Language planning facts for kids

Language planning is like giving a language a makeover or a helping hand! It's all about trying to guide how a language is used and developed. People do this to make sure a language can be used for many different things, like in schools, governments, or new technologies. It's about setting goals and making plans to help a language grow and stay strong. Many languages even have special groups, like the Academie Française for French or the British Council for English, that work on these plans.

What is Language Planning?

Language planning is a way to make sure a language stays useful and alive. Imagine a language as a living thing. Just like you might plan your future, people plan for languages. They decide how to make them better for communication, education, and everyday life. This often involves making choices about words, grammar, and even how a language is taught.

Different Ways Languages Are Planned

There are usually three main types of language planning. Each type focuses on a different part of a language's life. They often work together to help a language grow and be used widely.

Building a Language's "Body" (Corpus Planning)

Corpus planning is all about the inside of a language – its "body" or structure. This type of planning creates new words or changes old ones. For example, when new technology appears, like "internet" or "smartphone," language planners might decide on the best way to say these words in their language.

It also sets rules for how a language is written and spoken. This includes:

• Making clear rules for spelling.
• Setting standards for grammar.
• Creating dictionaries that list words and their meanings.

Sometimes, corpus planning also tries to keep a language "pure." This means trying to avoid too many words or influences from other languages. They might do this if they think foreign words could harm their language.

Giving Languages Official Status (Status Planning)

Status planning is about how a language is used in society. It's about deciding which languages or dialects become official for a country or region. For example, a government might decide that a certain language will be used in schools, courts, and official documents.

A big part of status planning is often creating a writing system for a language. Some languages have only been spoken for a long time. Status planners help create an alphabet and rules so these languages can also be written down. This helps the language be used in more formal ways.

Helping People Learn Languages (Acquisition Planning)

Acquisition planning focuses on teaching and learning a language. It looks for ways to make it easier and more fun to learn a language. This type of planning might involve:

• Developing new teaching methods.
• Creating better textbooks and learning materials.
• Making the language more attractive for people to learn.

Sometimes, acquisition planning also tries to encourage people from other countries to learn the language. This can help spread the language and its culture around the world.