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Language Policy and Management
*Mohsen Karimian Azimi, PhD As. Prof., Shahed University [email protected]
Salar Karimian Azimi, MSc. in Engineering in progress Sahand University of Technology
Abstract
Management seems to have the upper hand in many issues of concern in societies. Whether the management is sound and scientific and at the same time humane is one matter, and that it definitely is in the position of dictating or at least settling the issues in the human societies is another. This paper attempts to touch on the role of management in language policy domain and management and to focus the attention of the audience on some issues of language policy
through opinion seeking by the development and administration of some questionnaire to some 45 final participants in the study. The results reflect the participants overall mental impact of what they think of the status quo and what might come in the coming decades regarding some language related issues and some upcoming invader in effect though not officially called so. The findings might trigger further research in a wider scope.
Keywords: management, language education, foreign language facilitation, language policies, fairness
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Introduction
Language is the very essential and unavoidable means of communication for human beings and humans in the wider spectrum of global human geography and world history would not deny its pivotal role in pushing the rest of human race forward through getting to the present status of sapiens-sapiens-Homo-sapiens, i.e.: the present race of man. Language role has been so crucial that people and societies have attempted to learn other languages as well as their mother tongue in order to communicate. The language education as an interdisciplinary field already knows a lot regarding how to deal with certain intra-lingual matters from the sound and meaning systems to aspects of affective and neurobiological factors affecting acquisition and learning, amongst a wide range of others. Yet, there are issues in the sociopolitical domains of language education, in which one might enter the realm of management of societies in its wider scope, especially the ones related to language policies which mostly seem untapped on and require a closer look and investigation. Instances might be the effect of movies and serials on the audience of other nations, attracting them to learn the language of the movies stars, the necessity of multilingual education, hidden attempts towards subtractive language education, teaching language A but not B simply for personal reasons of a few politicians who rightly or wrongly have the control over nations but might be the puppets of some other foreign figures, amongst many others. If such issues are unattended to, there is the hazard of being mired down in the unknown swamp of a probably unknown overriding force. The recent pushy policies of a certain communist state in the world, with the help and support of some other communist states as allies of course, in selling almost all types of goods and commodities whether fake or not might make one worried that it is going to expand to other areas from culture to language as an emerging colonial power of the coming decades. Its population as well as faster quicker access to other areas paves the way for more influence and more devastating consequences in the target nations. The present increasing infiltration seems reminiscent of a former occupier and destroyer of other nations, the Mongol Empire under Genghis and others. It seems that merely the methods of enslavement have
changed. Although the very first one is economic dependence, there are many others. One can be the local language substitution whether in the short or in the long run. We get to the ones
involved in the discussion.
Language and its Significance
Language, which might be defined as a set of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human
communication, is said to be what the Almighty taught man in the first place, from a religious point of view, where it is said ‘Allamahomol bayan’ [the holy Quran, 55:4] which according to my understanding means: ‘[The Almighty taught man talking [to express things]’. As the societies formed and got bigger and bigger, and human beings dispersed everywhere on earth, and following the attempt to construct the Babylonian Tower, as some religious texts put it, and the wrath of God was provoked, and the varieties of languages later came into being, the need was still there for various human societies to communicate. Hence, language learning and
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teaching existed in various forms all through. The more people understand each other, the less they probably fight, the less make clashes, and the less initiate wars.
Management
Management could be seen as the hobnob or the major shaft around which the rest are connected and conducted. It is the managing system at various levels that would be responsible for the happiness or misery of a community or society. Of course, appropriate management does not mean that one should be selfish and just care about the good of one’s people at the expense of the miserableness of the others. This is where fairness becomes a criterion.
Fairness
Fairness should be taken as a very important criterion. It is both a very much emphasized matter in divine religions and in non-religious communities as a human virtue. For the former, it is said that the Almighty orders us to be fair and to do good deeds towards each other, and in the latter, even gangsters might tell one another to be fair, let alone others. It seems sufficient for this part.
The interested audience might refer to the following, amongst many others, for relevant discussions:
There is discussion on various issues concerning the Social factors in Azimi (2006); human aspects in Azimi (2008); art and technology in Azimi (2009); fairness in Azimi (2010); the role of financial matters in Azimi (2016a); virtue-related factors in azimi and Farahany (2011);
philosophy role in Azimi (2016b); tolerance for non-quality life in Azimi (2016c), the role of management in Azimi and Azimi (2020); the computer-related aspects of instruction or online learning in Azimi (2020), the role of technology in Azimi 2020b); and the role of law in Azimi (2020c), among other ones. It seems to be enough to get to the method part of our discussion.
Method
Participants, Questionnaire Development and Administration
After semi-interview questions to tap on the ideas of participants in general, followed by some open-ended questions, the final form of the questionnaire which was a close ended one was developed and administered to some 45 final participants. The upshots are presented below according to the frequency of occurrence of responses provided by the participants.
Results and Discussion
The following responses were provided by the participants who participated in the final form of the questionnaire developed for this study. The presentation is according to the most frequent response to the least based on the frequency hierarchy.
1. We seem to be under the push of some most populated country of the world;
2. Persian language should be cared more;
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3. They unfairly destroyed our smaller scale industries and businesses;
4. I am not interested in learning their languages (those of that Asian country);
5. I do not like someone who may eat any type of animal or creature;
6. I am not interested in eating their food and dishes (those of that Asian country);
7. There seems to be a threat from the side of the authorities of that nation (those of that Asian country);
8. They should not be allowed to run out of control;
9. There is a need of collective measures by smaller nations to face its authorities (those of that Asian country);
10. I am not interested in many of the things they (those of that Asian country) do;
It seems that in general participants were not much interested in what that Asian country does overall. It may be found pushy, selfish, and caring for just its own people which is quite away from fairness and it is after getting control over all others in the long run, turning smaller nations into mere slaves. It seems to be a quagmire we should avoid.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, this short paper attempted to touch on the participants likes and dislikes regarding the role of some emerging colonial power in the Asia and sought the participants’ viewpoints on its pushy policies in devouring smaller nations through all feasible means. The findings seem to support that the participants were not the pros of the increasing influence of that emerging devastator which we might like because of the mere traditional picture of it we might have in our minds of the past read in history books. This state drastically differs from that of the past; the present one seems a centrally authoritative governing body with the wish of control over the rest of the world after all. Hence, two things are proposed: On the one hand, a collective get-
togetherness of the viewpoints of the smaller nations on how to tackle it, and two to watch before the leap; it is safer not to step into the quagmire in the first place by not signing so many
contracts of all types then. To achieve all this, wise management seems to be pivotal in both informing the local societies and in finding ways how to deal with it.
References
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Azimi, Mohsen K. (2008). Human Geography. SAMT.
Azimi, Mohsen K. (2009). Art and Technology: We Need Two Feet to Walk. The 21st International Conference of Philosophy. Cyprus.
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Azimi, Mohsen K. (2010). Fairness in Environmental Maintenance: Towards an Equitable Burden-sharing Paradigm in Ecological Maintenance. The 22nd International Conference of Philosophy. Kalamat- Messinia - Greece.
Azimi, Mohsen K. & Mohsen Farmahini Farahani (2011). Communicatively-oriented Virtue- loving Citizenship as an Appropriate Approach to Sociopolitical Education in the Global Era. The 23rd International Conference of Philosophy. Vouligmeni – Athens: 17th -22nd of July 2011.
Azimi, Mohsen K. (2016b). Philosophy of Nature: The Role of Financial Resources in Protecting the Environment. National Conference on Ecosystems. Sari University.
Azimi, Mohsen K. (2016c). A Qualitative Study on the Reasons why some Departing Iranian Immigrants Go Abroad: Do Organic Nutritive Substances Have a Role to Play? National Conference on Ecosystems. Sari University.
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Azimi, Mohsen K. (2020b). Professors and Instructors’ Teaching Role in Re-convergence of Knowledge Offshoots: towards more integrity; a look at management, law, and accounting.
The Third International Conference on Management, Accounting and Law. 2020. Tehran.
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Azimi, Mohsen K. & Salar Karimian Azimi (2020). Management, Technology, Tourism, and Multilingualism. The First International Conference on Management, Tourism, and
Technology. November 12th and 13th 2020, Penang, Malaysia.
