The Role of Language in The National Identity of a Socially Dynamic Society

Abstract

Purpose: The study aimed at assessing the role of language in the national identity of a socially dynamic society. Methodology: A desktop literature review was used for this purpose. Relevant seminal references and journal articles for the study were identified using Google Scholar. The inclusion criteria entailed papers that were not over 20 years old. Findings: From the researcher’s perspective, there is a danger that, if political communities are viewed as deriving from a shared or common cultural heritage or tradition, the political actions they take are interpreted as motivated by a shared sense of „ethnic identity‟. Languages symbolize identities and are used to signal identities by those who speak them. People are also categorized by other people according to the language they speak. People belong to many social groups and have many social identities. There is often a particularly strong link between language and a sense of belonging to a national group, a sense of national identity. ‘National’ language(s) are taught in schools as subjects and are also used in schools to teach other subjects. For some children this means learning to read and write, and then speak, a different language from the language of the home