Markets of English: Linguistic Capital and Language Policy in a Globalizing World

ISBN-13: 9780415882910 / Angielski / Twarda / 2012 / 216 str.

Lionel Wee

Opis

The global spread of English both reproduces and reinforces oppressive structures of inequality. But such structures can no longer be seen as imposed from an imperial center, as English is now actively adopted and appropriated in local contexts around the world. This book argues that such conditions call for a new critique of global English, one that is sensitive to both the political economic conditions of globalization and speakers' local practices. Linking Bourdieu's theory of the linguistic market and his practice-based perspective with recent advances in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology, this book offers a fresh new critique of global English. The authors highlight the material, discursive, and semiotic processes through which the value of English in the linguistic market is constructed, and suggest possible policy interventions that may be adopted to address the problems of global English. Through its serious engagement with current sociolinguistic theory and insightful analysis of the multiple dimensions of English in the world, this book challenges the readers to think about what we need to do to confront the social inequalities that are perpetuated by the global spread of English

Spis treści

Selected Contents: Part 1: The problem of global English  1. Introduction: Towards a new critique of global English  2. The challenge: The complexity of global English  3. Theoretical preliminaries: Value, market, and practice  Part 2: Past approaches to global English  4. Is there a market for English as a lingua franca?  5. Models and ideologies of world Englishes  6. Performing English in autonomous and unified markets  Part 3: The making of global English  7. English as entity: The mystification of language  8. English as commodity: The life of indexical meaning  9. English as capital: The logic of conversion  Part 4: Interrupting global English  10. Managing the linguistic market: Possible policy responses  11. Conclusions: Future of the critique of global English

O autorze

Joseph Park is an assistant professor in the Department of English Language & Literature at the National University of Singapore.

Lionel Wee is an associate professor in the Department of English Language & Literature at the National University of Singapore.