EASIT – Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training
Hello and welcome to Unit 2, Easy-to-understand language.
Element 2. Legislation, standards and guidelines.
This is an introduction to the situation in Sweden.
I am Ester Hedberg.
From the Swedish National Association for Dyslexia.
Overview.
In this lecture I will talk about languages in Sweden.
Planning and policies, the Swedish Language Council,
the Swedish Language Act,
and plain language and easy-to-read language in Sweden.
Languages in Sweden
Sweden has more than 10 million inhabitants,
most of whom speak the official language, Swedish.
There are also five official minority languages:
Finnish, Meänkieli, Romany Chib, Sámi and Yiddish
Swedish sign language also has an official status
though it is not considered a national minority language.
Swedish in Finland
Swedish is also an official national language in Finland.
The Statistics Finland (Statistikcentralen) inform
that around 275,000 Finnish citizens speak Swedish.
Immigrant languages
From World War II and onward
immigration to Sweden has exceeded emigration.
Immigrants have mainly come to find work or as refugees.
They come from countries all over the world.
The Swedish Language Council says that no one knows exactly
how many languages are spoken in Sweden.
It is estimated to be around 200.
Some major immigrant languages are Arabic, Kurdish and Persian.
English as second language
In general, Swedes speak some English
since it is compulsory in school.
It is also common to learn a third language,
referred to as modern language.
According to The Swedish National Agency for Education
popular modern languages are German, French and Spanish.
A national language
Swedish has been the main language since 1500.
The Lutheran reformation and the translation of the bible into Swedish
were important in establishing Swedish as a national language
as language researcher Olle Josephsson explains
in his book on language policy, “Språkpolitik” from 2018.
For hundreds of years
Swedish had competition from Latin, French and German,
which were used among influential people.
such as royalty, aristocrats and the well-educated.
The Swedish Academy
In 1786, King Gustav III founded the Swedish Academy.
The main purpose was to strengthen the Swedish language.
From then on Swedish became more established as a standard language
The Academy is still a very strong institution in Sweden.
They are probably most known for choosing the laureates
of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
They also publish The Swedish Academy Dictionary,
covering Swedish written language since 1521 until today.
Swedish Language Council
The Swedish Language Council is the official institution
for advancing and cultivating languages in Sweden.
On their website they explain that,
“The Council's mission is to monitor the development
of spoken and written Swedish and also to monitor the use and status
of all other languages spoken in Sweden.
Primarily, that means promoting the use of Swedish sign language
and our five official minority languages
Finnish, Meänkieli, Sami, Romani and Yiddish.”
The council was founded in 2006, when the government decided
to merge the former Swedish Language Board,
the Swedish-Finnish Language Board and
the Plain Language Group within the Government Offices.
It is a department within
the Institute for Language and Folklore government agency.
Promotes plain language
On a national level, The Swedish Language Council
coordinates plain language efforts.
It promotes and inspires all public agencies,
institutions and organizations in working with plain language.
The council has experts to advise agencies and the public
and to answer questions on linguistics.
The council publishes books, such as handbooks and dictionaries.
Among other tasks, it also conducts research.
Striving for clear language
Olle Josephsson writes in his book
that current work with plain language in Sweden
began in 1965 when the Language Board
started publishing a periodical on language cultivation, Språkvård,
in which linguistic matters were discussed.
Two years later the first guidelines
for language usage in laws and statutes
were sent out from the Prime Minister’s Office.
Further progress
1976, the Prime Minister’s Office hired their first language expert.
The 1986 Administrative Procedure Act states that,
“The authority shall aim to express itself
in an easily understandable way.
The authority shall also, by other means,
make matters easy for the people with whom it deals.”
In 1991, the Prime Minister’s Office published the first edition of a
style guide for public authorities, Myndigheternas skrivregler.
In 1993, a Plain Language group was appointed by the government
with the purpose of promoting plain language efforts in public.
A threat to democracy
We learned before that the Swedish language had
competition from Latin, French and German for long periods.
Much later, Swedish would again face competition
–this time from English.
The Swedish Language Council writes on their website that,
“During the last decades, English has started to compete
with Swedish in a growing number of fields in Swedish society
–in large, international companies, in the educational system
and in the media industry.
This poses a threat to democratic values
as many Swedes have insufficient knowledge of English.”
As a consequence, the government mandated the Language Council
to draft an “Action Program for the Promotion of the Swedish Language”.
The draft was presented in 1998.
Two years later, the government appointed
a new committee with the purpose of investigating
the status and future of the Swedish Language.
In 2002, a report containing proposals was presented.
A new language policy
In 2005, the Swedish Parliament
decided on a new Swedish language policy.
It has four goals. The Swedish Language Council
has translated them into English on their website:
Swedish is the majority language in Sweden.
Swedish should be a complete language,
thats mean be possible to use in all areas of society.
The language of authorities should be correct,
simple and understandable.
Everyone has a right to language: to learn Swedish,
to learn foreign languages,
and to use one's mother tongue or minority language.
The Swedish Language Act
On July 1, 2009, the Swedish Language Act came into force.
It was largely based on he four language policy goals
adopted by the Parliament in 2005.
It is a framework law and only consists of 15 clauses.
The primary purpose was to establish Swedish
as the official language in Sweden.
Plain Language Clause
The 11th clause is of great interest to anyone
with a stake in Plain Language.
The clause is named the Plain Language Clause.
It says that the Swedish language used in all public activities
should be cultivated, simple and understandable
The Swedish Language Council clarifies that cultivated means
it should be written in proper Swedish
following official language recommendations.
Simple means using words that are easy to understand
and with a clear and easy grammatical structure.
Understandable means that the language should be
written or spoken in a manner that
the intended receiver can understand.
Both written and spoken
The Language Act covers both written and spoken language.
That means that all communication in all public activities
should be in plain language.
No regulation for easy-to-read
Unlike having rules for using plain language
in public situations, there are no national regulations
on the use of easy-to-read language.
The official guidelines for web development state that
written texts on public websites should be written in a way
that is easy to understand for the widest range of people possible.
And then they say that the website, or parts of it,
should be made accessible through easy-to-read language,
if there is a need for it.
The developer should conduct a target group analysis
to discover if it is needed.
Easy-to-read is used
Nevertheless, easy-to-read is, and has been, used since the 1960s,
in literature for children, second language learners
and readers with cognitive disabilities.
And it is used in both printed and digital public information.
Center for Easy-to-Read
Between 1997 and 2015, there was a national foundation
for easy-to-read, Centrum för lättläst.
It was publicly funded and its mission was
to publish news and literature in easy-to-read language.
The target group was people with cognitive
and reading difficulties. The foundation started
a publishing house for easy-to-read literature, "LL-förlaget"
and an easy-to-read newspaper, "8 sidor".
The foundation also offered counseling and training.
The Agency for Accessible Media
In 2014, the Parliament decided to close the foundation,
and in 2015 the newspaper and publishing house
were moved to the Swedish Agency for Accessible Media.
The main function of the agency is to ensure that persons
with reading impairment can access literature
and daily newspapers, that means
with audio, easy-to-read, braille and other tactile.
Though under the responsibility of the agency
the magazine “8 sidor” is an independent publication
and the newsroom is separate from the from the agency.
Easy language publishers today
In addition to the publishing house
at the Swedish Agency for Accessible Media,
there are a number of other publishing houses on the market,
specializing in easy-to-read literature.
For broadcast news in easy language,
a Swedish public service radio station broadcasts
an easy-language program, "Klarspråk"
and Swedish public television broadcasts
news in easy Swedish, "Nyheter på lätt Svenska".
UN Convention
In 2008 Sweden ratified the UN Convention
on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
It came into effect in Sweden in 2009.
Articles 2, 4, 9 and 21 deal with information.
In short, the convention says that the convention states
“shall take appropriate measures” to ensure
that information is accessible for citizens with disabilities.
Summary
In this lecture, we have talked about languages in Sweden,
planning and policies, the Swedish Language Council,
the Swedish Language Act,
and plain and easy-to-read language in Sweden.
Thank you for listening!
This video lecture was prepared by Ester Hedberg,
the Swedish National Association for Dyslexia.
You can reach me at ester.hedberg@dyslexi.org