U214B Book 2: The Politics of English: Conflict,

Competition, Co-existence

Chapter 1

The politics and policies of global English

The focus and structure of the book

• The focus of the book is on: a) the political nature of the use of English alongside

other languagesb) how language policies are shaped both by language

practices and by people’s ideas about language.The following chapters develop arguments by looking

at how policies and practices involving the English language are realized in a range of globally relevant areas.

Chapter 1: The politics and policies of global English

• Politics is the practice and theory of how groups organize and regulate themselves, and how power is achieved and used in public life.

• In many modern societies, the term politics is synonymous with ‘electoral politics’ and the activities of professional politicians.

• In a wider sense, politics can be seen as having to do with power relations of all types – it can be applied to the private as well as the public sphere.

• The phrase ‘ the personal is political’ was made popular during the feminist movement and was used to highlight the fact that power relations extend into our perosnal lives and relationships .

Chapter 1: The politics and policies of global English - 2

• Research and scholarship in the last decades has increasingly exploring the various ways in which relationships of power shape all social interaction (e.g. Foucault, 1977; Bourdieu, 1984), and suggesting that power relations are responsible for the very existence of society. According to this view, we would not be able to operate as social beings – to make mutual decisions, to collaborate, to get things done – without relations of power, and in this respect, politics is a fundamental part of our everyday lives.

For example, when an offender is sentenced to 300 hours of community service or to 10 years of prison, the speech act is backed up by a whole institution of power, which in this case is the law.

Such speech acts organize all relations between individuals and the state, and thus bind society together (Seargeant 6).

The politics and policies of global English - 3

• Language is not only related to politics in the way that speech acts are effective translations of power, institutional or individual.

• Politics doesn’t only use language; it can also be about language. In fact the regulation of what one cans say, of how and when one can say it – is something that happens constantly in social life.

• For example, the concept of ‘free speech’ is a central tenet of a nation’s (most nations’) political identity. In such communities, a citizen’s right to speak freely and without censorship is inscribed in the constitution or otherwise protected by law (Seargeant 7)

The politics and policies of global English - 4

• Debates about what a an individual says and how he or she says it are often part of larger decisions concerning the place of language, and specific languages – in society.

• Language policies the way a state or an organization determines how language is to be used in society- is often concerned with the way that language relates to other political issues: cultural identity, equality and the ability of citizens to communicate both within their own community and with people from other communities.

• English – with its global reach, history rooted in colonialism, its contemporary association with global capitalism, its multiple forms and varieties, its status as one of the most taught languages around the world– is involved more easily than other languages in manifold political debates, and as such exists as a focus for language politics around the world (Seargeant 8).

The politics and policies of global English - 5

• In this respect, two main questions are to be asked and addressed:1) What impact does the spread of English have on people and societies

around the world?2) What actions are people taking in response to the spread of the

language and to the impact this spread is having? • Language planning issues, and language policy is concerned with

role that English plays in the power relations that organize society, the way that people aim or attempt to regulate this role, and the specific measures (the langauge planning) that people employ to do this. To put this in another way, the discussion will address how English is implicated in political debates, and 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. (Seargeant 8-9).

The politics and policies of global English – 6Global English: a problem or a solution?

See Activity 1.2, pages 9-11 to compare two opposing views of the role of English in the world.

Extract 1: Gordon Brown (2008), then British Prime Minister, was announcing a development initiative to promote the teaching of English across the globe. The view of English is entirely positive, so much so that the speech advocates that this role should be further promoted. This positive judgment is mostly on the basis of how English is positively characterized in the rhetoric of this speech, and from associations that are made between the language and other elements of social life. Knowledge of English is equated with the ability to communicate successfully at a global level. Brown also suggests that knowledge of English is a prerequisite for full access to the benefits of the ‘internet, commerce and culture’ (Seargeant 9-11).

The politics and policies of global English – 7Global English: a problem or a solution?

Extract 2: David Crystal describes the world of language by saying, ‘an indigenous language currently disappears every 2 weeks. By the wend of the century it is projected that 5,500 of the current 6,000 languages now spoken will join Latin and Greek as ‘dead languages’.

John Sutherland, “Linguicide: the death of language” (The Independent, March 2002) shares this negative view of English and describes it as such, “What we are witnessing is linguicide. A language messacre…” The root cause of the linguistic halocaust that we’re living through. Take a holiday anywhere and the signs you see, the language the pilot speak, the music you hear on the street….. is English (American) … “The spread of English is the product of naked linguistic super-power. If anyone anywhere wants to get ahead nowadays, an ability to speak English is obligatory. We take it for granted . . . ” “ “Is it not a more sinister kind of colonialism than that which we practised a hundred years ago? ...” asks Sutherland [ italics is mine] “Now we invade minds, by changing the primary tool by which they think: ‘their’ language”This neologism “linguicide” is modelled after concepts such as homicide, ….a and is used in certain parts of the academic literature; it is often linked to the concept of a ‘killer langauge’ introduced earlier by Phillipson, 1992, and Skutnabb-Kangas, 2000) , also described as homogenization, MacDonaldi\ation,, or even Coca-Colnlonization,of the world, where English is killing other languages and, by extension, other cultures (Wagnleitner)(Seargeant 9-11).

The politics and policies of global English – 8Language Ideologies

The politics and policies of global English – 9Language Ideologies – Linguistic Capital

See example in Reading A

The politics and policies of global English – 10The hegemony of the English language

Linguistic imperialism (22)Hegemony (25)The hegemony of English (24)vs. Linguistic diversity (25)Language death(26) –majority language vs.

minority languageLinguistic rights (p.27)Language ecology (29 + Reading B, Blommaert 40-

43).