The Vitality of the Communities
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Models of Community Vitality (cont.)
Ethnolinguistic model of Landry and Allard: The theoretical model of Landry and Allard (1990, 1999) is also based on the concept of ethnolinguistic vitality as set out by Giles et al. (1977), a concept that refers to the language and culture that are incarnate in the community and conditioned by factors related to demographics, institutions and status. This model comprises three levels (see Figure 2):
- Sociological. The most comprehensive level, this is where resources in the form of demographic, cultural, economic and political capital are available to nourish ethnolinguistic vitality.
- Socio-psychological. The second level is the one in which the language experiences of members of the community manifest themselves (family, interpersonal contacts, education and training, contacts with the media and cultural events, linguistic landscape). This level is determined by the various capitals of the sociological level and, in turn, conditions the third level, which is the psychological one.
- Psychological. The third level is the one that has been explored in a determined manner by Landry et al. It incorporates cognitive-affective predispositions, beliefs regarding the vitality of each language with which the individual is in daily contact (subjective ethnolinguistic vitality), beliefs related to the individual's desire to be part of each of the linguistic communities, and ethnolinguistic identity. The individual's language skills are also psychological variables. The psychological level in turn influences the individual's linguistic behaviour.
Figure 2. Macroscopic Model of Determinants of Additive Bilingualism and Subtractive Bilingualism (Landry and Allard, 1990)
Source: Rodrigue Landry and Réal Allard, "Contact des langues et développement bilingue : un modèle macroscopique," The Canadian Modern Language Review/Revue canadienne des langues vivantes 46 (1990): 527-553.
