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This book explores the ways and means by which English threatens the vitality and diversity of other languages and cultures in the modern world. Using the metaphor of the Hydra monster from ancient Greek mythology, it explores the use and misuse of English in a wide range of contexts, revealing how the dominance of English is being confronted and counteracted around the globe. The authors explore the language policy challenges for governments and education systems at all levels, and show how changing the role of English can lead to greater success in education for a larger proportion of children. Through personal accounts, poems, essays and case studies, the book calls for greater efforts to ensure the maintenance of the world’s linguistic and cultural diversity.
In stark contrast to the many books that celebrate uncritically the global spread of English, this thought-provoking volume explores and reflects on some of the more problematic aspects of this phenomenon. It does so innovatively in a variety of written styles and from a wide range of international perspectives. It will be of interest to the specialist and the general reader alike.
Pauline Bunce is an Australian teacher who has worked in Brunei Darussalam, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. Her doctoral research examined the reading challenges posed by an alphabetic script for Chinese learners of English in Hong Kong.
Robert Phillipson is an Emeritus Professor at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark and was awarded the UNESCO Linguapax Prize in 2010. He has published extensively on language learning, linguistic imperialism, linguistic human rights, multilingual education and language policy.
Vaughan Rapatahana is from New Zealand and has taught in a number of international locations. He has been published extensively in a variety of genres and his PhD was in Existential Literary Criticism.
Ruanni Tupas teaches at the National Institute of Education, Singapore and was the Linguistic Society of the Philippines’ 2009 Andrew Gonzalez Distinguished Professorial Chair holder.
Contributors;
Tove Skutnabb-Kangas: Series Editor’s Foreword;
Pauline Bunce, Robert Phillipson, Vaughan Rapatahana and Ruanni Tupas: Introduction
I: Hydra At Large
1. Alamin Mazrui: The English Language in a Global Context: Between Expansion and Resistance
2. Robert Phillipson: Promoting English: Hydras Old and New
3. Ruanni Tupas: English, Neocolonialism and Forgetting
4. Hywel Coleman: The English Language as Naga in Indonesia
5. Mehdi Boussebaa: Offshore Call Centre Work is Breeding a New Colonialism
II: Hydra Mythology
6. Ryuko Kubota and Tomoyo Okuda: Confronting Language Myths, Linguicism and Racism in English Language Teaching in Japan
7. Hilary Smith: Mr Jones: Mi Laik Askim Yu Samting
8. Phiona Stanley: Must the (Western) Hydra be Blond(e)? Performing Cultural ‘Authenticity’ in Intercultural Education
9. Pauline Bunce: Voluntary Overseas English Language Teaching: A Myopic, Altruistic Hydra
10. Ari Páll Kristinsson: English Language as ‘Fatal Gadget’ in Iceland
11. Bill Templer: The English Hydra as Invader on the Post-Communist ‘New Periphery’ in Bulgaria
12. Pauline Bunce: The English Alphabet: Alpha-Best or Alpha-Beast?
13. Tammy Ho Lai-Ming: ‘Languages’
III: Confronting The Hydra
14. Lindsey Collen and the Ledikasyon Pu Travayer Team: Mauritian Kreol Confronts English and French Hydras
15. Kathleen Heugh, Blasius Agha-ah Chiatoh and Godfrey Sentumbwe: ‘Hydra Languages’ and Exclusion versus Local Languages and Community Participation in three African Countries
16. Zubeida Mustafa: The Destruction of Nadia’s Dream: The English Language Tyrant in Pakistan’s Education System
17. A. Giridhar Rao: The (Illusory) Promise of English in India
IV: Resistance and Cohabitation with The Hydra
18. Aja Y. Martinez: A Personal Reflection on Chican@ Language and Identity in the US-Mexico Borderlands: The English Language Hydra as Past and Present Imperialism
19. Christof Demont-Heinrich: The Struggle to Raise Bilingual Kids in the Belly of the English Hydra Beast: The United States of America
20. Julian Edge: TEFL and International Politics: A Personal Narrative
21. Miklós Kontra: Hungary: A Sham Fight-Back Against the Domination of English
22. Mobo Gao & Vaughan Rapatahana: The English Language as a Trojan Horse within the People’s Republic of China
23. Clarissa Menezes Jordão: TEFL as Hydra: Rescuing Brazilian Teacher Educators from ‘Privilege’
24. Vaughan Rapatahana: ‘Writing back (to the centre)’
Afterword: Ahmed Kabel