English Ideologies Research Articles

Appropriating Difference in Ella C. Sykes’ Through Persia on a Side-Saddle

This article teases out Ella Sykes’ responses to the differences she encounters in the contact zone in Persia in her much-neglected travel narrative Through Persia on a Side-Saddle (1898). The authors argue that Ella Sykes’ position/self-positioning in relation to difference is shaped by various, and at times opposing, factors, which contribute to the ambivalent nature of her representations of Persia and its people in her travel narrative. The paper proposes that even though Through Persia seems to be moulded by and moulds hegemonic Orientalist perspectives, it has its own specificities, as Ella Sykes’ representations of difference are also informed by implications of English gender ideology. It further shows how Ella Sykes’ representations of the differences she encounters in Persia offer her an empowering medium through which she can indulge in self-criticism and self-assertion.

‘Speaking English naturally’: the language ideologies of English as an official language at a Korean university

ABSTRACTThis study explores language ideologies of English at a Korean university where English has been adopted as an official language. This study draws on ethnographic data in order to understand how speakers respond to and experience the institutional language policy. The findings show that language ideologies in this university represent the institutional norms and expectations of English. The interpretive frame used to respond to the policy is best represented by the discourse of ‘speaking English naturally'. While some informants are positive that the language policy will enable them to transform themselves into competent speakers of English, others are sceptical about the effect of the policy in everyday communication, including classroom activities and interaction with international members of the university. Hence, within the space of interactions demarcated by the university, the ideology of English hegemony has contradictory effects upon the patterns and the rationales of language choice in routine situations. This case study illustrates important dilemmas and confusion in social interactions that typically occur in Korea when spaces are designated for English use, because the space of English as an official language is primarily linked with the language ideology of monolingualism.

Heteroglossic ideologies in world Englishes: an examination of the Hong Kong context

Much research in world Englishes centers on examining the linguistic features of a particular region. Such work can give the false impression of a collective homogeneous ideology of English within a geographic space. We refer to this limiting monolithic perspective of language ideology as ‘the single linguistic narrative.’ The present study builds on this body of work by investigating how often competing ideologies of English can circulate within a region. Focusing on the Hong Kong context, we adapt the concept of Bakhtinian heteroglossia to consider the simultaneous co‐presence of varying ideologies of English. Through an analysis of self‐narratives, we examine how Hong Kong university students construct expectations regarding how English should be used and what the colonial language means to their regional identity.

Colonization and English ideologies in India: a language policy perspective

A language policy document on English teaching asserted that in India, “the colonial origins [of English are] now forgotten or irrelevant” (NCERT 2006: 1). Using data obtained in the course of a longitudinal ethnographic investigation into the language and literacy practices of young multilingual boys living at an anathashram (orphanage) in suburban New Delhi, India, I contest NCERT’s (2006) ideological framing. This study, employing the theoretical perspective of language ideology, demonstrates how the colonial encounter, in fact, continues to frame, inform, and regulate notions about the English language in India. Furthermore, this study sheds light on how the reductive ideological arc of language educational policy documents—such as the one articulated in NCERT (2006)—can enforce and enact a homogenizing gaze that glosses over ideological pluralities. The larger ambition of this exploration is to inquire how and why such ideological normativization is enforced in language educational policy discourse, as well as to consider its implications for educational equity.

Teaching English as an international language in China: Investigating university teachers' and students' attitudes towards China English

Abstract This study investigated the attitudes of Chinese university students and teachers towards China English (CE), an emerging variety in China and the ideological underpinnings beneath their attitudinal responses. In the study, 1589 university students and 193 English teachers were asked to evaluate the understandability and acceptability of some potential features of CE with a questionnaire survey. Among them, 31 students and 33 teachers were also invited to provide reasons for their survey answers. The study revealed that both the student and teacher participants were reluctant to accept CE as a pedagogical model but their attitudes diverge as specific CE features were involved. The in-depth exploration of their justifications identified that the widespread native speaker English ideology and Chinglish stigma were more important reasons leading to their negative evaluations of CE than concerns for the communicativeness of CE to the outside world. Findings of the study may have important implications for English education in contexts where local varieties of English are emerging.

Orientations towards English among English-medium Instruction Students

Abstract Based on the empirical data of my PhD research, this paper analyses the perceptions of 351 undergraduate students enrolled at English-medium universities towards English in terms of the language ideology framework. The students were purposively sampled from three programs at three Turkish universities. The data were drawn from student opinion surveys and semi-structured interviews. The findings paint a blurry picture, with a strong tendency among most students to view their English use as having the characteristics of dominant native varieties of English (American English & British English), and with a high percentage of students’ acceptance of the distinctiveness of their English without referring to any standard variety. The findings also show that many students’ orientations to English are formed by two dominant language ideologies: standard English ideology and native speaker English ideology. It was also found that a large number of students did not strictly stick to either of these ideologies, particularly in their orientation to spoken English, due, as argued in the main body, to their experiences on language use that have made them aware of the demographics of diverse English users and of the diverse ways of using English.

“Oh My Gosh! The Expression Is Too Chinese”: Attitudes of University Teachers and Students towards China English

AbstractWith the wide spread of English in the global context, scholars increasingly call for the reshaping of English education towards teaching English as an international language. One oft-mentioned proposal is to increase students’ exposure to more English varieties, in particular the variety of English used in their country or region. Against this backdrop, this study investigated the attitudes of Chinese university students and teachers towards China English (CE), an emerging variety in China and the ideological underpinnings beneath their attitudinal responses. In the study, 33 English teachers and 31 students were asked to first evaluate the understandability and acceptability of CE features that are identified in literature and then provide reasons justifying their choices in a questionnaire survey. Results show that both teacher and student participants were reluctant to accept CE as a legitimate variety but their attitudes diverged as regards specific CE features. The in-depth exploration of their justifications revealed that native speaker English ideology, Chinglish stigma and the communicativeness of CE to the outside world were their major concerns in evaluating CE. Findings in this study have implications for educators who attempt to localize English language teaching.

‘Gangnam style’ English ideologies: neoliberalism, class and the parents of early study-abroad students

This study examines the English ideologies of Korean early study-abroad students’ parents in Gangnam, one of the most affluent areas in South Korea. The data collected were drawn from in-depth individual interviews with 23 parents, and subjected to critical discourse analysis. The findings showed that the issue of class was foregrounded prominently in the Gangnam parents’ discourses. They believed that English was a requisite for being in the Gangnam inner-circle, and that their children's native-like English reflected their own high socio-economic status. They also perceived English to be a capitalistic instrument through which they could hand over their own socio-economic class to their children. English was perceived to help the children get high-paying jobs that would then enable them to live in Gangnam like their parents. This study is expected to unpack the neoliberal English ideologies, especially in relation to class, and give us an opportunity to rethink them from a more critical perspective.

Language ideologies in a Danish company with English as a corporate language: ‘it has to be English’

With the spread of English as a global language, concerns have been voiced over the impact of English on local languages. This article presents results from an ethnographic study of language ideologies in a Danish workplace with a particular focus on ideologies of English in relation to the local language and to other foreign languages. In this international company, conflicting ideologies construct the local language Danish on the one hand as the natural language in Denmark, but as unimportant compared to English on the other hand. English is constructed as prestigious and powerful in contrast with Danish. While previous studies of English as an international language have tended to focus on the consequences for the local language, this article also includes a discussion of the role of English in relation to other international languages. English is constructed as the international language, as the only possible choice for communicating internationally. The prevalence of this language ideology means that other foreign languages are either not considered at all, or even rejected outright as means for international communication, a process referred to by Irvine and Gal as ‘erasure’.

Lusitanization and Bakhtinian perspectives on the role of Portuguese in Angola and East Timor

A vast amount of literature addresses issues surrounding English and French in colonial and post-colonial communities. However, relative to the spread of English and French language ideology, a limited amount of literature exists on Lusitanization (i.e. the spread of Portuguese colonial ideology by Portugal during colonialism and the role of Brazil in post-colonial Portuguese societies). To fill this gap, this paper analyses the role, functions and spread of Portuguese in colonial and post-colonial Angola and East Timor using Lusitanization as a framework to capture the role played by Portugal during the colonial eras and Brazil in post-colonial societies. Even though Lusitanization creates a space to analyse the role of Portuguese at a macro-level, a macro-view is inadequate for a situated analysis. Therefore, to complement the macro-analysis, we explore the impact of Lusitanization from the bottom up, drawing upon Bakhtinian perspectives of social voices, pluri-diversity, plurilingualism and hybridization.

On high horses: Transnational Nepalis and language ideologies on YouTube

In this paper, I investigate transnationalism as one major dimension of contemporary superdiversity. In doing so, I examine how Nepalis in the diaspora employ YouTube as a discursive site to express their collective identity by responding to the video of speech delivered in ‘bad’ English by Nepal׳s minister for health at a UN meeting. Focusing on ideologies of English in the context of Nepal, I discuss three key themes that emerged in the video texts and comments: language ideologies in the entextualization of the videos, language ideologies and discourses of prestige and disgrace, and the relationship of language ideologies with political ideologies. Overall, the analysis shows that YouTube brings superdiverse participants together with their multiple subjectivities, identities and attitudes, and their demonstrated language competence is characterized by varied forms of linguistic repertoires in English and in Nepali. Ideologically, the comments seem to reproduce the modernist view of language as a bounded system, but linguistic resources used to construct these comments show a number of linguistic peculiarities and heteroglossic uses that challenge the writers’ own conscious conceptualization of language. Finally, the study provides insights for understanding the role of transnational digital media for a sociolinguistics of superdiversity.

A meta-discursive analysis of online comments of Chinese netizens on Huang Xiaoming's appropriation of English

This paper explores the ideologies of English in China through a meta-discursive analysis of Chinese netizens' comments on the performance of English by Huang Xiaoming, a famous Chinese actor. By applying Park and Wee's framework for analysing ideological evaluations of appropriation (i.e. ideologies of allegiance, competence, and authenticity) to online comments, this paper reveals that the ideological complex of English is in circulation in the Chinese society where people treat English as a language of the Other and themselves as illegitimate and incompetent users of English.

Translanguaging Practices and Language Ideologies in Puerto Rican University Science Education

The undisputed position of English as the “international language of science” has resulted in a push for its use in college science classrooms in non-English-dominant contexts worldwide. This study uses classroom observation and interviews to examine the use of Spanish and English in college science classrooms at a land-grant university in Puerto Rico. Using an ecology of languages framework, and particularly drawing on Hornberger's Continua of Biliteracy for the study of learning in bilingual contexts, analysis of 15 class observations and interviews showed that professors used multiple classroom translanguaging practices to teach science. At the same time, they held strongly to the ideology of English as “the language of science” and believed it was important for all science students to use English. Thus, professors' practices and their ideologies rested on opposing ends of the context continua of biliteracy.

Unfold the Veil Covering News – A Case Study of English Language and Ideology in both American and Chinese Press

By taking Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) as research approach, this study analyzes and discusses two news reports related to the event that a Uyghur man was sentenced to death by the Intermediate People’s Court in Xinjiang, a western province of China. Both news reports on that event are taken respectively from two newspapers published in English language but with clearly opposed ideology, CNN and China Daily. We have found that, however, these two news reports are quite different and even completely opposite in making use of three saliently patterned linguistic features, that is, transitivity, naming of news actor and quotation patterns. We argue that the different even opposite selection in the three aspects in the two news reports are not arbitrary, but rather are ideologically motivated. Finally, we suggest that teachers are supposed to teach and help students read news reports with critical eyes.

Accent Priority in a Thai University Context: A Common Sense Revisited

In Thailand, there has been much debate regarding what accents should be prioritized and adopted as models for learning and use in the context of English language education. However, it is not a debate in which the voices of English learners have sufficiently been heard. Several world Englishes scholars have maintained that being a denationalized language, English should be viewed through the lens of linguistic hybridization. In this paper, we investigated Thai university English learners’ preferences for varieties of English and their attitudes towards the importance of understanding varieties of English in order to generate a better understanding as to what extent native and non-native varieties gain acceptance as English models. We also explored whether learners’ attitudes were consistent with the ideology of English as an international language which sees English in its pluralistic sense. The findings of this study suggest that even though the majority of learners preferred native-speaker accents as models for learning and use, they consiered non-native Englishes worth understanding and learning. The findings challenge the old paradigm of English language teaching that is based on the concept of linguistic Americanization or Britishization, prioritizing the native-speaker school of thought. In closing, we proposed some pedagogical suggestions that, we believe, are consistent with how English functions in the world as an international lingua franca.

Ideologies of English in a Chinese high school EFL textbook: a critical discourse analysis

In this article we examine ideologies of English in present-day China with a special focus on textbook discourse. The research framework is informed by critical theories on language and education. Critical discourse analysis is applied as a methodological approach characterized by a socially committed attitude in the explanation and interpretation of text. The study finds evidence of: (a) a selective representation of the history of English, (b) shallow sociolinguistic explanations, and (c) grammatical prescriptivism. These issues attest to the Anglo-centric language ideologies assuming the sociolinguistic “neutrality” and grammatical “uniformity” of English. In response, we argue for a multicultural and cosmopolitan perspective on curriculum development marked by an intercultural understanding of both the global and the local.

Book review: The Local Construction of a Global Language: Ideologies of English in South Korea

Book review: The Local Construction of a Global Language: Ideologies of English in South Korea

On and off the page: the 'male as norm' ideology of English and German

This paper examines the linguistic representation of male and female. Comparing German and English, this paper argues that, despite the grammatically gendered nature of German, both languages equally privilege the male element at the expense of the female. Referencing a variety of studies, this paper explores the use—in both languages—of the “generic he,” investigating how this custom is perceived by listeners; it examines marked terms, particularly the apparent need to mark female appearance in male-dominated professional spheres; it considers female visibility in language and the differing approaches taken by both English and German; and it explores feminine derivation and the semantic sexualization/degradation of the female form to male counterparts. Derivation from masculine norms as well as lexical and connotative gender are briefl y discussed. Finally, the paper looks at each language’s strategies for correction.

Theologie, gender-ideologie en de transformatie van masculiniteit in Afrika Theology, Gender Ideology and Masculinity Politics in Africa

Als gevolg van de hiv-epidemie zijn gangbare constructies van mannelijkheid in Afrika onder vuur komen te liggen. Er wordt gezegd dat deze veranderd moeten worden – maar wat zijn de strategieën daarvoor en tot wat voor vorm van mannelijkheid zouden die moeten leiden? Dit artikel bespreekt de manier waarop een aantal progressieve Afrikaanse theologen en een Zambiaanse Pinksterkerk zich inzetten voor een transformatie van masculiniteit. De kerk blijkt mannelijkheid te herdefiniëren binnen een patriarchaal kader, terwijl de theologen de noodzaak onderstrepen om voorbij te gaan aan patriarchaat om zo een werkelijkheid van gender-rechtvaardigheid te creëren. De auteur betoogt dat de benadering van de kerk effectief kan zijn in de praktijk, maar dat de visie van de theologen principieel de voorkeur heeft.

Ideologies of English: Stress Clash, “Anglo-Saxon”, and Twentieth-Century Conceptions of Rhythm

“Ideologies de l’anglais” cherche a montrer comment nos mythes implicites du langage determinent nos conceptions du rythme. L’article etudie notamment les ecrits critiques de Seamus Heaney et sa representation de l’“anglo-saxon”, une notion par laquelle Heaney definit une nature ou essence de l’anglais concue en termes de genre et fondee sur les proprietes rythmiques du contre-accent et du groupe consonantique. La conception de Heaney est ici confrontee avec une representation toute contraire: chez Derek Attridge, le rythme de l’anglais est caracterise par une tendance “naturelle” a alterner syllabes accentuees et inaccentuees, de maniere a eviter le contre-accent. Par contraste avec ces definitions fondees en “nature”, l’article met en avant une conception du rythme comme subjectivite dans le langage, donc comme activite discursive transformant les modeles linguistiques. Une lecture breve de Beowulf: A Verse Translation par Seamus Heaney cherche a montrer comment cette traduction realise une pratique du rythme comme discours, pour autant que la saillance alliterative y reecrit les regles de la phonologie anglaise.