Language Planning - Robert Phillipson vs. Abram de Swaan

To celebrate the launch of their programme in multilingualism the University of Groningen and the University Campus Fryslân organised a seminal event entitled: Multilingualism: The Key Debates on 12 and 13 September 2013.
One of the most exciting parts of this event were the debates held between eight internationally acclaimed experts about pivotal issues concerning language and multilingualism.
The event was sponsored by the Province of Fryslân, the Royal Dutch Academy for Science and Språkåret 2013.

Why don't we all just speak English? The world would be a vastly different place if we were all native speakers of the same language. The financial and political costs of multilingualism compared to the cultural value of linguistic diversity constitutes a central topic for political debates around the globe.
In the debate showing here Robert Phillipson from the Copenhagen Business School and Abram de Swaan from the University of Amsterdam were asked to address how language planning and policy making should be carried out in the multilingual world of today. Should we expend efforts saving smaller languages, or rather focus on teaching larger national, or international languages? Do nation-states kill minority languages? Can provincial language policies, like the ones in Fryslân, save regional and minority languages? The debate you are about to see was held on 13 September during the event Multilingual Fryslân: The Key Debates in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. The moderator of the debate was Professor Frans Zwarts of the University Campus Fryslân.
Want more information on this new, exciting program? Visit: http://www.rug.nl/masters/multilingualism/
http://ucf.nl/

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