The final research report on the target research project Language Policy of the Republic of Slovenia and the Needs of Users provides a detailed description of individual phases of the project and outlines expert guidelines for a new national programme for language policy, which is under way. The implementation of the target research project Language Policy of the Republic of Slovenia and the Needs of Users is the first interdisciplinary project in Slovenia to focus on contemporary linguistic practices and usages and to involve the participation of such a diverse and varied group of researchers dealing with different areas of language use. In addition to raising awareness of the complexity and the anchoring of language problematics into all spheres of public life, the project offers insight into currently valid legal and technical (programmatic) documents that steer (and to certain extent also determine) linguistic knowledge, practices and usages of language users as well as insight into direct linguistic practices, usages and attitudes of language users in the Republic of Slovenia and Slovenian language users outside the Republic of Slovenia that were obtained with an online survey and two smaller accompanying empirical studies conducted among language users with special needs. By establishing a network of such a diverse group of researchers (and institutions), we laid the foundations for research work as well as for further development, activities and cooperation in the field of Slovenian language policy. Through promotion and dissemination of results obtained within this project, we provoked reflection on contemporary national language policy and problems within specific fields. By outlining expert guidelines, we suggested possible solutions for further work and research. In the future, we will continue to promote and publish individual project results in various professional and scientific articles. The key task will be the implementation of guidelines into future national language policy.
COBISS.SI-ID: 13531213
The use of language in law is a key component of the basic principles of democratic authority, particularly in administrative procedures where collisions between the public interest and the rights of individuals are solved. Hence, it is an issue dealt with by the language policies of both Slovenia and the EU. In order to examine how the prescribed principles and rights are implemented and to develop, based thereon, recommendations for future language policy, empirical research was conducted concerning the regulation and practice involving language rights in administrative matters before the Slovenian courts and the European Court of Justice in 2012-2016. The results for Slovenia show a high level of protection of Slovenian and the official languages of the protected minorities as well as of persons with disabilities. In matters involving foreign nationals and asylum seekers, where questions concerning the use of language are ever more frequent, the right to be heard in a foreign language is assessed case by case. The regulation and conduct of administrative procedures, with the use of language considered as a category of principle, thus appear to be relatively adequate. Systemic improvements are eventually recommended to achieve a more targeted regulation, greater clarity of provisions, and greater flexibility in regulating globalised administrative relations.
COBISS.SI-ID: 35052637
In the following contribution we present the design and the sociolinguistic background of the government-funded Slovenian Language Policy and User Needs CRP 2016 project conducted between October 2016 and September 2017 under the leadership of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Broadly speaking, the survey, which constitutes the core of the project, focuses on the language needs of four main categories: speakers of Slovene as their mother tongue; Slovenian minorities living across the border in Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia, with their specific linguistic and cultural background (bilingualism); users/learners of foreign languages; and users with special needs. All of these are investigated from the perspective of the legal framework regulating language use in individual fields, communicative practices, empirical evaluation of users’ habits and attitudes; and, of particular importance for the present contribution, the current state-of-the-art in language infrastructure, including language technologies and digitisation. “Language description and language infrastructure in Slovenia” is a topic covered by the ZRC SAZU CRP 2016 project that will be treated in this paper in more detail, with special attention given to the questions asked about the use of the existing monolingual and bilingual (multilingual) language resources, in particular, dictionaries and other lexical resources. An in-depth survey will cover different groups of language professionals who use Slovene/foreign languages on a regular basis in the production of written and spoken texts for public use, such as journalists, publicists, fiction writers, bloggers, researchers, copywriters, PR professionals, legal document compilers, business and public administrators, as well as proofreaders and language editors and, last but not least, translators and interpreters.
COBISS.SI-ID: 42096685