World Englishes: A Critical Analysis

Description

The field of “World Englishes” takes on ever more importance in the modern era. Mario Saraceni’s World Englishes: A Critical Analysis looks at the developments in the field from a critical perspective. It examines the historical, linguistic, ideological and pedagogical aspects in the study of the ever-evolving forms, roles and statuses of English around the world. The principal aim is to offer a critical overview of the field in order both to inform readers about the main issues at stake and to challenge established positions and descriptive/analytical paradigms. The book has four sections, each of which reviews established accounts and offers alternative perspectives on those. “History” considers representations of the evolution of ‘old English’ and ‘new Englishes’ and begins to unveil the strong link between conventional accounts and ideological motivations. “Language” critically examines the traditional notion of ‘difference’ in the description of varieties of English, and discusses more recent orientations which aim to describe English as a lingua franca and the phenomenon of language hybridity. “Ideology” examines ideological debates around the presence and status of English in the world, such as linguistic imperialism, language ownership and language ecology. The final section, “Pedagogy” discusses pedagogical implications, such as the choice of appropriate ‘models’ of English and considers the possibility of teaching English as a fully de-anglicised language. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Preface 1 Introduction 1.1 What this book is (and isn’t) about 1.2 Why another ‘World Englishes’ book? 1.2.1 Expanding the scope of World Englishes 1.2.2 A slight impasse 1.2.3 New challenges 1.2.4 Old challenges 1.3 Understanding language 1.3.1 Language as system 1.3.2 Language as social practice Part One: History 2 Old Englishes 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Mainstream narrative 2.2.1 Metaphorical representations of language 2.2.2 The arrival of English in 449 AD 2.2.3 From closely related to one language 2.2.4 The story of ‘Old English’ 2.3 Ideological motivations in the history of English 2.3.1 Language and nationhood 2.4 Untidying history 2.4.1 The ‘birth’ of the English language? 2.4.2 The ‘Anglo-Saxons’? 2.4.3 Anglo-Saxon England? 2.4.4 A purely Germanic language? 2.5 Varieties of ‘Old English’? 2.6 Conclusion 3 New Englishes 3.1 Introduction 3.2 The story of the ‘spread’ of English 3.2.1 English everywhere 3.2.2 Two types of colonization 3.2.3 The ‘Three Circles of English’ 3.2.4 Criticism of the Three Circles model 3.2.5 Schneider’s Dynamic Model 3.2.6 Melchers and Shaw’s classification 3.3 Beyond the ‘spread’ metaphor 3.4 The ‘prehistory’ of World Englishes 3.4.1 American English sets the scene 3.4.2 Seeds of World Englishes in postcolonial writing 3.5 Conclusion: Language and politics Part Two: Language 4 Understanding World Englishes 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The egalitarian matrix of World Englishes 4.3 Limitations in the paradigm 4.3.1 Equality in diversity? 4.3.2 How different are Englishes allowed to be? 4.3.3 What about the Expanding Circle? 4.4 The ‘spot the difference’ approach 4.4.1 ‘Errors’ or ‘features’? 4.4.2 British and American English as yardsticks 4.4.3 ‘In full communion with its ancestral home’ 4.4.4 The norms of English 4.4.5 The power of codification 4.4.6 Varieties of language and varieties of race 4.4.7 The linguist gaze and dominant discourses 4.5 Spotting differences in ELF 4.5.1 ELF versus ENL 4.6 Conclusion 5 Untidying Englishes 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Cutting the umbilical cord with the ancestral home 5.3 Dealing with English and other languages 5.3.1 Borrowing words? 5.3.2 Language across borders 5.3.3 English and non-English 5.3.4 Switching languages? 5.4 Delving deeper into language hybridity 5.4.1 World Englishes and super-diversity 5.4.2 Geography or language? 5.4.3 ELF across borders 5.5 Conclusion: From World Englishes to Language Worlds Part Three: Ideology 6 Linguistic imperialism and resistance 6.1 Introduction 6.2 An unequal world 6.2.1 Where do the numbers come from? 6.3 Language and empire 6.3.1 American imperialism 6.4 Linguistic imperialism 6.4.1 Macaulay’s ‘minute’ 6.5 Responses to linguistic imperialism 6.5.1 The ‘agency’ response 6.5.2 The ‘linguistic determinism’ response 6.5.3 The ‘appropriation’ response 6.6 Conclusion Part Four: Pedagogy 7 Teaching World Englishes 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Which English? 7.3 (Non-)native speakers? 7.3.1 Separate categories? 7.3.2 Myths and discrimination 7.4 The paradigm struggles to shift 7.4.1 Acronyms and the (super-)diversity of language education 7.5 Conclusion: Teaching World Englishes? References Index