. Is 3 to 5 lessons a
week enough to ensure a sufficient development of a language ? Especially if it is to be
used as a basis for learning other languages and for developing your CALP ? We believe
that this is not the case, the character of this form of education can only be therapeutically,
just think of how many hours of education the majority children receive in the their mother
tongue.
9.2.17 Official Statements
The general will to give mother tongue education has in this connection been minimal.
When the Social Democratic Party first came out with the suggestion to make the policy the
(3 May 1989) the concentration of the resources was put on the strengthening of the
learning of Danish and the question was raised whether it is reasonable to offer mother
tongue education to the minority children when they are to stay in Denmark anyway
(Indenrigsministeriet 1990, page 27). The Christian Peoples Party (Kristelig Folkeparti)
wanted to demand that the minority families to teach their children Danish : "Lad os tage
mod til os og lægge et pres, stille nogle betingelser til indvandrerfamilierne, om at børnene i
ordentlig tid skal modtage danskundervisning " (quoted in Offenberg and Widding taken
78
from Skutnabb-Kangas et.al 1993 p.130). The Liberal Party (Venstre) added :" Er det
rimeligt, at skolen skal give modersmålsundervisning, når vi satser på integration, og er det
den bedste måde at udnytte ressourcerne på ? Bør de i stedet ikke bruges på en "mere
målrettet danskundervisning" ? ( in Offenberg and Widding taken from Skutnabb-Kangas
et.al 1993)(Translation):" Is it reasonable that the school should give mother tongue
education when we aim at integration, and is it the best way to use the resources ? Should
they not be used on a more focused teaching of the Danish language instead ? ". Is it limited
knowledge within the field of terminology which has caused the use of the word
"integration" where "assimilation " is meant or is it done on purpose to deliberately
mislead people ? Later on further statements were also put forward: Bertel Haarder puts
forward a similar point of view by stating that instruction in the pupils' own mother-tongue
should only take place if it facilitates acquisition of L2. Thor Pedersen, then Minister of
Interior, suggested that the minority mother tongue should be completely removed from the
Danish school system. He argues that "it is not the Government's task to strengthen
immigrant culture, but a private matter" (Politiken, 16.11.90, our translation in Andersen
1992).
9.2.18 Summary
If we are to sum up the content of this policy to create a picture of it as a whole, we could
start by looking at the goals. The theoretical goal of the policy is to integrate the ethnic
minority in the Danish society and ensure them equal terms with the Danes. But as we have
discovered, while working through the different statements and suggestions, it actually aims
at assimilation not only linguistically but also culturally and structurally. The Working
Group has tried to develop a report which presents the Danish Integration policy and the
suggestions of changes in as reasonable and in a way which is to leave the impression that
the government is really helping the minorities to manage (as they cannot manage by
themselves). The Group is using a rationalisation. The problem to be solved before the goal
can be achieved, the diagnosis of what problems the minorities face is, according to the
Danish policy, the lacking skills in Danish among the majority groups. The mean to solve
that problem, the prescription is more Danish education and fewer minority children in each
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class to secure the predominant use of Danish. A few lessons a week in the mother tongue
is given to create basis for a better learning of Danish.
9.2.19 Model
With this picture of the policy we can start measuring its quality as an educational program
and compare it to other programs. This is done by comparing it with different educational
models to see if it falls in one or several of them (see table in chapter 8.3.1). The first model
to be used is showing the development of minority education in overdeveloped countries
starting with number one as being the most primitive. We will use it to clarify the above
mentioned picture of the Danish policy but also to look at the state of development in
relation to minority education which the Danish policy has reached so far.
By comparing the problems, measures and goals of the Danish policy with the model it is
easy to see that it very clearly falls into the first deficiency phase. The recognised problem
as it is stated in the Danish policy is the lack of mastery in the majority language. The mean
is more teaching of the majority language and the goal is to become fluent in the majority
language as fast as possible. In addition the policy sees integration as the responsibility of
the minority only which is characteristic for the deficit theories.
Also theory 2 contains categories in which the policy falls. The reason for the problem is
here described as being a social handicap and if we compare this to the definition of
immigrants in the beginning of chapter.., we will notice that this area is also mentioned
here. The immigrants are claimed to come from countries where the economic and social
conditions differs a lot from those of Denmark. As the immigrants, according to this
specific definition, are not expected to manage themselves and as the foreigners who are
expected to, all come from overdeveloped countries, it seems obvious to interpret that the
immigrants, according to this report, come from countries with not only different but also a
lower social and economic status than Denmark. This group is affected by the immigrant
policy which means that it that they are being "helped" in different but not further specified
ways. This corresponds to the measures of theory 2 which suggests help. The mean is still
to make the minority fluent in the majority language.
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In theory 3, the diagnosis is a cultural handicap, where it is the child's different cultural
background (different from the majority) which gives the child problems when it has to
learn the language and culture of the majority. This problem of the culture is also found in
the report, as the immigrants` experiences are not accepted, or seen as an enrichment. The
measures of theory 3 only fits the policy partly, as the minority children are informed about
the majority culture through the normal education and about their own, in a limited scale,
through mother tongue lessons. But here ends the similarity between the measures of the
theory and the Danish policy as the information about the minorities and their culture is
reserved for the minority children only and not widely spread among all children.
Furthermore there has been no multi- or intercultural educational programmes started or
planned to be started up. The additional courses for the teachers mentioned in the theory are
limited in the policy to be only a vague suggestion. The goal of theory 3 is to use the
minority language temporarily (one or two generations) to help and support the minority
children who are in the "state in between" i.e. Not yet speaking the majority language
fluently or not yet being fully assimilated.
Theory 4 talks of a linguistic mother tongue-related handicap, i.e. That the children lack
competence in their mother tongue and therefore also the basis for learning the majority
language. The policy theoretically mentions proper skills in the first language as being
essential for learning a second language, but practically this statement is contradicted later
on in the report and the policy can therefore not be said to fall in the fourth theory. The goal
of this theory fits though as it is the same as in theory 3 and parts of the measures can also
be said to be similar to those of the policy . An example of this is that the learning of the
mother tongue has no value in it self and is merely used as therapy to higher the self-
confidence of the child or to ease the learning of the majority language.
The last two theories belong to the category of enrichment theories and can be excluded in
connection with the Danish policy as they in means and goals aim at bilingualism and as we
have seen that the policy clearly aims at the opposite namely monolingualism. What we
hereby can conclude is that the development of the Danish minority education according to
this model has not come far, it is still in the first phases and is still to be developed further if
a good result is to be obtained. It should be added though that the Finns in Sweden are one
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of the few groups which have reached the enrichment level and very few minorities have
come to the state of number 6.
9.3 Mother Tongue Education (Undervisningsminiseteriet)
A later document “Modersmålsundervisning for tosprogede elever,
undervisningsvejledning for folkeskole) produced by "Undervisningsministeriet,
folkeskoleafdelingen" in 1994, can be placed in another stage in the development of
minority education, put into the table “Development of minority education” this document
seems to fit into stage 4, (see table in chapter 8.3.1). This we will discuss later in this
chapter. Even though this document is produced by another ministry, and is another type of
document than the previous one, we choose to see it as an indicator of a development in the
attitudes towards minority education.
9.3.1 The development of the guide
"Modermålsundervisning for tosprogede elever. Undervisningsvejledning for folkeskolen"
is a teachers` guide, with suggestions for readings in mother tongue education. As it is a
guide which lays no restrictions on the teachers, it is an offer, which the teachers
themselves decide whether to follow or not. This makes the document seem a little
problematic. On the one hand it might indicate a slight positive change of attitudes towards
mother tongue education, but on the other hand being a guide, it seems to introduce
cosmetic improvements on the official policy, without really effecting it.
The document is developed by a group of people from the school system; teachers, head
masters, and members of educational committees. These people have an insiders view on
educational system, and thus the document has a more present understanding of the subject
than the I.I.D. which was written by people who were not directly involved in the
environment of the school. But what strikes us is that in this group, like in the group behind
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the I.I.D., there were no linguists or other researchers: the only three consultants were a
pedagogic consultant and two field consultants.
9.3.2 Terminology
The document starts out by using the positive word “bilingual” instead of foreign speaking
(fremmedsproget), which is the term used in the law of the complementary school
(Folkeskoleloven). This might indicate a greater understanding of bilingualism, as a gift or
resource instead of a deficiency as is the case of I.I.D. (see chapter 9.2.6 in this report). This
understanding is questioned in the explanation for reasons for using “bilingual” instead of
foreign speaking: they state that it is the term used in complementary school at present, and
moreover it brings the Danish concept up to date with the terminology of the rest of Europe
(Undervisningsministeriet, 1994 p.3). This reason given, it can be questioned whether the
intention behind the use of the concept bilingualism is positive progress, based on a real
understanding of the concept and the difference between using the two concepts, or whether
it is only an effort to update the Danish terminology.
In contradiction to the I.I.D. (where the concept is not even mentioned) the document
defines bilingualism as an actual existing state. This is most certainly progress. It is defined
as a starting point for education and other pedagogic arrangements: "Alle børn, der i det
daglige har behov for og møder to (evt. flere) sprog, betragtes som tosprogede, uanset
niveauet af deres sprogfærdighed af de enkelte sprog.(ibid. p.12)". (our translation) " All
children who in their everyday life have the need for and meet two(or more) languages, are
seen as bilingual, regardless of the level of their skills/proficiency in each of the languages
concerned". If we split up the definition, we have two main criteria for bilingualism. We
will start by looking at the second one, children who encounter two languages in their
everyday lives. This is a low level definition of competence(see table of bilingualism next
page competence pcs. f) and includes almost everybody in the whole wide world. The fact
that any level of bilingualism, even a very low one, is accepted, is shown by the end of the
sentence, “regardless of the level of their skills/proficiency in each of the languages. That
makes the other criterion, that of need, the limitation factor.
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Tove model sprog, rasism
9.3.3 The factor of need
The first question this raises is: what should be understood by need. How essential has the
need to be. Does e.g. a Danish child who is in a class with several Turkish children have
the need to learn Turkish? To a certain extent, yes. If the Turkish children speak Turkish
among themselves, the Danish child has the need to learn Turkish to participate in the
conversation.
If we choose to look at the definition this way, it seems out of context with the rest of the
document as the word bilingual is used about the much more narrow group of children who
receive education in a mother tongue different from Danish. Already on the next page we
see an example of this: "Tosprogede elevers forudsætninger for at bevare og udvikle deres
modersmål/nationalsprog samtidig med, at de gennemgår en udvikling i dansk som
andetsprog.."(Ibid. p.13) (our translation) "Bilingual pupils prerequisites for preserving and
developing their mother tongue/national language while going through a development in
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Danish as a second language..". This excludes the possibility of being bilingual and having
Danish as the mother tongue. This indicates that the word need should be understood in
another way, namely as a need for Danish. The use of the word in the context of this
definition is quite unfortunate, as it might be misunderstood.
The definition of the group that is entitled to mother tongue education, used in this
document seems much broader than the one used in I.I.D., but in reality both documents are
referring to the same group, the group defined by the law of the complementary school.
9.3.4 Bilingualism as a goal
On page 12 another definition of bilingualism occurs. Bilingualism is here not seen (as
previously) as a starting point but rather as a goal for education. It is stated that the group
of young people who are entitled to mother tongue education i.e. “bilingual” according to
the previous definition, should have access to education that helps develop two languages
to a level, where they can achieve knowledge and qualifications and develop identity,
which enables them to live as minorities in Denmark.
9.3.5 Theories of Deficiency
Still in the field of terminology, the document differs from the I.I.D., by defining mother
tongue as: "Modersmål: Det eller de sprog, barnet lærer af sine forældre. Stor
følelsesmæssig og identitetsmæssig betydning. I forbindelse med dansktilegnelsen udgør
modermålet en vidensresurse, som barnet kan trække på (Ibid. p.11)." (our translation)
"Mother tongue: The language or languages the child learns from its parents. Has great
emotional and identity significance. In the learning of Danish, the mother tongue is a
knowledge resource, that the child can use". This shows an acknowledgement of the
importance of the mother tongue as a mean of developing ones identity, and indicates an
understanding of the connection between a healthy mother tongue and the learning of other
languages, this is an improvement. Still, the development of the mother tongue is not seen
as a human right. It is only seen as having importance from an emotional point of view, and
85
its cognitive value lies only in its instrumental task in supporting the learning of Danish, i.e.
this clearly places the ideology in the early part of the deficiency phase in the table. Some
of the goals for education in the document seem at first even more positive as we show in
the following sections - but the overall evaluation will have to wait until we have compared
the goals with the means suggested to reach the goals.
9.3.6 The importance of mother tongue
It is difficult to compare the goals of this document to the goals of the I.I.D., as these are
two different types of documents, addressing different readers, but we can, however,
compare the overall attitude the goals reflect. The goal of this document is defined in the
introduction (Ibid. p.5) as serving as a guide for teachers of bilingual children. Furthermore
the following section: "Formålet med modersmålsundervisning", shows the working
groups` attitude towards mother tongue education. It defines the purpose of mother tongue
education as: “Undervisningen skal fremme den enkelte elevs personlige og sproglige
udvikling og forståelse af samspillet mellem elevens oprindelige kultur og den danske
kultur og dermed styrke elevens grundlag for at lære dansk, for at få udbytte af skolens
undervisning og for at tage stilling og handle i det danske samfund. Stk.3 Undervisningen
skal styrke elevernes følelse af selvværd og identitet ved at udvikle deres sproglige og
kulturelle forudsætninger for samhørighed med familien og øge deres forståelse af deres
egen baggrund.”(ibid. p.6). (our translation):” Supporting the pupils development of oral
and written mother tongue proficiency, and to increase their knowledge of their culture of
origin. Pcs.2 The education is to support the linguistic and personal growth and
understanding of the coherence between the culture of origin and the Danish culture, and
thus strengthen the pupils basis for learning Danish to profit from the school’s education
and to take a stand and function in the Danish society. Pcs.3 The education is to strengthen
the pupils self-esteem and identity by developing their linguistic and cultural premises for
coherence with the family, and to enhance their understanding of their own background.
In the section "Modersmålsundervisningens centrale kundskabs- og færdighedsområder",
we see yet another example of this view, "Gennem arbejde med modersmålets struktur og
funktion udvikles elevernes sproglige viden og bevisthed"(ibid. p.7). (our translation)
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"Through work with the structure and functions of the mother tongue, the pupils linguistic
knowledge and awareness is developed". The last example we have chosen to use is from
the section "Generelle synspunkter", speaking of the process of learning the mother tongue:
"Vigtigheden af denne proces er alment anerkendt og kan ikke gentages senere i livet"(ibid.
p.8). (our translation) "The importance of this process is commonly acknowledged, and
cannot be repeated later in life". These quotations all show an understanding of the
importance of mother tongue and knowledge of the culture of origin as crucial factors for
the development of the child’s identity, and the learning of a second language. This is
certainly a positive development from the I.I.D. report, where the acknowledgement of
ones` belonging to an ethnic group and awareness of ones` ethnicity, are seen as something
negative(see chapter 9.2). But the overall goal expressed in the I.I.D., is to enable the
minority children to function in the Danish society, which means becoming as fluent in
Danish as possible. Even though the understanding of functioning in the Danish society is
quite different, the overall goals seem to be similar.
9.3.7 Seemingly more positive goals
The point of view raised in the I.I.D. about children of an ethnic minority having limited
experience in almost all areas, in comparison with the Danish children(See chapter 9.2.), is
relativised in this document in the section "Specialundervisning og
modersmålsundervisning": " De tosprogede børn beskrives som regel udelukkende ved
deres, ofte iøjnefaldende, kvantitative mangler set i forhold til danske elever. Der savnes
beskrivelsesmodeller, som tager hensyn til de kvalitative forskelle, der er i sprog og
tænkning mellem en individualistisk dansk kultur og en kollektiv(fx mellemøstlig) kultur,
der er representativ for mange af vore tosprogede elever"(Undervisningsministeriet, 1994,
p33). (our translation) " The bilingual children are usually described solely by their often
conspicuous, quantitative deficiencies seen in relation to the Danish pupils. There is a lack
of models of description, that consider the qualitative differences, linguistic and in thought
between an individualistic Danish culture and a collective(e.g. middle eastern) culture,
which is representative for many of our bilingual pupils". Despite the stereotypes involved,
the overall goals seem more positive than in the earlier document.
9.3.8 Comparing the means
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The means suggested in this document to reach the goals, are very much different from the
means of the I.I.D., as here a better mother tongue education is seen as the best way of
reaching the goal. Most of the document consists of descriptions of how mother tongue
teaching can best be carried out, to support the creation of an ethnic identity, and to enable
minority children to function in the Danish society, and in the learning of Danish. Looking
at the linguistic side we see examples like: "Jo bedre modersmål - jo større succes i
andetsprogstilegnelsen."(ibid., p.9). (our translation) "The better the mother tongue, the
greater the success in the learning of a second language", "Hvis ikke der gennem hele
skolefoløbet er undervisning i modersmålet, er der yderlige fare for at det stagnerer...
Rodløsheden bliver fremherskende og forsinker en god integration."(Ibid., p.10). (our
translation) "If there is not teaching of mother tongue as a subject all the way through
school, there is a further danger of it stagnating.......The rootlessness becomes prevalent and
delays a good integration". These are just two examples of how important the working
group sees teaching in mother tongue as a subject being, in supporting the child’s
possibilities of functioning in the Danish society. If we refer this last statement to the
second definition of bilingualism: “bilingualism as a goal for education”, we can
furthermore see bilingualism as a mean of integration.
Looking at the measures for supporting the ability to function in the Danish society, the
I.I.D. speaks of more education in the Danish language, and mentions extra Danish lessons
with the purpose of clarifying more abstract notions in different subjects (See this report
chapter 9.2.10). This document suggests among other things allowing bilingual pupils to
sometimes speak the mother tongue among themselves in the regular classes: "..., at
tosprogede elever undertiden får lov til at snakke sammen på deres modersmål også i den
almindelige undervisning i klassen"(Undervisningsministeriet, 1994, p.23). The difference
of course spring from the different goals of the documents. Comparing this suggestion with
the Linguistic Human Rights, it may seem awkward to mention it at all. It should be taken
for granted that the children have the right to use their mother tongue in official situations.
But that it apparently needs to be expressed explicitly, shows the gravity of the actual
situation. The document furthermore disagrees with the dispersal policy of I.I.D., as it
contradicts it by claiming that the best premises for education are provided by having
homogeneous groups . On this point too this document seems to indicate an improvement in
the attitude.
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9.3.9 CALP and BICS
Even though the document speaks of the learning of mother tongue as a support in the
learning of the second language (Danish), it does not get into the field of CALP and BICS
(see our report chapter 6.3). On the contrary, in the section "Eleverne og deres
forudsætninger", it says: "Andre er sprogligt velfungerende. Børnene leger med andre børn,
både de nye og de gamle danskere. De har tilbragt tid i vuggestue og børnehave og er
sprogligt modnede til at fortsætte i skolen. Disse børn vokser op til reelt at beherske to
sprog. Der er virkelig tale om børn med en ekstra resurse." (Undervisningsministeriet, 1994
p.14). (our translation) "Others are linguistically well functioning. The children play with
other children, both new and old Danes. They have spent time in nurseries and
kindergartens and are linguistically mature to continue in school. These children grow up to
actually managing two languages. They are really children with an extra resource.". We are
not told whether it is only the BICS that has matured, or if the CALP is developed too, but
we suspect that the working group has fallen into the trap of misreading the linguistic
proficiency of the children by only looking at the BICS which might be at a high level,
even if the CALP of the child’s language might be quite underdeveloped.
9.3.10 Sum up of the goals
If we try to place the type of education suggested in this document in to the table of stages
in the development of minority education, we see that it to a large extent fits in to the
Deficit phase, the early stages. It does not include teaching of the elementary subjects
through the mother tongue, but rather gives support only to the subject mother tongue.
Using the scheme, we see that the view presented does not aim at integration as a relation
where both the majority group and the minority are to adapt. It rather sees integration as a
one way process, the minority adapting to the rest of society.
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We therefore conclude that even if there seems to have been a change in the views on
minority education, this change is not serious or far reaching enough, as Denmark does not
fulfil the criteria’s for the enrichment theories. One of the reasons for this otherwise quite
positive document not really making any major changes, is also the type of document it is,
being a teachers` guide, which in reality is bound by the restrictions of the law of the
complementary school thus only being able to work within these restrictions. One wonders
why an official document like this one is released, seemingly showing change in the
official Danish attitude towards minority education, but in reality without any possibility of
changing anything of great importance.
9.4 Investigation of the report from the working group appointed by
Indvandrernes Repræsentantskab ( The Immigrant Council)
concerning integration of the ethnic minorities.
In the following we are going to investigate an official document: "Report from the
working group appointed by Indvandrernes Repræsentantskab concerning integration of
ethnic minorities " (I.R.) . We are only going to investigate the chapters that are relevant to
our topic, i.e. mainly those concerning education of children. The document is the respond
to the report made by the Ministry of Interior and was developed by the Immigrant Council.
9.4.1 The Six Basic Principles
The aim of writing this report (I.R), which was published November 13. 1990, has been to
ensure a well defined and coherent immigrant policy. The suggestions in the I.R. have been
worked out on the basis of statements from experts in the field of language and integration
and Indsams and Mellemfolkeligt Samvirkes suggestions to integration programmes. It has
been done in a way so that the Immigrant Council could affiliate with them. The
suggestions are based on six crucial principles. The efforts mentioned in the principles are
those suggested done in the I.R. (p. 9):
Our translation:
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"1) The aim with the effort is to create actual equality between Danes and immigrants- with
the point of departure in the individuals linguistic cultural background as well as wishes
and qualifications.
2) The individual should be enabled to decide the form, the content and the tempo of
integration, this includes which parts of the culture of origin and mother tongue that are
desired to be maintained.
3) It is necessary to start special arrangements in order to attain real equality.
4) There shouldn't be introduced any restrictions on immigrants in relation to Danes, for
instance through the introduction of special quotas, sanctions or restrictions in the right to
bring together the nuclear family(spouse or small children and old parents)
5) The immigrants have a right to have an education in and through their mother tongue, if
they wish so. This regards both children, youngsters and grown- ups.
6) The effort should be co-ordinated , so there is a coherence between the individual
arrangements regardless of their organised placement.
"Det er vigtigt at understrege, at vi ikke ser nogen modsætning mellem ønsker om at bevare
eget sprog og væsentlige dele af oprindelseskultur, og indsatsen for at kunne deltage i det
danske samfund på lige fod med danskerne. Vi opfatter det tværtimod som en styrke for
integrationsarbejdet"
"It is important to stress that we do not see any contradiction between the wish to preserve
own language and important parts of the culture of origin, and the effort to take part in the
Danish society at the same level as the Danes. We perceive it on the contrary as a strength
for the integration work" (Indvandrernes Repræsentantskab 1990, 10, definition of
integration). This utterance shows their defensive position as they are defending their
right to maintain their culture and language. This is a human right and therefore it should
not be necessary to use energy emphasising it (see our report chapter 8.4.2.)
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ad.1:If we look at the first principle the aim is the same as in I.I.D (.see our report chapter
9.2). But when it comes to taking point of departure in the individuals linguistic cultural
background and qualifications, the I.I.D. only mentions that this should be the case with the
mother tongue education.
ad.2: When it comes to the matter of choice concerning education neither form nor content
or tempo of the integration process is available for the individual. Further on The Council
expands this on p. 44 where they mention that the parents should have the possibility to
choose between a mono- and a multicultural and -lingual education.The first one
implemented by the traditional Danish way of teaching and the second one in the shape of
an education using multicultural measures.
ad 3: The Council elaborates this on p. 22, where they mention that it is necessary to have
positive special measurements for different groups based on the fact that they have difficult
points of departure in the Danish society in order for them to qualify themselves on equal
terms with the Danish groups in the society.
ad 4: The Working Group (I.I.D, 50) suggests that quotas should be made if the pupils
cannot be dispersed voluntarily. This is strongly contradicting the principle here concerned.
ad 5:The immigrants do not have the right to have an education in and through the medium
of their mother tongue. The Working Group (I.I.D, 53) clearly expresses that the mother
tongue is only to be thought of as a means to the learning of Danish and not as an
independent language with values within itself and a status equal to that of the Danish
language. The mother tongue education consists of only 3 to 5 lessons a week and is placed
outside of the normal school schedule of the child readily on a Saturday. This can hardly be
considered to be an education, but merely therapeutic. The working group suggests that this
education should be stopped after grade 4. The Working Group also suggests that the
municipality should only be obliged to offer the education within the municipality
border.(I.I.D, 53)
ad 6: The word effort could be referring to all different arrangements, which are to be
organised to ensure an effective integration. An arrangement could be mother tongue
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education, bilingual education etc. In the I.I.D. the mother tongue education as mentioned
in ad.5, is not incorporated in the rest of the education.
The six ads show that the Council does not find the I.I.D. in coherence with their
interpretation of an effective integration policy. Instead they suggest an alternative
Integration program which is presented below.
9.4.2 An Alternative Integration Program for Children
Integration program for children:
(our translation) "The point of departure for the integration of the immigrant children is,
that schools and day-care centres ensure an everyday life, that incorporates experiences and
background of all children, regardless of language, ethnic origin or nationality. This
implies, that children have a right to conserve and develop their mother tongue, no matter if
it is Danish or another language. The mother tongue is defined as the language, that the
parents speak to the child in the first years. (See our definition chapter 5.6). If this language
is not Danish, Danish has to be regarded as the first foreign language, that needs to be
developed specially. Besides this the principles that are mentioned in the beginning count.
To ensure this we want to emphasise the following suggestions:
the day-care institutions and schools have to ensure, that the mother tongue and cultural
background can be developed as the fundament for /simultaneously with introduction to the
Danish language,
the mother tongue education is placed as a part of the normal school schedule and is made
transferable.
better possibilities for mother tongue education in small language groups are created,
possibility is given to start bilingual institutions/classes or other form of organisations,
where children with the same mother tongue can have close contact with each other and
with Danish children- included the development of a guideline for such forms of education,
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better possibilities should be created for the education of bilingual co-workers and (post)
education in cross-cultural work,
guideline, information and parents co-operation has to be strengthened.
We dissociate ourselves from the involuntary dispersal of immigrant children, that we
believe counteracts multicultural integration. The discussion of quotas ,i.e. a numerical
balance in the relationship between Danish children and minority children must go on in
relation to the educational aim." (Indvandrernes repræsentantskab 1990, 11) We believe its
important to point out this integration program for children, as it is a basis for discussing
the suggestions in the I.R.
9.4.3 The Danish Integration Policy According to I.R..
The Immigrant Council points out in its report (I.R.), that one of the greatest problems in
the discussion of integration is that the Danish society does not have a clear cut concept of
the basis for choosing values. If the basis is seen as Denmark being a culturally
homogeneous national state, then the cultural values to be aimed for would be purely
unitary Danish. In order to maintain this state the means to use would be assimilation. If on
the contrary the basis would be a multicultural society, then the cultural values would be
much more diverse and integration would be the means.
If the basis for choosing values is unclear formulated in the I:I.D then it is on the contrary
clarified in the I.R., as it is stated that Denmark is to be regarded as multicultural and
explained through the way they define integration and further on claim that it is the mean
to be used. It is said that a process of integration is one of the most difficult processes
that a human being has to go through.
"Vi anser det derfor for vigtigt, at denne proces kommer til at finde sted med så høj grad af
værdighed som overhovedet muligt" (Indvandrernes Repræsentantskab 1990, 20),(our
translation) "We regard it as very important that this process can go on with as much
degree of dignity, voluntaries, and co-operation as possible."
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A defensive tone is included in this quotation, one gets the impression that the integration
as it is carried out now is carried out in an involuntary and non co-operative manner and is
furthermore a source of humiliation. This leads to it is said: "...at integrationpolitikken
indebærer accepten af et flerkulturelt samfund, og at flerkulturel integration skal ses som en
vedvarende proces, hvor begge parter udvikler sig sammen og lærer af hinanden
"(Indvandrernes Repræsentantskab 1990, .20) (our translation)"...that the policy of
integration implies the acceptance of a multicultural society, and that multicultural
integration must be regarded as an ongoing process, where both sides develop together and
learn from each other.", "Det er nødvendigt, at basere indvandrerpolitikken på en opfattelse
af, at Danmark nu har nye fastboende etniske minoriteter"(Indvandrernes Repræsentantskab
1990, .21) (our translation). "It is necessary to base the policy of integration on the
understanding that Denmark now has permanently living ethnic minorities"
Therefore it is also pointed out that its important to change the policy of integration from a
common policy of integration to a multicultural minority policy, as the ethnic minorities
now are permanent residents of Denmark.(I.R, 21).
“Konsolideringen af flerkulturel minoritetspolitik medfører at integrationpolitikken kan
tage udgangspunkt i et lighedsbegreb, der bygger på ligestilling af etniske grupper i et
flerkulturelt samfund" (Indvandrernes Repræsentantskab 1990, 22), (our translation)"The
consolidation of a multicultural minority policy implies that the policy of integration can
take point of departure in an concept of equality, that is based on equality of ethnic groups
in a multicultural society" On this point the Ministry of Interior claims that if Integration is
to be fulfilled then it is to be prevented that the ethnic minorities develop into a minority
group, which under the worst circumstances is in opposition to the surroundings. (I.I.D, 5)
We can conclude that the Immigrant Council's claims fall together with our conclusions of
the investigation of the Official Danish Policy on Integration and language.
The Danish tradition has been, consciously or subconsciously to have an assimilation
policy. If you read our investigation of the Official Danish Policy on Integration and
Language ( Chapter 9.2) you can see from our interpretation of the concept definition of
integration that it is rather assimilation than integration which is the goal for the Danish
policy. This implies that the individual member of an ethnic minority solely has the visible
and heavy responsibility for the process of integration
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The Immigrant Council is criticising the Danish policy of integration for not being clear
about their goals. As a consequence the civil servants, who are in contact with the groups
are working blindly, without any aim and without guidelines, which they can relate their
work to. (I.R, 21) The only relation that is possible is whether the immigrants "have
problems or not". (I.R, 21.).
9.4.4 The Role of The Danish Language in the Integration Policy
In the official discussion of integration it is very often pointed out by some that the ability
to speak Danish should clear the path for integration in the Danish society. Others warn
against the exaggerated importance of the language and some even believe that the concern
for the mastery in language can work as a justification for an assimilation process. "Ofte
formuleres det som et valg mellem de to sprog (dansk og modersmålet), mens det fra anden
side understreges, at tosprogede er et gode for den enkelte og for landet" (Indvandrer
Repræsentantskabet 1990, .25),(our translation) "Often it is formulated as a choice between
the two languages (Danish and mother tongue), whereas on the other hand it is stressed that
bilingualism is a gain for the individual and for the country" On page 26 the Immigrant
Council is expressing its concern about the stress that is put on language in connection with
the ethnic minorities.
"Integration af kulturelt meget forskellige grupper og løsning af de sociale konflikter, der
kan følge med kulturmødet klares ikke alene gennem sprogstimulerende
foranstaltninger"(Indvandrernes Repræsentantskab 1990, 26) (our translation) "The
integration of culturally very different groups and the solution to the social conflicts, that
can be a result of the cultural meeting, cannot be mend only through language stimulating
arrangements" Later on the same page :"Opprioriteringen af de sproglige forhold generelt
og af indvandrernes danskkundskaber i særdeleshed genfindes i udkastet til
embedsmændenesredegørelse"
"The prioritisation of the linguistic conditions in general and specially of the Danish skills
of the ethnic minorities is recovered in the draft of the civil servants' description. Therefore
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we anticipate, that the final description is going to be too one-sided in its scope of and in
the suggestions to improvements". (our translation) The Immigrant Council is worried
when it points out that the Danish language is glorified whereas the "real" problems are
ignored. (See our Chapter 9.2.6) . In this quotation it is clear that an attempt to fight the
glorification is made.
9.4.5 The Integration of Ethnic Minority Children in the age 0-6 years and in
the School Age
In the same area of topic the Immigrant Council has a chapter in its report (I.R.) called:
"The Integration of children from the ethnic minorities in the age 0-6 years and the school
age". According to the Council the integration of ethnic minority children is debated
especially in connection with their schooling. The lack of success in the schooling is
primarily reasoned by the lacking skills in the Danish language. There is a large agreement
that the solution to this problem would be to make the children from the ethnic minorities
"ovenready" for the Danish school by ensuring that their Danish language is at the same
level as the language of the Danish children at school start. The Council continues that this
problem limitation turns its attention to the Danish language development of ethnic
minority children as early as to the pre-school age, but neglects at the same time the
remaining development of the child and the co-operation between home, child and the
institution.
There is a certain disagreement about the financial sharing of costs between state and local
authorities, but it is a widespread understanding that to obtain the Danish language
development in the pre-school age it would be efficient:
• that the children from the ethnic minorities go through an early code switching so that
Danish becomes their new mother tongue,
• that because of this these children ought to be put in Danish day care centres with
Danish staff,
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• that ethnic minority children are spread out to sufficient number of day care
centres/schools so they do not use their mother tongue, but are forced to speak Danish.
(our translation)
The Council continues that this attitude is often put forward with a limited understanding of
the significance of the mother tongue. It is claimed, that the development of the mother
tongue is without importance to the acquisition of Danish and only a matter for the parents
and that the disregard of the mother tongue in the end is an advantage for the children from
the ethnic minorities, as their future lies in Denmark.(I.R, 39)
9.4.6 The Mother Tongue and the Second Language
The Council stresses that proposals for solutions of this character are seriously in conflict
with the fundamental attitudes deeply rooted in the human rights understanding and the
democratic perception of equality. This attitude is also in conflict with what is known about
language development, the importance of the mother tongue and the acquisition of a second
language. (See Chapter 6). Almost All language researchers- regardless of other
disagreements- believe today that the mother tongue is an aid in the acquisition of a second
language (I.R., 40): In the following quotation the Immigrant Council is defining the
relationship between mother tongue and Danish: "In general it is important to remember
that Danish is a second language for those, who start learning it after the first language
acquisition in the family. If small children are exposed to two languages they will develop a
mother tongue relationship to both languages ( if they besides thrive and are actively
involved in the communication in both languages). After the age of three however the child
will develop a mother tongue and a second language, and this division will not change with
time and with the later language development. This is important for the learning abilities of
the children in the two languages and for the sort and scope of the Danish education they
are going to get"(Indvandrernes Repræsentantskab 1990, 33).(our translation)
The Immigrant Council points out:
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"Vi vil gerne understrege behovet for at afdække dette område grundigt, før man går i gang
med en planlægning og en udvikling af integrationtilbud til børn fra etniske minoriteter.
Dette kræver et bredere forståelsesgrundlag end det foreliggende."(Indvandrernes
Repræsentantskab 1990, 40)
"We want to emphasise the need for uncovering this field thoroughly, before you start
planning and developing integration offers for children from the ethnic minorities. This
demands a larger foundation of understanding than the present one". (our translation)
9.4.7 The linguistic conditions in the integration process.
Realising these conditions the Council has produced an independent chapter about
linguistic conditions in the process of integration. The chapter was based on discussion with
experts in the linguistic field and the principal source is the research-group at Danmarks
Lærerhøjskole. We are going to quote out some of the main points in this chapter which we
think are important.
"I debatten foreslås det ofte, at mindretalsforældre skifter til dansk i hjemmet, for at
børnene kan lære dansk fra starten.En sådan løsning må på det bestemteste afvises, dels
fordi den krænker familiens ret til selv at bestemme, og dels fordi det for langt de fleste
børn vil indebære et utilstrækkeligt og sprogligt opvækstmiljø." (Indvandrernes
Repræsentantskab 1990, 30) (our translation) "In the debate it is often suggested, that the
ethnic minority parents shift to Danish in the home, in order for the children to learn Danish
from the start. Such a solution must definitely be refused, partly because it violates the right
of the family to decide for itself, and partly because it will imply an insufficient and
linguistic adolescence environment" A defensive position is here taken by the Council as
they see the solution as threatening their foundation of existence as minorities.
"The minority pupils in a part of other western countries have the right to mother tongue
education, but in Denmark the proportion of this education is strongly limited, and it is
often given independently from the Danish school" (Indvandrernes Repræsentantskab 1990,
31). "According to international experiences we can see that the immigrant children who
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are in school or on their way to start can only function as bilingual grown-ups on a high
level, if the mother tongue education is strengthened in scope and integrated in the full
schooling of the children". Three lines further down on the same page: "But even though
you do not want to produce bilingual adults of the immigrant children, you should know the
importance of the mother tongue in their technical and social development, and this
condition can be utilised with advantage in the education." (Indvandrernes
Repræsentantskab 1990, 31). The Immigrant Council is trying to be very moderate in its
utterances, they do not dare to come up with their own clear cut demands to what they
really want namely: that the position of the mother tongue should be strengthen is
recognised .
"Børn, der ikke modtager undervisning på deres modersmål, vil formentlig ikke kunne
udvikle en voksen kompetence på sproget. De vil f. eks. have svært ved at låse og skrive og
mangler alle de ord, der hører til skolen"(Indvandrernes Repræsentantskab 1990, 34) (our
translation) "Children who do not receive education in their mother tongue are probably not
going to develop an adult competence in the language it will for instance be difficult for
them to read and write and they are going to lack all the words that belong to the school".
Again the Council is taking a defensive position delivering arguments directed to the
majority, as it is also in their interest to avoid limited literacy, for the teaching of mother
tongue.
"Mange danskere har svært ved at forestille sig, at børn kan vokse op på rimelig vis med to
sprog- de frygter, at børnene bliver overbelastede intellektuelt, og at de ikke har kapacitet
til samtidig at udvikle sig optimalt" (Indvandrernes Repræsentantskab 1990, 35) (our
translation) "Many Danes have difficulties imagining that children can grow up reasonably
with two languages- they fear that the children are intellectually overloaded, and that they
do not have capacity to develop simultaneously in an optimal way. Foreign and Danish
investigations of bilingual families and bilingual societies however show that there is no
reason for these anxieties" The defence of mother tongue is here proceeded: “Der er
imidlertid en tredie mulighed, idet sprogene sagtens kan eksistere side om side og udvikles
parallelt til de formål, de nu har for sprogbrugerne. Et sådant valg er i fuld
overensstemmelse med sprogforskningen, som i de sidste 15-20 år har vist, modersmålet er
en hjælp ved tilegnelsen af et andetsprog, og at støtte til det ene sprog samtidig er med til at
udvikle det andet sprog."(Indvandrernes Repræsentantskab 1990, 35) (our
translation)"There is also a third possibility, the languages can easily exist side by side and
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be developed in parallel for the purpose they now have for the language users. Such a
choice is fully in coherence with the language research in the last 15-20 years which has
shown that the mother tongue is an aid in the acquisition of a second language, and that
support for one language is at the same time helping to develop the other language. (The
professional disagreements are not to be found in this area, but with the question whether
the minority language should be regarded as a resource or a right.)
The Council is trying to give its point of view and suggestions in a careful way. Even
though able to base their argumentation on professional research they maintain these vague
formulations.
"Det har ofte været fremført, at et stort antal indvandrerbørn er en belastning;
indlæringseffektiviteten i skolen falder, børnene taler sammen på deres modersmål og
bruger ikke dansk osv. Vi vil gerne fremhæve, at der ikke findes hverken
sprogvidenskabelige, sociologiske eller pædagogiske teorier, der ligger sig fast på et givent
kvoteforhold, det være sig 10, 33 eller 50 pct. Det er ikke den fysiske tilstedeværelse i sig
selv, der skaber integrationen."(Indvandrernes Repræsentantskab 1990, 48) (our translation)
"It has often been put forward that a large number of immigrant children are a strain, the
learning effectiveness in the school decreases, the children talk together in their mother
tongue and do not use Danish etc. We want to stress, that there are neither language
scientific nor sociological or pedagogical theories , that point out any given quota
relationships, be they 10,33 or 50 pct.. It is not the physical presence in itself which creates
the integration." Again the Council is in a defensive position where it omits to emphasise
that the quotas are of illegal character (see our report chapter 9.2.10), but only uses the
professional aid.
9.4.8 Conclusion
What is noticed through the report (I.R) is that the critics of the policy is presented in a very
defensive and moderated way. The reason for this could be that the Council is trying to
rationalise i.e. they assume that Denmark cannot be changed considerably and therefore
only the moderated suggestions are presented. The Council probably believe that what they
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have put forward are the absolute maximums of what can be achieved in the present
society. To make what would appear to be unrealistic proposals could violate their
reliability. But by using a defensive angle, the opportunity to be constructive and offensive
is wasted.
To summarise the goals, means and reasons for problems and make a clarified picture of
this document is not especially easy as most of these concepts are invisible or only
indirectly defined. If we take point of departure in the goals, we will notice that the highest
mentioned linguistic state is bilingualism, it is furthermore described positively and
attempts to make efforts aiming at bilingualism are suggested, such as bilingual staff in
institutions and the possibility to start bilingual classes, these function as measures also.
The basic goal though is found in principle 1 as it states that equality between Danes and
immigrants should be created, and that the efforts should take point of departure in the
individuals linguistic, cultural background as well as wishes and qualifications.
Furthermore principle 5 states that the immigrants should have the right to have an
education in and through the medium of their mother tongue, this supports the idea of
bilingualism as being a goal and furthermore functions as a measure to obtain it. The
languages could further more be taught in a way which would create the possibility of them
developing parallel to each other. But in addition to this is mentioned that mother tongue
education is also functioning as a mean to learn Danish. The problem recognised in this
educational proposal is the low skills in mother tongue which when properly developed can
lead to bilingualism.
9.4.9 The Placement of the Educational Programme in the Model of “The
Development of Minority Education”.
Using this model we can place the educational program in stage four. First of all by
looking at the first category, it states that the problem is, that the child does not know
her/his mother tongue properly which leads to also poor skills for the learning of the
majority language. Moving on to the measures we are presented to the idea of having your
mother tongue taught as a subject or as a medium for learning the majority language. This
corresponds to the idea presented by the Council as it suggests bilingual classes as a
voluntary opportunity together with more bilingual teachers educated. It on the contrary
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does not say for how long this teaching in the mother tongue should continue but suggests
that it should be possible to take the exams in comprehensive school in your mother tongue.
This model is only of therapeutic value and provides better co-operation with home. The
goals according to this stage are to ensure the survival of the minority language for a
shorter period of time (1-2 generations). The minority children need help to appreciate their
mother tongue and culture of origin until they become majority language speaking. Again
the problem of time is present as we cannot say if the education is only going to be
temporary. This stage does not mention bilingualism as a desirable stage and can therefore
not be said to describe the education program fully. The goal is perhaps more similar to that
described in stage five, as bilingualism is aimed at here.
What we can conclude from this is that the proposals from the Council are describing a
program which is balancing in between stage four and five and therefore is a progress
compared to I.I.D. But as the program is not thoroughly explained it is hard to make any
firm and final conclusions.
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9.5 Investigation of how the Danish policy falls into one or more of
Baker's Models
When working with Baker's ten types of models of bilingual education and the I.I.D. it is of
course relevant to see which model this policy fits into. We will do that by looking at
Baker's table with the ten models. (see chapter 8.2.1 )
9.5.1 Typical Type of Child
If we look at the table the first vertical column describes the "Typical Type of Child". We
are in this project of course interested in the language minorities and so we can see that
there are only seven of the ten types of education that deal with the language minority
groups and therefore we can disregard the "Mainstream with Foreign Language Teaching",
"Immersion" and "Mainstream Bilingual" education as these models are for language
majorities learning a foreign language.
9.5.2 Language of the Classroom
The next vertical column in the table is "Language of the Classroom". The I.I.D. does not at
any time question whether or not Danish should be the medium of teaching. It seems that it
is taken for granted that Danish is being used as the medium in all lessons and mother
tongue education is separated from "the real school" and reduced to a few hours outside
normal school hours, readily on Saturdays ( Indenrigsministeriet 1990 page 43 subchapter
2.2.2.). Looking at the second column it becomes clear that it is only the first two models
which uses the majority language only, so the I.I.D seems to be the submersion education
possibly with withdrawal classes.
9.5.3 Danish policy - Submersion Education
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When we look at the analysis of the Policy the picture it gives actually corresponds very
well with that of the submersion education. The minority child is being placed in
mainstream education along with fluent Danish speakers. All subjects are being taught
through the medium of Danish and the teachers are monolingual Danish speakers. Several
places in the report (e.g. page 49 and 50) spreading out the minorities to different schools
are even being discussed saying that this action will help the minority children to learn
better Danish. "Voluntary" dispersal of the children is already being carried out and if
enough parents do not volunteer to it the I.I.D suggests a quota system for the communities.
(Indenrigsministeriet 1990 page 50) (see also this report chapter 9.2.10). This means that
the report finds that there should be done an effort to isolate the minority child even more,
so that she/he will often be the only one speaking her/his mother tongue in the Danish class.
9.5.4 Submersion Education with withdrawal Classes
The I.I.D. in some cases suggests that the minority children who start in school should be
put in "reception classes" based on a law from "Undervisningsministeriet" (I.I.D., page 38)
(see also our report chapter 9.2.9). These reception classes normally last for a maximum of
two years but can be followed by continuous supplementary teaching to "continue language
development in Danish" (I.I.D., page 39 our translation). This teaching is also conducted in
Danish only and seem to correspond roughly to withdrawal classes. We can thus see that
the I.I.D. is what Colin Baker describes as Submersion education - in some cases combined
with withdrawal classes.
9.5.5 Societal and Educational Aim
When we look at the third vertical column in the table we can see what Baker and other
researchers see as the societal and educational aims of the types of education. Against the
submersion education in this column we can see that the aim is assimilation. This does not
correspond with what the Danish government say is their aim, as they say in the report that
"the overall goal with the Danish immigrant policy is to insure integration of the
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immigrants into the Danish society." (our translation, Indenrigsministeriet 1990 page 15).
However, that the societal and educational aim in reality is assimilation does correspond
with our analysis of the report (our report chapter 9.2), where we found several examples of
that what the report calls integration in fact is often assimilation according to our definition
of the concept (our report chapter 5.4).
The way that the report suggests that minorities should integrate better, is that they should
change; the children should start learning Danish already in pre-schools (e.g. page 32), they
should learn Danish better in school (e.g. page 12), the number of ethnic minorities in each
class should be reduced (e.g. page 49 and 50) and the parents should teach their children
Danish already before they start in school (page 11), at the same time the Danes should just
be more accepting. It is hard to see that the report aims at anything but assimilation when
listing these suggestions.
9.5.6 Aim in Language Outcome
The last column in Baker's table is the aim in language outcome and that aim in the
submersion policy is according to Baker monolingualism. The policy says that developing
the mother tongue is a good basis for learning Danish. However they do not as mentioned
before teach neither through nor in the mother tongue in complementary school, but offer a
few hours of mother tongue education outside normal school hours. So the report
recognises the need for the minority children to be taught their mother tongue, but first of
all they do not offer proper facilities to do so, and secondly the only reason for developing
the mother tongue to a certain stage according to the report is in order for the minority
children to learn better Danish. The mother tongue of the children whom the report defines
as immigrants does not have any status in the Danish society and the little teaching they are
offered in their mother tongues is only there as it is said to help the children to learn better
Danish. As mentioned in chapter 9.2.17 in our report some of the political parties in
Denmark even wanted to take away what is now being offered of mother tongue lessons.
When we look at what possibilities that kind of mother tongue education gives the
minorities to develop their mother tongue to a high level, there is no doubt that it is limited.
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It will be very few who on the basis of that can develop a high degree of oral and literate
competence. The minority children will be taught through the medium of Danish all day in
school, if they are affected by the dispersal policy they will be surrounded by Danish
speaking children only at least during school hours, most of the input they get in the society
from television, newspapers, magazines, advertisements etc. will be in Danish and they will
have almost no possibilities of using their mother tongue in any official situations. So when
Baker says that the submersion education will lead to monolingualism or at least very
strong dominance in the majority language it seems to be a very fair conclusion. However,
the minorities besides not developing a high competence in their mother tongue often do
not develop a sufficiently high level in Danish either. In chapter 6 we have tried to explain
why.
9.5.7 Summary
Looking at Bakers model we found that the I.I.D. on minority education is a submersion
program. In some cases we in Denmark have what Baker calls withdrawal classes - in the
I.I.D. they are called "reception classes" and later supplementary teaching. Both the
ordinary school hours, the receiving classes and the supplementary teaching is in Danish
only. I.I.D. claims to aim at integration of the minorities but as we have seen in chapter
9.2.8 there are several examples of how the report when saying integration in reality means
assimilation. The main goal is for the minority children to learn better Danish and the way
to obtain it is that the children should learn Danish at an earlier age and be exposed to more
Danish in school. The little teaching there is in the mother tongue is only offered as a basis
for the children to improve their Danish and the minority languages have got no status in
the Danish society. with this form of education there is a big risk that the minority children
will become monolinguals or at least have a very strong dominance in the majority
language - Danish. But still a lot of the minorities in Denmark do not develop their Danish
to a sufficiently high level, do not get long education and well paid jobs. If we look at
chapter 6 we can find some of the reasons why the minorities often fail to develop their
Danish to a high stage. First of all they might be misjudged to know to master the new
language completely when in fact they have only developed the BICS and not the CALP in
Danish. Therefore they might have difficulties participating in cognitively demanding
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situations in the classroom. It will be harder for them to draw the meaning of what the
teacher says or of what they read and therefore they will have to concentrate more than the
Danish pupils. This means that they will need more breaks and that they will be more
stressed. When they have difficulties in school and can only compare themselves with
fluent Danish speakers their self confidence will be damaged and again this will make it
harder for them to solve even more demanding tasks. As mentioned in chapter 6.7 this is a
bad circle that prevents the minority child from benefiting from the education. It thus seems
obvious for us that the way for the minority children to learn better Danish is NOT to give
them more Danish or to introduce them to Danish at a very early age.
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10. Conclusions
When working through the report we touched on several areas, raising questions,
elaborating on them, looking at theories, investigating policies and treaties, linking,
working with models, quoting and describing. Even though we were not able to cover all
the areas that we wished to, we will try to put the areas we covered in perspective.
Through investigating theories on learning of language, we became aware of the
importance of maintaining and developing the mother tongue, as this is the best basis for
acquiring high proficiency in a second language. We, moreover, saw that bilingualism
should be seen as an extra resource, which can lead to greater competence in divergent
thinking, higher cognitive flexibility and metalinguistic awareness. This made us conclude
that bilingualism should be a desirable goal for all children. With this in mind, we
discovered the negative consequences it can have for a minority child to be educated solely
through the medium of his/her second language - the majority language - as this would
restrain bilingualism.
The first document we looked at, the “Integration af indvandrere i Danmark” (I.I.D.)
surprisingly showed that bilingualism which we had concluded to be an absolute benefit for
all parties, was not the goal of the Danish policy of integration. On the contrary we found it
quite clear that the goals were assimilation and monolingualism. This was further
confirmed when placing the I.I.D. into the models chosen. It clearly showed that the policy
suggested belonged to the deficiency phases in the model of the development of minority
education. Looking at the second document - the teachers guide: "Modermålsundervisning
for tosprogede elever i folkeskolen" (M.E.F.), we noticed a slight development from the
I.I.D. in the direction of the enrichment phases but without reaching them. Furthermore, the
document was only a guide that had no real possibilities of influencing the actual policy.
The third document “Rapport fra arbejdsgruppen nedsat af Indvandrernes
Repræsentantskab vedrørende integration af indvandrere” (I.R.) from the Immigrant
Council is a response to the I.I.D.. It contains alternative suggestions to how the educational
policy should be formulated. Their suggestions are closer to the enrichment phases than the
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other two documents, but do not fulfil the criteria of actually reaching an enrichment phase
either.
With what we concluded, we have the basis for answering our cardinal question:
To what extent does the official Danish policy support the linguistic development of second
generation ethnic minorities, and how does this effect the integration process?
The official Danish policy leads to assimilation and monolingualism, and as we see
bilingualism as the optimum linguistic development as goal, it is obvious that the Danish
policy does not support this. As for the integration process the policy by aiming at
assimilation eliminates such a process.
As it is clear that the official Danish policy does not support the linguistic development,
and prevents integration, we feel that the policy should be changed. We would instead
recommend the Maintenance Bilingual Education as we feel this is the ideal education for
minorities in a majority society.
11. Process of Group Work
When our group first started out, it was a coalition between two groups, with the topics of
“Refugees from Ex-Yugoslavia” and “2nd generation immigrants”. Due to lack of members
the groups were forced to melt together, leading to some of the members leaving for other
groups as their project proposals had changed. The remaining members formed a permanent
group working with the subject: “The Integration of 2nd Generation Pakistanis”. Our group
consisted at this point of five members, with various ethnic backgrounds: Two Danes
representing the majority in Denmark, and three members representing different ethnic
minorities from Pakistan, from the Philippines and the Faroe Islands, the last one also
representing a gender minority.
After starting to read about the subject chosen we soon realised that this topic was much to
broad, and that our first cardinal question: “Are the 2nd generation Pakistanis in Denmark
integrated, segregated or assimilated?” would be quite hard to answer. We therefore went
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into a process of limitation. In narrowing the topic down, we touched up on several
different areas on the way to our contemporary.
Our different backgrounds, experiences and present situations demanded great
understanding from all the members, an understanding that was not always present, thus
sometimes resulting in minor clashes. However we enjoyed each others company, and
functioned utterly well on the social level. The clashes were only occurring on the
professional level, as we had different approaches to the group work and varying
conceptions of working discipline. None of us had previously tried to work in groups to
such an extend, and we all found it difficult in one way or the other, as we suddenly were
dependent on four other persons, to whom we also had a responsibility.
We can now see that some of the difficulties that we faced in this our first project could
have been avoided, had we known a little more about how to approach writing a project. In
the beginning we used to much time discussing things that only played a very small part in
our further work, but on the other hand we still do not feel that the importance of discussion
should be neglected. We put too much emphasis on developing an adequate cardinal
question in the beginning, not realising that the exact formulation of this could be done later
when we had a more clear perception of what we wanted to work with. We also used a lot
of time trying to define the concepts as we felt that we could not really start to work before
we had clarified them. This has meant together with our long process of limitation, that the
time frame of the actual writing was too short.
We feel that we have learned from our mistakes although there without doubt will be some
that we will repeat in the future. One of the things that we will hopefully do differently
next time is to structure the project work. This would enable us to make a more in dept
investigation and to make the different parts of the project more coherent.
We should have had more relevant communication within the group so that we would have
been more aware of what the other members were producing.
As an overall picture of our group work we feel that we have had problems, but most of
them could be categorised as initial difficulties, that we will use and benefit from in our
further education.
111
Finally we would like to thank the people, who in one way or another have helped us in our
work; Kirsten for providing us with useful material, Robert for lending us technical
equipment, Lars for spoiling us, Nick for helping us with the computers, Tove for guidance
and Inger for being a darling!
112
12. Danish Summary
Resume af vores report
Sprog, identitet, integration og uddannelse er hovedbestandelene i vores undersøgelse af
anden generation af etniske minoriteter i Danmark. Baggrunden for vores emnevalg
hang nøje sammen med den etniske sammensætning af vores gruppe, idet vi benyttede
vores repræsentanter for forskellige minoritetsgrupper som levende vidensressourcer og
til at opnå en anden synsvinkel på projektet. Vores begrænsning af emneområdet var
straks mere kompliceret, idet vi udfra begreberne identitet og integration udarbejdede en
model visende de faktorer, som indgår i udviklingen af disse processer, heraf valgte vi så
at fokusere på uddannelse ( nærmere betegnet folkeskolen) og sprog. Skolen blev valgt,
fordi den påvirker individet i en lang tidsperiode og derudover i en alder, hvor børnene
er lette at påvirke. Sproget blev valgt, fordi det er en gruppes mest magtfulde
udtryksmåde hvorigennem værdier, traditioner, historie og sammenhold kan
kommunikeres.
Det vi ønskede at kigge nærmere på var b.l.a.: sprogets rolle i udviklingen af en etnisk
identitet og i integrereringen af de etniske minoriteter, hvordan sprog læres og hvilken
rolle skolen spiller i denne sammenhæng, hvad er målene med den danske
iintegrationspolitik og hvilke midler bruges der til at opnå dem, og endelig hvordan
denne politik ser ud i forhold til teoretiske modeller og internationale dokumenter.
Vores kardinalspørgsmål kom således til at lyde som følger:
Til hvilken grænse støtter den officielle, danske integrationspolitik den sproglige
udvikling af anden generations etniske minoriteter og hvordan influerer dette
integrationsprocessen ?
Det første emne, skal gennemgås er sprogindlæring i skolen. Vi har taget udgangspunkt i
Baker 1993, Skutnabb-Kangas 1990 og Cummins 1984, og deres forklaringer af
sprogindlæring.
113
Indtil midt i tresserne i Vesten blev tosprogethed anset som en ulempe for individet, idet
tilstanden blev associaseret med fattigdom og ringe evner i majoritetessproget. Fra
tresserne blev synet på tosprogethed ændret idet tosprogede elever viste bedre resultater
i tests, der målte divergent tænkning, kognitiv flexibilitet o.s.v. Jim Cummins forklarer
sprogindlæring ved hjælp af begreberne BICS og CALP, BICS som værende evnen til at
tale et sprog flydende og CALP som værende tankeværktøjet, der ligger bag. I
sammenhæng med tosprogethed kan disse begreber forklares som et isbjerg med to
toppe. Hver top repræsenterer et sprog( BICS'en)og den fælles del som ligger under
vandet repræsenterer CALP'en, dette billede viser, at sprogene har en fælles del og
derfor også afhænger af hinanden i udvikling.
Den etniske identitet vælger vi her at definere i en sproglig sammenhæng af hensyn til
sammenhængen med emnet, de ses da defineret som det at være et- to- eller flersproget
og herunder tages hensyn til kriterier såsom identifikation, kompetence og funktion.
Sproget i denne sammenhæng spiller rollen som formidler på: 1) internt plan, 2)
gruppeplan og 3) som systematisk lagring af en gruppes historie og traditioner.
Indenrigsministeriets rapport om integration på skoleområdet bliver herefter undersøgt
for at belyse forholdet mellem skole, sprog og integration. Rapporten lægger op til en
integrationsproces, men eftersom modersmålet for de tosprogede elever kun støttes i
ringe grad, og dansk sprog og kultur glorificers må det konkluderes at politikken
beskrevet i denne rapport sigter mod assimilation. Derefter har vi fundet det vigtigt at
sammenligne med to andre dokumenter, det ene udsendt af Undervisningsministeriet i
1994 og det andet udarbejdet af Immigranternes repræsentantskab i 1990 som en direkte
reaktion på den først nævnte rapport( I.I.D ) for at vise alternativer til den egentlige
politik. Dokumenterne sammenlignes v.h.a. en model udarbejdet af Skutnabb-Kangas,
der viser udviklingen af skolingsprogrammer for minoriteter. Det viser sig herefter, at
alle tre dokumenter ligger på et forholdsvis lavt udviklingsniveau, skønt der dog er
forskel på niveauerne rapporterne imellem.
Derefter sættes den første rapport (I.I.D.) ind i Bakers model over tosproget
undervisning for yderliggere at få klarlagt mål og midler indenfor netop det
undervisningsprogram. Det viser sig endnu engang at etsprogethed og assimilation er
målet. Vi kan derfor runde af med at konkludere at tosprogethed, som er en eftertragtet
114
status blandt især minoriteter ifølge vor undersøgelse, ikke støttes af den danske
integrationspolitik. Ydermere at ses det at politikken leder til assimilation og ikke
integration.
115
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