English Language as Hydra

Its Impacts on Non-English Language Cultures

Edited by Vaughan Rapatahana, Pauline Bunce

Publication date:

22 June 2012

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781847697509

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.

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

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.