EUROPEAN LANGUAGE POLICY PLANNING: FROM RIGHTS TO OPPORTUNITIESUSERS OF SIGN LANGUAGES

Abstract

The linguistic ecology of the European Union is inextricably linked with the development of all member states, as an important single democratic environment - a space of multiculturalism and multilingualism - language policy, the characteristic features of which at the present stage are the observance of not one universally recognized linguistic and cultural canon, but a diversity of linguistic and cultural traditions. After all, the functioning of democracy depends on a culture of common views and behavior, appreciation of the diversity of the environment of linguistic and cultural heritage, which are means of expressing human rights and freedoms - powerful signs of democracy. Scientists, politicians, and statesmen in the European Union countries try to achieve dialogue and mutual understanding between representatives of different cultures and ethnic groups in the European community. Concern for preserving the identity of cultures and their diversity in the EU countries is based on recognizing cultural pluralism as a powerful factor of social progress.

Language policy planning (national and international traditions of communities, individual states (communities), international organizations, trends in lawmaking, and normalization of legal aspects of language protection (languages) is considered in the context of research on the linguistic ecology. The goal is to substantiate the basic positions of the European Union on planning the language policy of sign languages.

Methods: the context of the theory of multiculturalism (J. Fishman, 2012), ecology of language (C. Cramsh, 1996; A. Radu, 2013) - taking into account changes in the globalized society, people's consciousness, uses a qualitative method to understand the experience of parliamentarians regarding users of sign languages in countries of the European Union, a grounded theoretical approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1990), due to the phenomenon of interest based on data (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) was applied to the collection of information, the study of sources, observation, analysis of documents of a specific phenomenon, their systematization, generalization, a deeper understanding of the experience and prospects for future EU member states (Creswell, 2013).

Conclusions. Language policy planning for the creation of a single European multicultural language space, which is recorded in the documents of the countries of the European Parliament, represents a democratic vector of changes in openness, accessibility, equality, mobility, and awareness, aimed at recognizing the complex rights of users of sign languages, preserving the identity of deaf cultures, national ( regional) sign languages, their variety in the EU countries.