U214B Worlds of English II

Book 3
The Politics of English: Conflict, Competition, Co-existence
Chapter 1
The politics and policies of global English
Discussion Points

Prepared by: Dr. Mustafa Thabet

AOU, Jeddah

Semester 1, 2021-2022
1. The politics and policies of global English

Contents:
1.1 Introduction 5
1.2 Global English: a problem or a solution? 9
1.3 English as a positive resource 15
1.4 The hegemony of English 22
1.5 Conclusion: appropriating English 30
 General introduction
➢ In this book:
▪ The starting point is the understanding that all language use is political in nature.
▪ Language plays a significant role in the negotiation of power relations.
▪ The management of political, diplomatic and social relations requires or uses language.
➢ In Chapter 1:
▪ Politics can also be about language.
▪ Language regulation is a universal feature of social life.
▪ Formal and informal language judgements and policies have complex effects on language use
➢ English now has a global reach like no other language
▪ Due to many factors:
✓ its history of colonialism
✓ its association with global capitalism
✓ its multiple forms and varieties
✓ the huge number of English language learners
 General introduction
➢ As a global lingua franca, it forms a part (alongside other languages) of people’s language practices:
✓ it features in language policies across the world
✓ it plays a significant role in global politics and power relations.
➢ Ideas about English vary across the many contexts:
✓ English appears as the language of opportunity, economic prosperity, mobility and freedom (good)
✓ a symbol or tool of repression, disadvantage and cultural supremacy (bad)
✓ these ideas about English shape people’s language practices
➢ This book explores the complex and varied interplay of the English language with values, practices and
policies in a range of local and global contexts.
➢ The focus of this book, then, is on the political nature of the use of English alongside other languages, and
how language policies are shaped both by language practices and by people’s ideas about language.
➢ The discussion also focuses on the future of English.
 1.1 Introduction 5
❖ What is politics?
➢ Politics is the practice and theory of how groups organise and regulate themselves, and how power is achieved and used in public life.
.
➢ The phrase ‘the personal is political’ (Hanisch, 1970)
➢ Relations of power shape all social interaction (e.g. Foucault, 1977, 1998; Bourdieu, 1984).
❖ Activity 1.1
➢ In what ways do you think politics is related to or affects issues of language?
➢ Comments: Give examples
❖ Language Policy
➢ It is the way a state or an organisation determines how language is to be used in society.
➢ The chapter addresses the following questions:
✓ What impact does the spread of English have on people and societies around the world?
✓ What actions are people taking in response to the spread of the language and to the impact this spread is having?
❖ Language Planning
➢ It is the deliberate efforts to influence the behavior of others with respect to the acquisition, structure, or functional allocation of
their language codes” (Cooper, 1989, p. 45).
➢ what strategies people are devising to ensure that the current status of English across the globe contributes to the cultural harmony
and prosperity of the world rather than creating divisions and inequalities among its population.
1.1 Introduction 5
 1.2 Global English: a problem or a solution? 9

❖ Differing attitudes that people have towards English in different contexts:

❖ Activity 1.2: Two extracts expressing contrasting political opinions about English
➢ Extract 1: By Gordon Brown The British Prime Minister, 2008
▪ the pathway of global communication and global access to knowledge
▪ a bridge across borders and cultures, a source of unity in a rapidly changing world.
▪ enjoying many of the benefits of the internet, commerce and culture.
➢ Extract 2: John Sutherland, The Independent in March 2002
▪ we are witnessing is linguicide. A language massacre
▪ English is the root cause of this linguistic holocaust
▪ the spread of English is the product of naked linguistic superpower
▪ a kind of colonialism: Now we invade their minds, by changing the primary tool by which they think: ‘their’ language.
❖ Activity 1.3: Metaphors that are used to describe the English language
❖ Language ideologies
➢ any sets of beliefs about language articulated by the users as a rationalization or justification of perceived language structure and use’
(Silverstein, 1979, p. 193).
 1.3 English as a positive resource 15

❖ ‘The world needs an international language and … English is the best candidate at present on offer’ (Quirk, 1990, p. 10).
❖ Activity 1.4: What motivated you to learn another language?
❖ English in different context:
➢ The Japanese context: Japan’s goals in the twenty-first century, English an official language (CJGTC, 2000)
➢ Nigerian context: English is a need, not a choice (Bamgbose, 2009, p. 648)
➢ English in Peru: “English is like the dollar” (Niño-Murcia, 2003, p. 121)
❖ A basic ideological association between English and economic advancement
➢ British Council’s ‘Project English’: Training 750,000 English language teachers in India and Sri Lanka
➢ the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1991) uses the metaphor of ‘linguistic capital’.
❖ Activity 1.4: English and ambivalence in a new capitalist state by Catherine Prendergast
➢ The status of English in Slovakia after the collapse of communism
➢ A paradox of global English as the language of capitalism [in Slovakia]: offering the path to betterment
➢ The learning of English is, both symbolically and in practice, tied up with complex questions about global politics.
1.3 English as a positive resource 15
 1.4 The hegemony of English 22

❖ Critical approaches
➢ Explorations of the political circumstances that influence the role English plays in the world
▪ Robert Phillipson (1992): the worldwide spread of English is a result of the American and British linguistic
imperialism
▪ Linguistic imperialism is a subspecies of cultural imperialism:
▪ leading to the establishment of various forms of inequality between English and other languages
▪ Tools of promoting English language:
✓ the World Bank
✓ the British Council and
✓ the United States Information Agency (USIA)
▪ In the postcolonial world, the expansion of English was not left to chance.
▪ It was a strategic concern of the US and UK governments
▪ the spread of English for the purposes of political domination
▪ This thesis views the spread of English as a ‘top-down’ process, therefore, with the language being
imposed on communities
 1.4 The hegemony of English 22

❖ Critical approaches
➢ The linguistic imperialism hypothesis: hegemony of English is complex process, operating for varied cultural, political
and economic reasons
➢ Ferguson (2006, pp. 125–6) sees four areas where the hegemony of English has possible deleterious effects:
1. The use of English as an international language can lead to inequalities in communication between native and non-
native speakers.
2. English contributes to socio-economic inequalities within and between societies.
3. The dominance of English is a threat to linguistic diversity.
4. The spread of English can be implicated in processes of cultural homogenisation.
➢ Bamgbose points to the way that the propagation of English in many countries is sustained by the emergence of an
educated elite
1.4 The hegemony of English 22
 1.4 The hegemony of English 22

❖ Critical approaches
➢ The phenomenon of language death: 20 and 50 per cent of world languages are likely to become extinct by
the end of this century (Krauss, 1992; and see Figure 1.5)
➢ Language death occurs most often in contexts in which a majority language – that is, a language such as English
which has high political and social status – takes over the roles that were previously played by a minority language
➢ For this reason that some scholars describe English as a ‘killer language’ (e.g. Nettle and Romaine, 2000; Skutnabb-
Kangas, 2000)
➢ One strategy for countering the threat to linguistic diversity caused by the spread of English is the notion of
linguistic rights.
➢ Language ecology: This is the idea that different language systems and language practices exist in an ecology, as
organisms do, and that they have complex relationships with the environment (the culture, belief systems, ways of
life) in which they function.
 1.4 Conclusion: appropriating English 22

❖ Read the conclusion

 The End

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