Languages in Contact and Conflict: Contrasting Experiences in the Netherlands and Belgium

This book originates from a series of expert seminars given by scholars from the Netherlands and Belgium before an invited audiences of academics. The seminars covered a range of topics: recent developments in the Netherlands and the UK in the area of education and multiculturalism; the role of contact linguistics and the case of the European Union; the latest constitutional developments in Belgium together with their consequences in language terms. The book contains both the papers and the debates which followed. Ludo Beheydt explores why the linguistic groups which constitute the autochthonous Belgian population have a long tradition of conflict and antagonism and shows how the polarization between the two major groups led to the 1994 constitution which states that Belgium is now a Federal State with three linguistically defined communities. He teaches at the University Catholique de Louvain and is a well-known commentator on language policies in Belgium. Peter Nelde positions multilingualism within the framework of contact linguistic, relates this to solving or minimising conflicts and discusses the principles which are of major importance in this debate, namely territoriality and personality. He is director of the Onderzoekscentrum voor Meertaligheid in Brussels as well as visiting lecturer in the University of Leipzig. Sjaak Kroon and Ton Vallen show how patterns of immigration have caused the multi-ethnic, multicultural and multilingual nature of modern Dutch society to become an issue of central importance in the Netherlands. They are both members of the Research Group on Language and Minorities based at Tilburg University. Linda Thompson, a member of the Education Department at Durham University, in her response to Kroon and Vallen gives information on developments in education and multilingualism in Britain. Dennis Ager, Professor of Modern Languages Aston University, discusses some of the theoretical issues raised by the Kroon and Vallen paper.