Globalization, Language, and the Tongue-Tied American: A Textual Analysis of American Discourses on the Global Hegemony of English

Abstract

How is English in the global context constructed in the print media discourse of American-owned prestige press newspapers? The author zeroes in on examples of explicit reflection on the American “situation” vis-à-vis the global hegemony of English. These were drawn from a 275-text data pool generated for the author’s recently published doctoral dissertation. A number of different themes emerged in the texts and excerpts analyzed here, most prominently that of English monolingualism as potentially compromising American national security and economic competitiveness. Several texts also focused on a great paradox: tremendous American linguistic diversity and widespread English monolingualism in the United States. Perhaps the most interesting theme that emerged was what the author terms wistful regret: Americans reflecting with considerable melancholy on how they saw the hegemony of English as inhibiting their incentive and opportunity to become multilingual.