Language and socioeconomic status in Quebec: measurement, findings, determinants, and policy costs

Vaillancourt, François

doi:10.1515/ijsl.1996.121.69

Cited by 36 publications

(29 citation statements)

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“…Such results would be particularly interesting for Britain and Ireland, where investment in foreign language learning is reputedly very low (Graddol, 1997), and where foreign languages are no longer part of the subjects required for 'A levels' at the end of secondary education. In the case of Québec, estimates of (private) language-based earnings differentials confirm the value of English as a second language, and have major political significance as tools for monitoring over time the evolution of the respective socio-economic status of anglophones and francophones -with or without knowledge of the other language (Vaillancourt, 1996). If figures on provincial spending for the teaching of English were combined with this information, in order to yield estimates of social rates of return, it would become possible to address the issue of social over-or under-investment in the teaching of English -or, for that matter, of other languages like German and Spanish.…”

Section: Language Planning and Economics 47mentioning

confidence: 88%

“…This case can be further subdivided in two typical situations: one concerns the residents of a particular country (say, Austria) who have learned a foreign language (say, English or Spanish); the other concerns the members of one established language community in a multilingual country (say, French-speaking Canadians or Flemish-speaking Belgians) who have learned another official or national language (in these examples, English or French respectively). Research into this question is very much a Canadian tradition reflected in a large number of papers, official reports and books (for an extensive review, see Vaillancourt, 1996; see also Christofides & Swidinsky, 1998) mainly using census results. The focus of the Canadian research is on earnings differentials between anglophones and francophones, with particular attention to Québec.…”

Section: Language and Labour Incomementioning

confidence: 99%

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Language Planning and Economics

Grin¹

2003

Current Issues in Language Planning

220

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This paper proposes a comprehensive overview of the ‘economics of language’. This field of research, which is grounded in the discipline of economics, displays a strong interdisciplinary orientation, which places it on the fringes of mainstream economics. It studies the ways in which linguistic and economic processes influence one another. It is also well placed to contribute to the evaluation of public policies regarding language, because it offers analytical tools for the systematic identification and measurement of the advantages and drawbacks of policy alternatives.I begin by discussing the reasons why an economic perspective on language is scientifically and politically relevant; I then review some of the attendant epistemological and methodological issues, before moving on to an overview of the main lines of research in language economics. A full section of this paper is devoted to the economic approach to language policy, and another focuses on an application to education policy, detailing the economics of second or foreign language education. The paper aims at making the key economic tools accessible to readers from varied academic backgrounds; it also emphasises the need to combine disciplines to develop an inclusive methodology for the selection, design, and implementation of language policies

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Section: Language Planning and Economics 47mentioning

confidence: 88%

Section: Language and Labour Incomementioning

confidence: 99%

Language Planning and Economics

Grin¹

2003

Current Issues in Language Planning

220

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“…Hence, rates of return to English calculated there can give us some first pointers about the value of English as an international language. Results show, among other effects, that Quebec bilingual francophone men (i.e., those whose mother tongue is French but who know English) did, in 1985, earn a 6.32% premium over their unilingual counterparts with equivalent education and experience (Vaillancourt, 1996). However, even these results only indirectly address the question of English as an international, or more to the point, as a global and glocal' language, because Quebec is a Canadian province, and Canada's main language is English.…”

Section: The Economic Value Of English: Identification and Measurementmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…5. The concept of`language attribute' is commonly used in the language economics literature; it reflects the historical evolution of the field (Vaillancourt, 1996;Grin and Vaillancourt, 1997). Language attributes denote an actor's level of skills in his first, second, etc.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

English as economic value: facts and fallacies

Grin

2001

World Englishes

167

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This paper offers an overview of the economic approach to the question of the`value' of English. 1 In the first section, I discuss the reasons why this question is attracting increasing attention, showing that it reflects an increase in the objective frequency of contact between speakers of different languages, as well as a concern for the role of English in those contacts. Section 2 presents five important analytical distinctions which help to structure the investigation: they address the direction of causality considered; the`regulated' or`unregulated' nature of the context being examined; the difference between market and non-market effects; the micro-as opposed to the macro-economic level; and the contrast between, on the one hand, the issue of (more or less efficient) allocation of resources between uses and, on the other hand, the issue of the (more or less equitable) distribution of resources among actors. Section 3 turns to the labour market value of English language skills in Switzerland, presenting first some methodological aspects and then providing some fundamental statistical results. Switzerland currently is the only country in which English is neither a majority nor an official language for which the data necessary for such estimations are available. These results indicate that, for Switzerland taken as a whole, English language skills can be associated with remarkably high and statistically robust wage premia which, in the models estimated here, range from 12% to 30%. Section 4 discusses the implications of these results with respect to long-term trends and policy orientations; the tentative prediction made is that the labour market value of English, relative to other skills, will erode in the long run, as a result of the dynamics of the labour market. This paper combines concepts from sociolinguistics on the one hand, and quantitative economics on the other hand. The presentation is kept non-technical throughout, in order to make it accessible to practitioners of both disciplines.

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“…Typical examples are native French-speaking Canadians who have learned English or native French-speaking Belgians who have learned Dutch. Although there are variations across regions and gender, this type of research generally points to wage benefits for bilinguals (see Vaillancourt 1996;Grin 1999).…”

Section: Language As a Determinant Of Earningsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The long-term effects of bilingualism on children of immigration: student bilingualism and future earnings

Ağırdağ

2013

International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

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Link to publication General rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. Download date: 11 May 2018The long-term effects of bilingualism on children of immigration: student bilingualism and future earnings Orhan Agirdag* Department of Sociology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium In this study, we examine the largely neglected long-term effects of bilingualism for students with roots in immigration. Our central research question is whether students' bilingual proficiencies have an impact on their future earnings in the USA. For this purpose, we used two different data-sets, i.e. the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) and the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS). Based on Latent Class Analysis, we distinguish between three linguistic minority groups: limited bilinguals, balanced bilinguals and English-dominant group. For both CILS and NELS, the results of regression analyses show that balanced bilingual students earn significantly more as adults at the beginning of their career than those linguistic minorities who were dominantly proficient in English only. Even after controlling for cognitive ability, educational attainment and parental socio-economic status, the additional cost of complete linguistic assimilation is estimated at $2100Á$3300 annually. The NELSdata also suggest that balanced bilingualism has an additional indirect effect through academic attainment. Policy implications of these results are discussed.

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Language and socioeconomic status in Quebec: measurement, findings, determinants, and policy costs

Cited by 36 publications

References 0 publications

Language Planning and Economics

Language Planning and Economics

English as economic value: facts and fallacies

The long-term effects of bilingualism on children of immigration: student bilingualism and future earnings

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