Growing up, I read a lot. I have always been fascinated with otherworldly, ethereal, fantasy books. One of my favourites, a short story, is “A Dark Horn Blowing” by Dahlov Ipcar. I then developed a passion for researching clan histories, such as that of my own Gaelic clans Meighan (Miadhacháin) and MacGillivray (MhicGilleBhraith), and Scottish Kings and Queens. These things weren’t spoken about much, if at all, when I was in school.
Continue readinglinguistic imperialism
L’anglais nigérian ou pourquoi le film «Lionheart» ne sera pas nominé aux Oscars en février 2020 (by Florence Sedaminou Muratet)
Le film « Lionheart » réalisé par la Nigériane Geneviève Nnaji, une grande vedette de Nollywood (l’industrie du film nigérian) s’est vu disqualifier de la liste des films sélectionnés aux Oscars 2020 dans la catégorie meilleure film en langue étrangère. La raison ? Les dialogues du film sont principalement en anglais. À qui la faute ? Le cas « Lionheart » mérite d’être creusé de plus près d’un point de vue linguistique.
Le long métrage qui a été diffusé en « original Netflix » sur la plateforme de streaming a eu du succès dès sa sortie en 2018. « Lionheart », c’est le récit du personnage d’Adaeze, jeune femme active et talentueuse de Lagos (capitale du Nigéria), qui grimpe les échelons au sein de l’entreprise familiale de manière fulgurante. En somme, le film raconte l’histoire d’une femme embourbée dans les codes inégalitaires qui régissent les relations entre les hommes et les femmes au Nigéria et rêve de succéder à son père comme directrice générale de la boîte.
On Be(come)ing a Critical English Language Teacher Researcher: A Personal Reflection (by Jennifer Burton)
“We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are” ~ Anaïs Nin
It’s 2019. I am a second-year PhD student. I walk into a graduate course in Methods and Curriculum in TESOL (Teaching English to Students of Other Languages). This time I am not the student. I stand at the front of the classroom as the instructor. I say the following:
“Your languages and life experiences are welcome in this space—they all count! You are the experts in your own contexts. I am not here to lecture to you at the front of the classroom or to tell you what you must and must not do. I will present the current research in TESOL, and we will discuss the realities of taking up these concepts in your workspace. This will be a conversation.”
Continue readingSomething to think about: English-only linguicism (by Jacqueline Peters)
“English is not the speech of exile. It is the language of conquest and domination.”
“Something to think about” was the subject line of an email that Megan Neely, the now former director of graduate studies at Duke University in North Carolina, sent her ethnic Chinese biostatistics graduate students. According to her email, these students had been “observed” speaking Chinese in the student lounge and study area. This deleterious action was reported to Neely by two self-appointed language sentinels who were faculty members. These faculty members went to Neely’s office to request photos of her biostatistics graduate students (Neely is also an assistant professor of biostatistics), in order to be able to recognize the students, who were not only speaking Chinese but speaking it LOUDLY (caps in original) and make note of their names so they could spot them if they came in for internships or master’s supervision.
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