The Cultural politics of English as an international language

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Covering a wide range of areas including international politics, colonial history, critical pedagogy, postcolonial literature and applied linguitics, this book examines ways to understand the cultural and political implications of the global spread of English.

Firstly, it explores how a particular view of English as an international language has come into being by examining its colonial origins, its connections to linguistics and applied linguistics, and its relationships to the global spread of teaching practices. It then offers an alternative, critical understanding through the concept of the 'worldliness' of English. This concept suggests that English can never be removed from the social, cultural, economic or political contexts in which it is used.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgements
• 1 The World in English
• Introduction: from Hurt Waldheim to Johnny Clegg
• The natural, neutral and beneficial spread of English
• The social, cultural and political contexts of English
• The worldliness of English
• Conclusion
• 2 Discourse and Dependency in a Shifting World
• Introduction: rethinking internationalism
• Development, aid and modernization
• Dependency and imperialism
• Culture, discourse, difference and disjuncture
• Criket, English and cultural politics
• 3 English and Colonialism: Origins of a Discourse
• Introduction: the complexities of colonialism
• Anglicism and Orientalism: two sides of the colonial coin
• English for the few: colonial education policies in Malaya
• Anglicism and English studies
• Conclusion
• 4 Spreading the Word/Disciplining the Language
• Introduction: anti-nomadic disciplines
• The disciplining of linguistics
• The disciplining of applied linguistics
• The spreading and disciplining of discourse of EIL
• 5 ELT From Development Aid to Global Commodity
• From cultural propaganda to global business: The British Council
• 'The West is better...': discourses of ELT
• English Language Teaching practices as cultural practices
• Conclusion: the compass of discourse
• 6 The Worldliness of English in Malaysia
• Contexts
• Cultural politics after independence
• Malay nationalism and English
• English, class and ethnicity
• English adn Islam
• English and the media
• The debates continue
• 7 The Worldliness of English in Singapore
• English as a useful language
• The making of Singapore
• Singapore English
• Pragmatism, multiracialism and meritocratism
• Pragmatic, multiracial and meritocratic English
• Conclusion
• 8 Writing Back: The Appropriation of English
• Postcolonial English
• Re-presenting postcolonial worlds
• Worldy texts in a worldly language
• Decentered voices: writing in Malaysia
• Centered voices: writing in Singapore
• From aestheticism to yuppyism: the new writing in Singapore
• From writing back to teaching back
• 9 Towards a Critical Pedagogy for Teaching English as a Worldly Language
• Critical pedagogies
• Discourse, language and subjectivity
• Insurgent knowledges, the classroom and the world
• References
• Index