Linguistic imperialism, English, and development: implications for Colombia

Author(s):  
Lee Mackenzie
2004 ◽  
Vol 145-146 ◽  
pp. 219-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Zhang

This paper reports on two phases of a study of a group of advanced TEFL (teachers-of-English-as-a-foreign-language) students. To raise their awareness of the importance of discourse intonation while they were receiving teacher training, this study focuses on examining their sociocultural and psychological inclinations in the choice of phonological models. The first phase is an exploration of their attitudes toward, a native-speaker variety (British English) and a nonnative (Chinese EFL-speaker) variety of English pronunciation and intonation. The second reports on a didactic intervention study of the impact of activities that engaged the students in the awareness-raising of the importance of suprasegmental features, especially discourse intonation, on self-perceptions of their efficacy and confidence in communication. The results showed a systematic pattern of participant endorsement for a native-speaker model and a clear improvement in theIr perceptions of the importance of suprasegmental features of standard English because of teacher-student co-construction of meaning through interactive awareness-raising activities. The findings are discussed with reference to the students' sociocultural and psychological needs in TEFL training, particularly with reference to recent academic discourse on the issue of “linguistic imperialism” (Canagarajah, 1999; Phillipson, 1992, 1996) and ElL in pedagogy (Jenkins, 1998, 2002) and their wider implications in typical EFL contexts.


1998 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 152-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasukata Yano

English Today ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Weihong Wang ◽  
Fan (Gabriel) Fang

With the spread of English around the globe, academics increasingly seek to figure out what global English means to the world. Some accept English globalisation as a reality and take it as natural, neutral and beneficial for international and intercultural communication (Crystal, 2003). Some recognise English skills as important linguistic capital and must-have global literacy (Park & Wee, 2012; Tsui & Tollefson, 2007). However, others associate the global expansion of English with linguistic imperialism and the death of indigenous languages (Phillipson, 2009). Some regard globally spread English as native English varieties, particularly American and British English (Modiano, 2001; Trudgill, 1999), others argue for the rise of local varieties of World Englishes (WE) (Bolton, 2005; Kachru, 1986) and the international use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) (Jenkins, 2007; Seidlhofer, 2011). Although these generic interpretations of English have solid arguments from their own perspectives, none is sufficient to elucidate all the ‘complexity of ideological ramifications of the spread of English in [any] particular locality’ (Pan, 2011: 79).


Author(s):  
Paula González Fernández

Today, there is a rising need of an international language for infinite purposes and, so far, English seems to be that language. However, its use is being discriminative and unfair in different aspects. These have been discussed in the academic circles, but little is being considered of the general public's ideas. Furthermore, the different consequences that the notion of Linguistic Imperialism has, and all the various issues mentioned in the scholarly debate, do not seem to reach far beyond the academic spheres. The main goal of this study is to deal with perceptions of English Imperialism. Due to space limitations, we cannot present here the whole study. Hence, we will concentrate on the spread of English in the world and the agency behind it. We will first revise the opinion found in the literature, of scholars and linguists, to concentrate later on the feelings of the general public. To this end, we will use data collected both through a questionnaire and some personal interviews. The comparison of the two sources will show that what is being discussed by many authors is not generally reaching the general public and that the latter's opinion is rather complex and inconsistent, with little linguistic awareness.


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