The Cost-Effectiveness Evaluation of Minority Language Policies
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The cost-effectiveness evaluation of minority language policies: Case studies on Wales, Ireland and the Basque Country François Grin and François Vaillancourt ECMI Monograph # 2 November 1999 ECMI Monograph # 2 The cost-effectiveness evaluation of minority language policies: Case studies on Wales, Ireland and the Basque Country François Grin und François Vaillancourt European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) Flensburg, November 1999 ECMI Monograph # 2 European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) Deputy / Acting Director: François Grin © European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) 1999. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-copying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI). ISBN 3-932635-12-4 Published in November 1999 by the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI). Printed and bound by Verlagskontor Horst Dieter Adler, Flensburg, Germany. iii CONTENTS About the authors v Acknowledgements vi 1. Minority language policies in policy analysis perspective 1 1.1 The issue 1 1.2 On approaches to policy evaluation 2 1.3 The underlying theoretical framework 4 1.4 The limitations of this study 9 1.5 Data sources 11 1.6 Structure of the case studies 12 2. Language visibility: Road and traffic signs in Wales 14 2.1 Background on the Welsh language 14 2.2 Bilingual signs as language policy 16 2.3 The development of bilingual road signs in Wales 18 2.4 Agencies responsible 19 2.5 Current policy practices 19 2.6 Costs 20 2.7 Outcomes 23 2.8 Evaluation 25 3. Minority language television: The case of Sianel Pedwar Cymru (S4C) 27 3.1 Background 27 3.2 Minority language broadcasting as language policy 27 3.3 “Yr unig ateb”: The development of S4C 29 3.4 Agencies responsible 30 3.5 Output 30 3.6 Costs 34 3.7 Outcomes 36 3.8 Evaluation 49 4. Language planning in Euskadi 50 4.1 Language education on Euskera 50 4.2 Language education planning as language policy 52 4.3 The development of Basque education policy in Euskadi 53 4.4 Agencies responsible 55 4.5 The operation of language education 56 4.6 Costs 59 4.7 Outcomes 62 4.8 Evaluation 70 iv 5. Direct language promotion in Ireland: The case of Gaillimh le Gaeilge 73 5.1 Background on the Irish language 73 5.2 Direct language promotion as language policy 76 5.3 The origins of Gaillimh le Gaeilge 77 5.4 Agencies responsible 79 5.5 The operation of Gaillimh le Gaeilge 80 5.6 Costs 81 5.7 Outcomes 82 5.8 Evaluation 84 6. A tentative assessment 86 6.1 A summary of the policies 86 6.2 Conditions for success 89 6.3 Demolinguistic size and geographical distribution 99 7. Summary and concluding remarks 103 References 106 v About the Authors François Grin (b. 1959) received a PhD in economics from the University of Geneva in 1989. He has subsequently held teaching and research positions at the University of Montreal, the University of Washington (Seattle), the University of Fribourg and the University of Geneva. He is currently Deputy and Acting Director of the European Centre for Minority Issues. François Grin is a specialist in the economics of language, ethnicity, culture and education, as well as in the evaluation of policies in these fields ; he has served as a consultant to national and local governments and international organisations in the selection and design of policies. François Grin is the author of over 100 articles, books or chapters of books ; he is a member of the editorial board of international or national journals such as Language Problems and Language Planning, DiversCités, and the Swiss Review of Education Sciences, as well as of several professional associations. François Vaillancourt (b. 1950) holds a Ph.D. from Queen's University and is Professor, Department of Economics and Research Fellow, Centre de recherche et développement en économique (C.R.D.E.) at the Université de Montréal and Fellow, I.R.P.P. He teaches, conducts research and has published extensively in the areas of public finance and the economics of language. He has conducted research and acted as a Consultant for organizations such as the Canadian Tax Foundation, the Conseil de la langue française, the Department of Finance, the Economic Council of Canada, Statistics Canada and the World Bank. vi Acknowledgements Many people have provided information and advice that have significantly contributed to the production of this report. We would therefore like to express our gratitude to Jean-Marie Grether in Switzerland; Ned Thomas, Dylan Bryn Roberts, Gwyn Jones, Allan Wynne Jones, Ifor Gruffydd and Glyn Williams in Wales; Peadar Ó Flatharta and Fionnuala Ní Mhuirí in Ireland; JoseAn Urdangarin and Mikel Zalbide in Euskadi; and Christian Demeuré-Vallée in Belgium. The help of Claudio Sfreddo and Michel Joye, both in Geneva, has proved invaluable, in the form of efficient research assistance and skilful designing of figures. Finally, Sabine Kozdon, Christian Baer and Maj-Britt R. Ulbrich in Flensburg have carefully edited the final manuscript. Minority language policies in policy analysis perspective 1 1. MINORITY LANGUAGE POLICIES IN POLICY ANALYSIS PERSPECTIVE 1.1 The issue This monograph is devoted to the measurement of the cost-effectiveness of various policies in favour of minority languages. It is intended as a primarily technical exploration into the set of instruments that can be used in (mostly public) policies addressing minority issues, and as an informational contribution to the public debate over such policies. This research was initiated in 1997, when the authors were contracted by the Government of New Zealand to write an Analytical Survey on the general subject of language revitalisation policy. The New Zealand authorities were, of course, particularly interested in the possibilities to draw on a set of systematic policy instruments with a view to designing revitalisation policies in favour of the Maori language. The tender issued by Treasury in Wellington specifically required researchers to make reference to, and preferably base their work on some existing theoretical papers in the economics of language (for a recent overview, see e.g. Grin, 1999a), and to apply the framework developed there to an empirical evaluation of minority language policies. The underlying question running through this study, therefore, is the identification of what works, under what conditions, and at what price. As we went about our task, it quickly became clear that we had to venture into largely uncharted territory. Although “language policy” and “language planning” (two terms between which no difference will be made here) are progressively emerging as full- fledged areas of specialisation (possibly reflecting the growing “differentiation” of language policies in various countries), much work remains to be done. Reference books in the field (e.g. Lapierre, 1988; Cooper, 1989; Fishman, 1991; Edwards, 1994; Calvet, 1996; Kaplan and Baldauf, 1997) offer an increasingly extensive and structured coverage of language policy and planning, and often point out the need for precise and targeted evaluation instruments; we observed, however, that such instruments are largely missing. This is not to say that language policies are not evaluated, because they actually often are. What is at issue, however, is not an assessment of whether a given policy or set of policy measures does or does not result in a better position for a given minority language: this is often fairly well-known, but remains part of what one can be called “internal effectiveness evaluation”. In internal effectiveness evaluation, one remains within the confines of a specific policy measure. For example, one can (and often does) assess whether the introduction of minority language classes in elementary schools results in an increase in the share of minority-language speakers in a particular age group. This, however, is insufficient to judge the policy by comparison with other policies: first, of course, other language policies with the similar aim of improving the position of a 2 The cost-effectiveness evaluation of minority language policies given language vis-à-vis other languages used in society; second, other policies, which do not necessarily address language problems, but which nonetheless require some allocation of resources by society. Both types of comparisons are relevant to policy analysis, and assessing policies in this way requires us to engage in “external effectiveness evaluation”. In this context, it is not enough to establish the extent to which one particular set of measures has met the goals it was meant to achieve. Two additional requirements must be met. ² First, the goals have to be expressed in terms of a common unit of measurement. In the context of minority language revitalisation or promotion, this unit of measurement would normally be an indicator of minority language status, minority language use, etc., and the indicator chosen here is minority language use measured in time units. ² Second, evaluating the cost-effectiveness of a policy requires that the amount of resources invested in it are taken into account. If policies are to be compared with each other, then the resources invested in each have to be estimated, also using a common unit of measurement. Dividing the value of the output indicator (e.g., time units) by the value of the cost or expenditure indicator yields a set of comparable indicators of the cost-effectiveness of policies. All this, of course, raises a number of epistemological, conceptual and methodological questions. In this monograph, the epistemological questions are deliberately set aside. The conceptual apparatus is also not presented in detail, and we confine our discussion of these aspects to a brief summary of the theoretical framework, presented in Section 1.3.