To teach or not to teach the ‘language of the Other’ in Belgium? A diachronic answer from policy, parliament and practice

Abstract

Which modern languages do policymakers introduce into school curricula, and with what priority? Drawing on a current issue in Belgian language teaching politics, this study addresses a question that remains underexplored in language policy literature, where the teaching of modern languages is still rarely given center stage in analyses of nation-building and power relations between groups in contact or conflict. Adopting a diachronic perspective and combining three types of historical primary sources (policy texts, parliamentary debates, and reports from educational practice), we sketch continuities and changes in Belgian policies for modern language education (1830–today; 2026). Which modern languages were introduced or removed, and prioritized or backgrounded, in school curricula for Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia? At what moments in time, and with what place for the ‘language of the Other’ (French in Flanders, Dutch in Wallonia)? The analysis reveals a non-linear debate that consistently centers around the same languages (French, Dutch, German, and English) but frequently oscillates between policies of free language choice and policies of mandatory priority for the ‘language of the Other.’ We show that policy changes took place at moments of high socio-political tension and were often marked by ‘strategic ambiguity’. As such, modern language teaching policy emerges, in the past not less than today, as a constitutive element in the politics of language contact and language conflict, a sensitive symbol for politicians to advance their visions on the nation and to polarize, reconcile or carefully balance neighboring communities.