Promoting linguistic diversity Reflections on the language policy of European language policy conferences

Abstract

To face up to the omnipresence of ?Anglo-American? (as defined in footnote 2), conferences on language policy today address the issue of promoting linguistic diversity. This especially applies to contemporary Europe. Nevertheless, these conferences, which can be regarded as a kind of laboratories or academic microcosm, do not subscribe to clear language policies. Consequently, the predominant language is here, as elsewhere, the Anglo-American. This article outlines the deep division between the postulate of linguistic diversity and reality, and is a call for soul-searching.