PORADNIK JĘZYKOWY

ISSUE 8 / 2015

ARTICLES AND DISSERTATIONS

  • Stanisław Dubisz : “Twenty years later” – the Polish language abroad – the history and prospects of the research
    The studies of the Polish language abroad were initiated by W. Doroszewski in 1938 with his monograph titled Język polski w Stanach Zjednoczonych A. P. (The Polish language in the USA). They fall into four chronological periods: 1945-1970, 1971-1989/90, 1990-2004, after 2004. In the first period, the works were carries out occasionally due to political restrictions. The period which proved significant for their development was the second one, when a programme of interdisciplinary studies of the Polish community abroad was developed. The third period saw first synthetic publications and new research circles, which considerably expanded both their objective and methodological scope in the last decade. Due to dynamic changes of the contemporary Polish home and abroad, there is a need for commencing works on a new synthesis of knowledge, one that would cover this branch of Polish linguistics.
  • Halina Karaś : Rebirth or decline of the Polish language? On the position of Polish in the old Eastern Borderlands
    The object of the paper is to describe the position of the Polish language in the old Eastern Borderlands: Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine, and to answer the question raised in the title, whether we are facing rebirth or decline of the Polish language in the East. The position of Polish is diverse not only in each of the countries but also within the same country, the conditions in which it functions, the type of bi- and multilingualism differ, the nature of the changes in progress is also slightly different although numerous common processes conditioned by similar or identical causes can be indicated. The paper characterises the Polish minority in the mentioned countries in terms of its population and changes with this respect, territorial distribution, relation between the national identity and language, declarations about the mother tongue, variations in the Polish language of the Eastern Borderlands, its functions, teaching Polish, multilingualism, etc.
  • Elżbieta Sękowska : European migrations of Poles within the European Union – review of studies
    There were two goals of the paper: 1) to present selected problems arising from the contemporary migration flows in the sending and host societies, namely: social, cultural and psychological effects; 2) to indicate the main notions, concepts and methods applied in the contemporary migration studies.
  • Władysław T. Miodunka : The command of Polish among foreigners of non-Polish origin. On the need of a research methodology
    The author begins with the statement that most studies of the position of the Polish language outside Poland are limited to analysing the degree to which Polish communities abroad have maintained the Polish language, while completely ignoring the fact that this language has been learnt also by foreigners of non-Polish origin. Therefore, he first pints to the works presenting the Polonisation process undergone by foreigners and the process of teaching Polish as a foreign language over the history. He then proceeds to the current situation and, with the use of the data from the certification process of the command of Polish as a foreign language, shows who took certified examinations in 2013 and 2014, when the total number of examinees was 4,058 foreigners. They comprised 2,993 B1 level, 842 B2 level and 223 C2 level candidates. In each of the two analysed years, the number of foreigners of Polish origin was below 15%, which demonstrates how many foreigners of non-Polish origin wish to certify their command of Polish for reasons such as studies or work in Poland as well as application for Polish citizenship. The author points to the fact that the criterion of Polish origin is imprecise as Polish origin of (both) parents does not ensure their children’s (good) command of Polish. The paper ends with comments about the level at which representatives of national and ethnic minorities living in Poland have mastered Polish.
  • Robert Dębski : Impact of new technologies on the dynamics of maintaining the Polish language in the world. In search of a research model
    The synthesis of the results of research on the impact of new communication technologies on maintaining the Polish language abroad, which is contained in this paper, leads to the conclusion that: 1) representatives of the first and second generation of Polish emigrants often choose Polish in the electronic environment, yet less frequently than the language of the country of settlement and 2) traditional language maintenance/loss models are suitable as the point of departure for such research. New electronic communication tools contribute to the maintenance of Polish abroad, affecting traditional language maintenance/loss factors such as: expansion of Polishlanguage social networks, maintenance/reconstruction of the Polish identity and family bonds, access to institutions propagating Polish culture and Polish language learning, reduction of the geographical distance, and bilinguals’ perception of the value of Polish.
  • Ewa Lipińska : Attitudes of the youth from the Polish community abroad towards their mother tongue and ethnical identity
    The paper touches upon problems faced by young Poles in exile, related to maturation and seeking one’s identity as well as adapting to the country of settlement. This is the background for discussing the results of a survey conducted among students of Polish schools in Chicago, Paris and Vienna from the point of view of their attitude towards their own ethnicity and the Polish language. The results prove that second-generation emigrants demonstrate a strong sense of Polishness and willingness to transmit it, yet see their future neither in the country of settlement nor in Poland. This survey also reveals differences in boys and girls’ views on certain issues, which opens a broad field for researchers.
  • Anna Czeniek : The more or less inherited Polish language. Factors infl uencing the language competence of Polish emigrants’ children
    This paper is dedicated to the impact of the family situation on the motivation of emigrants’ children to use Polish. The material for the research was provided by survey questionnaires filled in by teenagers and students who came to Poland to attend a Polish language course. The results of the survey demonstrate that maintenance of a command of Polish is extremely important to a vast majority of Polish parents. It also turns out that factors such as the family’s affluence, its social position or parents’ education have an insignificant influence on the level of language mastered by their children. What facilitates a high level of language competence is the respondents’ age – the group of students contained definitely more persons with a very good command of Polish than the group of teenagers.
  • Elżbieta Łątka-Likh : Polish cultural scripts in contact with speakers of another language. Methodological issues

    Cultural scripts for expressing emotions constitute an important element in the communication exchange and should be included in foreign language teaching since they are different in every culture.

    In order to highlight characteristic features of cultural scripts, they need to be analysed in contrast by comparing at least two languages. Survey questionnaires and observation are useful research tools. The research conducted among native French and Polish speakers permitted identification of cultural scripts for expressing ANGER for both mentioned languages and observation how the scripts are used in utterances by Polish migrants living in France.

  • Agnieszka Rabiej : The new national educational policy towards the Polish community abroad
    The paper touches upon the issues of the impact of migration processes on a change in perceiving the educational mission as regards the Polish community abroad and, what follows this phenomenon, the new national educational policy towards the Polish community abroad. The object of the analysis is the projects introduced by the Ministry of National Education after the new wave of migration which took place in 2004 and was connected with Poland’s accession to the European Union. The educational resources discussed in the paper were evaluated with the use of criteria for evaluating electronic documents since they were ill in that form. They were evaluated in terms of substance, methodology, as well as usefulness and availability. The conclusion part emphasises advantages of electronic communication in the transmission process of minority languages and formulates a postulate for in-depth research on the effectiveness of e-materials in teaching children and youth abroad.
  • Bogdan Walczak : The Polish language beyond the country’s borders in the history of Polish
    Chronologically, the first time the Polish language went beyond the borders of the state (country) was in the 14th c. and resulted from changing the borders after the country’s reunification (following the period of regional disintegration in Poland). The regions of Silesia and Pomerania remained outside the borders at that time. In the 17th c., Livonia and Courland (which had been Polonised from the 16th c.) were also outside the First Commonwealth, and in the period of partitions (1795– 1918) the notion of borders of the country disappeared, while the notion of the Polish language in the ethnically Polish area and beyond the area occurred. What is meant here is mainly the old Eastern Borderlands and the southern borderland of the First Commonwealth. The fact that Poland regained its statehood in 1918 and 1945 within different borders changed the territorial reach of the Polish language abroad.
  • Adam Pawłowski : Promotion of the Polish language – on the borderline between linguistics and marketing
    The paper discusses the meanings of the term ‘promotion’ and briefly outlines the history of promotion of the Polish language. Language is approached from the economic perspective as an informational subsystem of the state administration. A classification of languages based on the economic criterion of the power of language is presented. Thus, profitable, sustainable and lossmaking languages are identified. The division in internal and external promotion in the linguistic context is also discussed. Three recipient groups of the promotion of Polish are distinguished: residents of Poland, Polish community and Poles abroad, and foreigners.