Linguistic Human Rights and Migrant Languages: A Comparative Analysis of Migrant Language Education in Great Britain and Germany

Linguistic scholars as well as international cultural organisations like UNESCO maintain that the acquisition of reading and writing skills in the mother tongue of a pupil is a basic human right. However, national education systems hardly ever respect such Linguistic Human Rights. What are today’s strategies and aims in language teaching in the UK and Germany? This book analyses migrant language tutoring in two education systems and illustrates the historical and political reasons for monolingual ideology. While nationalism is still a crucial factor in not admitting language rights, the analysis of contemporary language education shows that technical approaches to language and the tendency to structure school systems according to economical principles also influence negatively the approval of language rights.