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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. A report written in the autumn/winter 1995. Much has changed.

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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

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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.

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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table

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table

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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

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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

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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."

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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

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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."

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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.

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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.

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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)

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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).

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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.

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8.2 Types of Bilingual Education

8.2.1 Bakers Table

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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-

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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.

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8.3 Presentation of the Model of the Development of Minority

Education

8.3.1 Table of the Development of Minority Education

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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(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

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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

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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

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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.

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