English Language as Hydra: Its Impacts on Non-English Language Cultures

by Vaughan Rapatahana (Editor), Pauline Bunce (Editor)

Overview

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 exposé 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781847697493
Publisher:	Channel View Publications
Publication date:	06/22/2012
Series:	Linguistic Diversity and Language Rights , #9
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Vaughan Rapatahana was born in Patea, Aotearoa-New Zealand. He has a doctorate from the University of Auckland and he has worked as a teacher in the Republic of Nauru, Brunei Darussalam, the United Arab Emirates, China and Hong Kong. He has written widely in a variety of genres, and is the author of several books, collections of poems and poetry teaching resources.

Pauline Bunce is an Australian teacher who has worked in Sri Lanka, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Her doctoral research with Charles Darwin Universityin Australia and her regular feature articles in the South China Morning Post have had a major influence on English teaching practices in Hong Kong.

Table of Contents

Contributors

Acknowledgements

Series Editor’s Note - Tove Skutnabb-Kangas

The Genesis of this Book - Vaughan Rapatahana and Pauline Bunce

Foreword - Robert Phillipson

Introduction: English Language as Thief - Vaughan Rapatahana

1. The Challenge – Ndaraca ya Thiomi: Languages as Bridges - Ng˜ug˜ı wa Thiong’o

2. English Language as Bully in the Republic of Nauru - Xavier Barker

3. Out of Sight, Out of Mind… and Out of Line: Language Education in the Australian Indian Ocean Territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands - Pauline Bunce

4. English Language as Juggernaut – Aboriginal English and Indigenous Languages in Australia - Robyn Ober and Jeanie Bell

5. English Language as Nemesis for Māori - Graham Hingangaroa Smith and Vaughan Rapatahana

6. A Personal Reflection: New Zealand Māori and English - Tamati Cairns

7. The Malchemy of English in Sri Lanka: Reinforcing Inequality through Imposing Extra-Linguistic Value - Arjuna Parakrama

8. English Language as Governess: Expatriate English Teaching Schemes in Hong Kong - Eugene Chen Eoyang, Pauline Bunce and Vaughan Rapatahana

9. English Language as Auntie: Of ‘Good Intentions’ and a Pedagogy of Possibilities – ELT in the Philippines and its Effects on Children’s Literacy Development - Lalaine F. Yanilla Aquino

10. It’s Not Always English: ‘Duelling Aunties’ in Brunei Darussalam - Noor Azam Haji-Othman

11. English Language as Siren Song: Hope and Hazard in Post-Apartheid South Africa - Sandra Land

12. English Language as Border-Crossing: Longing and Belonging in the South Korean Experience - Joseph Sung-Yul Park

13. English and Mandarin in Singapore: Partners in Crime? - Rani Rubdy

14. English Language as Intruder: The Effects of English Language Education in Colombia and South America – a Critical Perspective - Anne-Marie de Mejía

Afterword: Could Heracles Have Gone About Things Differently? - Alastair Pennycook

Coda: One Colonial Language: One Great Tragic Epic. English in Malaysia and Beyond - Muhammad Haji Salleh

Editorial Reviews

A wonderful and rewarding collection of contributions which critically examine how English can take over the language curriculum in schools throughout the world, almost always at the expense of other languages.

ASEAN: A Multilingual Model - Andy Kirkpatrick

Read it if you can: it is an important bookthat highlights some of the damaging effects of the global spread of English, a phenomenon in which our industry is complicit.

TESOLANZ Newsletter, December 2013 - Jo Anne Burns

English Language as Hydra is both poignant and honest in its reasoned and passionate evocation of this language's entrenched link with some of the ills of the world and its impact on speakers' subjectivities.

Ruanni Tupas

English Language As Hydra is a useful reminder of the political dimensions of the cultural sphere and a fascinating crtique of the cognitive processes which accompany globalisation. This is an important book for anyone interested in the dynamics of education, culture and politics in a globalised world.

Scoop Review of Books, September 18th 2012 available online: http://books.scoop.co.nz/2012/09/18/the - Mark P. Williams

English Language as Hydra opens our eyes to how empires and imperialism operate through linguistic ideologies and discourse strategies as powerful tools of domination - often with the active participation of the leaders of subaltern peoples and minorities.

Rainer Enrique Hamel

In Greek mythology, the swamp-dwelling monster Hydra, is almost invincible, with its multiple heads that grow back after being cut off. Such is the power of the English language on the users it dominates. The English language as Hydra is the central image presented in this collection of case studies about how the language was used and manipulated in various parts of the world. As the case studies reveal, English linguistic imperialism does exist in various parts of the world. Still, the authors of the chapters are careful not to present the language per se as monster, but the agents and the attitudes that perpetuate its dominance at the expense of other languages. In addition, for most of the chapters, there are descriptions of various forms of resistanceto English as Hydra. Thus, while the book is a stern reminder to all who embrace English as decontextualizedand neutral, it is also recognition of human agency, as well as of critical and intelligent responses to English linguistic imperialism among stakeholders of the language.

the Philippine Journal of Linguistics - Isabel Pefianco Martin

The book offers fresh and concrete evidence that the hydra stalks the postcolonial world pervasively and persistently.

Humanities Diliman, Vol 9, No 2 (2012) - Corazon D. Villareal

This book is thus an important one, which all language planners, ministers of education, English educators and other related authorities should be encouraged to read.

ELTWorldOnline, March 10th 2013 - Wong Jock Onn

The chapter contributors, including literary heavyweights Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Muhammad Haji Salleh, make the figurative connections between the Hydra’s many indestructible heads and the highly destructive forces that English teaching exerts on non-dominant languages and cultures around the world.

Carol Benson

The engaged and politically accountable scholarship exhibited in this volume offer both example and hope for creating a more equitable linguistic world order.

Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 13:2, 131-134 - Ahmed Kabel

This book does offer a different perspective on the impact of learning English in non-English speaking countries. It gives readers another point of view as most might only look at the positive influence of English on the society in terms of the economic and social benefits, and overlook the negative impact it has on local cultures and indigenous languages. Hence, this book would be of interest not only to language policy makers but also English language teacher trainers and teachers who need to be aware of these important issues.

RELC Journal , Volume 44 (3) – Dec 1, 2013 - Genevieve Chow