English Language as Hydra

This book argues that the English language industry has become a beguiling monster unashamedly intent on challenging local lingua-diversity and threatening individual identities. This book brings together the voices of linguists, literary figures and teaching professionals in a wide-ranging expose of this enormous Hydra in action on 4 continents. Top page

Complete description

In far too many places, the worldwide trade in English-language teaching, testing and publishing has become a self-perpetuating, self-congratulating, neocolonial monster - a veritable multi-headed Hydra. Too often the English language industry aggressively promotes itself as some sort of "uplifting", "essential", "proper" or even "better" means of communication than any other language. Unfortunately, its relentless global outreach is taking place at the direct expense, and the active denigration, of local and regional languages - not to mention individual identities. English Language as Hydra brings together the voices of linguists, literary figures and teaching professionals in a wide-ranging expose of this monstrous Hydra in action on four continents. It provides a showcase of the diverse and powerful impacts that this ever-evolving, gluttonous beast has had on so many non-English language cultures - as well as the surreptitious, drug-like ways in which it can infiltrate individual psyches. Top page

General info

Publisher & Imprint: Multilingual Matters Ltd

City: Clevedon

Pages: 304

More info: height 234 mm width 156 mm weight 480 gr thickness 19 mm

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Age recommended: College/higher education

Subject Indexing & Classification Dewey:(DC23) 306.44 Library of Congress Subject: English language - Social aspects

Departments: Sociolinguistics; Elt: teaching theory & methods;

Record updated at: 23 April, 2013 time: 13:34

Summary English Language as Hydra AcknowledgementsSERIES EDITOR'S NOTETove Skutnabb-KangasTHE GENESIS OF THIS BOOKVaughan Rapatahana and Pauline Bunce ForewordRobert PhillipsonEnglish Language as ... ? Introduction: ENGLISH LANGUAGE AS HYDRAVaughan RapatahanaEnglish Language as ThiefTHE CHALLENGENg?g? wa Thiong'oNdaraca ya Thiomi: Languages as bridgesENGLISH LANGUAGE AS BULLY 1. Xavier Barker English language as Bully in the Republic of Nauru 2. Pauline BunceOut of sight, out of mind ... and out of line: Language education in the Australian Indian Ocean Territory of the Cocos (Keeling) IslandsENGLISH LANGUAGE AS JUGGERNAUT 3. Robyn Ober and Jeanie Bell English Language as Juggernaut - Aboriginal English and Indigenous languages in AustraliaENGLISH LANGUAGE AS NEMESIS 4. Graham Hingangaroa Smith and Vaughan RapatahanaEnglish Language as Nemesis for M?ori 5. Tamati CairnsPersonal reflection: The New Zealand experience: English is the worst kind of thiefENGLISH LANGUAGE AS MALCHEMIST 6. Arjuna ParakramaThe Malchemy of English in Sri Lanka: Reinforcing Inequality through Imposing Extra-Linguistic ValueENGLISH LANGUAGE AS GOVERNESS 7. Eugene Chen Eoyang, Pauline Bunce and Vaughan RapatahanaExpatriate English teaching schemes in Hong KongENGLISH LANGUAGE AS AUNTIE 8. Lalaine AquinoOf 'Good Intentions' and a Pedagogy of Possibilities: ELT in the Philippines and its effects on childrens' literacy development 9. Noor Azam Haji-OthmanIs it always English? Duelling Aunties in Brunei DarussalamENGLISH LANGUAGE AS SIREN SONG 10. Sandra LandEnglish language as siren song: Hope and hazard in post-apartheid South AfricaENGLISH LANGUAGE AS BORDER 11. Joseph Sung-Yul ParkLonging/Belonging in the South Korean ExperienceENGLISH LANGUAGE AS PARTNER 12. Rani RubdyEnglish in Singapore: a partner in crime?ENGLISH LANGUAGE AS INTRUDER 13. Anne-Marie de MejiaThe Effects of English Language Education in Colombia and South America - a critical perspectiveAFTERWORDAlastair PennycookCould Heracles have gone about things differently?CODAMuhammad Haji SallehOne Colonial Language: One great tragic epic. English in Malaysia and well beyond.OUR CONTRIBUTORS Top page

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