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6. Problems of multilingualism & their solutions.

Societal multilingualism is a widespread phenomenon. There are very few monolingual countries in the world.

The following countries have several official lgs:

* Belgium (Dutch, French)

* Switzerland( German, French,Italian)

*Sweden

* Belarus

Europe's outwardly monolingual appearance is deceptive. there's only one official lg in European countries as minorities are small & less influential & are unlikely to have official status. Nevertheless the existence of national multilingualism in Europe is illustrated by the following examples:

• native minority lgs(Welsh, Irish< Gaelic)

Uk lgs of Indian minorities (Punjabi)

• Spanish (official lg)

Spain The Basque lg

• Catalan lg minority

• French

France Breton

• Catalan speakers

So, nearly all European nations are multilingual to a certain extent. Multilingualism may evoke some problems at two levels: for government & any other official institution; & for individuals & lg minorities.

For government:

1. The necessity to develop a certain policy towards minority lgs:

negative policy: - to ignore minority lgs

- to ban them

- to discourage linguistic minorities from speaking their lgs

In these cases the aim of the government is to assimilate minorities into the official lg.

positive policy: - to promote minority lgs.

2. Linguistic minorities may turn into a catalyst of discontent. As a result of this discontent the national separatist movement may appear. The government has to find the ideal balance in order to provoke separatism & not to create discontent.

3. problem of providing education for linguistic minorities: extra funds & teaching staff are needed.

4. problem of interlg (lingua franca) - is a lg which is used as a means of com-n among people who have no native lg in common (English, french in Africa)

For individuals:

1.The problem of the necessity to acquire proficiency in at least 2 lgs (in other words you have to learn another lg if you want to be an efficient member of society)

2. A more specific problem is that an insufficient knowledge of the dominant lg may be a barrier for your social advancement, may hinder you upward social mobility. Gaelic speakers can serve as an example here.

3. By assimilating into the dominant lg you may feel that have been untrue to your cultural traditions, you have lost your native lg loyalty & you have betrayed your ethic identity (the case with the breton lg)

4. Educational problem. The difficulty sappears when the dominant lg & your native lg are different/distant genetically & structurally.

Solutions to the problems:

1. providing adequate bilingual educational programmes. It maens that there should be classes in the native lg. Children are educated through the medium of the native lg. the dominant lg is introduced later.

2. promoting minority lgs through Mass Media & culture:

- TV channels/ programmes

- radio stations

- newspapers

- magazines

3. encouraging rather than enforcing the of the dominant lg.