English as a Lingua Franca – Educational Sociolinguistics

Language education and social reproduction

Elisa Xu

Supporters of neoliberal economics believe that property rights and “the natural order of things” are important (Orlowski, 2011), so they just let the “invisible hand” of the market to influence economic arrangement. In this case, native-speakerism will win the game, and language education will become more and more market-oriented too.

Language education, especially English education in non-English-speaking countries will become a commodity which only the elites can buy and consume well. Take private schools in mainland China as examples. There are three types of private schools in mainland China: international school (IS), non-governmental private school (NGPS), and public high school international division (PHSID). Among these, the first two types are more expensive as they are totally private and have much affiliation and cooperation with western universities and institutions. For example, the total tuition fee for first year kindergarten children at Dulwich College Beijing (IS) is 241500 CNY, and the tuition fee at YK Pao School (NGPS) is 156000 CNY. The tuition fee will be even higher at junior and senior high school level.

Comparing to public language education system in China, which may cost only thousands per year, the language education in private schools can be considered as a “luxury product”. As we are in a neoliberal economics, access, networking, and experiences are paramount. (Rifkin, 2000) The new generations of social elites may build their networking in these schools and keep their identity through this system. In this sense, English, native-speakerism, and language education may be related to wealth and power, and finally link to social reproduction.

REFERENCES

Orlowski, P. (2011). Neoliberalism Laissez-Faire Revisited. Explorations of Educational Purpose.

Davies, B. & Bansel, P. (2007). Neoliberalism and education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 20(7), 247-259.

Olssen, M. & Peters, M. A. (2007). Neoliberalism, higher education and the knowledge economy: from the free market to knowledge capitalism. Journal of Education Policy, 20(3), 313-345.

English and globalization: a double-edged sword

Jundong Ma

Just as Lee (2016) described in the paper “Everywhere You Go, You See English!”: Elderly Women’s Perspectives on Globalization and English, as an Asian country, China also faces the same dilemma as Korea. In the 1990s, globalization began to sweep the whole world. Here is a short video that explains the procedure.

Countries started collaborating with one another during the globalization movement in both the technical and commercial spheres. Language also began to expand at the same time. English became a lingua franca since the United States and Great Britain dominated the global economy and English is their native tongue. English has been made a required course in Chinese classrooms in order to keep up with the globalization trend, and those who speak the language fluently may be considered “well-educated” individuals. Although globalization and the English learning boom brought many advantages, they also gave rise to numerous social issues.

On the one hand, Chinese people accept that globalization is necessary and that it can benefit China in many ways (job possibilities, technological advancement, capital inflow, etc.); on the other hand, many underprivileged Chinese people are left behind during the process. Elderly persons, members of the working class with low incomes, and youngsters with limited access to English instruction may find it difficult to keep up with the changes in the world because they are unable to grasp anything written in English. Sometimes they can even question why they are required to study a foreign language in their own nation. When I worked as an intern teacher during my undergraduate program, I saw that some students lacked the drive to learn English, but due to globalization’s quick expansion, they were forced to do so in order to keep up with the times and enrol in a reputable university. Therefore, to some extent, globalization disrupted the social ecology of several developing nations, and the English language started to cause problems for the locals.

In the end, I want to say that this is of great educational significance to us for it reminds us that, as a researcher, you cannot only pay attention to privileged groups, you have to think of those underprivileged people at the same time.

Questions:

What can we do to strike a balance between English learning boom and the safeguarding of local languages in developing nations?

References:

Lee, J. S. (2016). “Everywhere you go, you see English!”: Elderly women’s perspectives on globalization and English. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 13(4), 1–32. https://doi-org.proxy3.library.mcgill.ca/10.1080/15427587.2016.1190654

Explainitychannel. (2013, July 11). Globalization explained (explainity® explainer video) [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ0nFD19eT8

ELF: how to best implement it?

Hector Alvarez

I’m currently reading a book called Teaching English as a Lingua Franca: The journey from EFL to ELF by Marek Kiczkowiak and Robert J. Lowe, which provides practical activities to develop effective ELF classes. However, first of all, what is ELF? ELF stands for English as a Lingua Franca, first defined by Alan Firth (1996) as “a ‘contact language’ between persons who share neither a common native tongue nor a common (national) culture, and for whom English is the chosen foreign language of communication” (p. 240). However, the focus of ELF in recent years has become more encompassing, including now both native and non-native speakers of English.

ELF is not a variety of English, but a phenomenon that emerges from the interaction between different English users that accommodate and adapt their speech to their interlocutors. For example, a British speaker who usually use the expression “to take the mickey out of you” would, instead, opt to say “criticize you”, as the former, although common within the British English speech context, is not common among other varieties of English. Hence, in an international context, among users of different English varieties, it’s safest to choose the type of language that steers clear from what would be considered slang from a particular English variety.

Taking a stand

Emmanouela Tisizi

This post is inspired by the Telegraph’s article[1] which, based on linguists’ predictions, prepares the readers for the extinction of the ‘th’ sound from English by 2066. Such predictions very often attract people’s attention irrespective of their interest in or familiarity with the field of linguistics. And while reading about something that may or may not happen in the future is intriguing, it is at the same time a safe topic exactly because it refers to the future, and people, especially linguists and educators, are not confronted with the need to decipher what it may mean for their current decision-making in terms of using, teaching and researching language.

Language change, however, happens every day, especially nowadays when English is mostly used by and among people for whom it is not the first language. English is thus used as an international language, or a Lingua Franca. In short, English is now used as a means to communicate effectively and not as a means to demonstrate knowledge of and adherence to the norms of Standard English. In Seidlhofer’s words, English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) refers to ‘‘any use of English among speakers of different first languages for whom English is the communicative medium of choice, and often the only option’’ (Seidlhofer, 2011, p.7)[2].

Continue reading “Taking a stand”