Description
Book SynopsisThis book explores the ways and means by which English threatens the vitality and diversity of other languages and cultures in the modern world. Using the metaphor of the Hydra monster from ancient Greek mythology, it explores the use and misuse of English in a wide range of contexts, revealing how the dominance of English is being confronted and counteracted around the globe. The authors explore the language policy challenges for governments and education systems at all levels, and show how changing the role of English can lead to greater success in education for a larger proportion of children. Through personal accounts, poems, essays and case studies, the book calls for greater efforts to ensure the maintenance of the world’s linguistic and cultural diversity.
Trade ReviewIn stark contrast to the many books that celebrate uncritically the global spread of English, this thought-provoking volume explores and reflects on some of the more problematic aspects of this phenomenon. It does so innovatively in a variety of written styles and from a wide range of international perspectives. It will be of interest to the specialist and the general reader alike.
* John Gray, University College London, UK *
This book demonstrates how a seductive ideology of English is built, by whom and for whose benefit. It also shows how a policy of using English alone in the school curriculum costs communities in multiple ways. The volume should create awareness among people, educators and policy makers about how to eliminate this enormous cost. This collection promotes a pedagogy that will add English to the language repertoire of people without them losing anything.
* E. Annamalai, University of Chicago, USA, and former Director of the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, India *
The contributors to this volume expose the Orwellian overtones that mask the linguistic imperialism that is being peddled in terms of growth, development, partnership, volunteerism, and aid. The many examples of innovation and success stories they offer give hope that resistance is not futile after all. This volume is for anyone who cares about ethically sound and socially relevant pathways to (English) language education.
* B. Kumaravadivelu, San Jose State University, USA *
This edited collection presents rich and complex discourses n how the multi-headed English Hydra dominates and becomes hegemonic [...] This is a must-read book for educators who want to develop a critical perspective about English languages education including the fact that English is interconnected to diverse fields where mostly they marginalize, exclude or dominate people, EFL teachers or local languages in the outer and expanding circle countries.
-- Ribut Wahyudi, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim, Indonesia * The Journal of Asia TEFL, Vol. 17, No. 2, Summer 2020 *
Why English? Confronting the Hydra is a book with powerful messages and arguments that those involved in the English language teaching profession and educational policy-makers globally should be aware of. It is likely to stir their emotions as well as leading them to reflect.
-- John Knagg, former Head of Research and Consultancy for English and Global Head of English for Education Systems, British Council * ELT Journal, September 2018 *
As anyone at all familiar with the academic discourse in the teaching of the English language will immediately understand, this is the latest endeavour by people who have not accepted the hegemony of English without question: rather, they have chosen to make people conscious that English has become a hydra, in the sense that it is weakening the other languages of the world...Indeed, writers, like Robert Phillipson and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, have been raising key questions about this hegemony for a long time.
-- Tariq Rahman * Newsline Magazine, September 2017 *
At a time when the merits of globalisation are being questioned, this volume presents a wideranging and thought-provoking set of articles questioning the received wisdom of such widespread acceptance of the merits of English and reasons for choosing to embrace English in the first place.
-- Robert Williams, University of Westminster, UK * Training Language and Culture, Vol 1, Issue 2, May 2017 *
In highlighting the dangers of linguistic imperialism associated with English and other dominant languages in this volume, the contributors draw our attention to the insidious effects of monster languages and their destructive power. Such a spotlighting of issues surrounding language endangerment in diverse parts of the world and calls for multilingual education by various contributors to this volume are vitally important in an increasingly globalized world.
-- Peter I. De Costa, Michigan State University, USA * Current Issues in Language Planning, 2017 *
The authors would doubtlessly view any irritation at the stridently polemical tone of this book as exactly what one would expect from the Financial Times, a prominent participant in the anglophone ascendancy. So we should say at once that Why English? has much to recommend it. With schools and universities in Latin America, continental Europe and Asia rushing to embrace English, it is appropriate to ask whether they are going about it in the right way and for the right reasons. A number of authors of this collection have taught English and have classroom experience of what is and isn’t working.
-- Michael Skapinker * Financial Times, September 2016 *
A book that must be read by each and every educator in Pakistan.
-- Zubeida Mustafa * Dawn, November 11th, 2016 *
The varied styles, voices, and experiences of these authors across six continents show both the breadth of the ELT Hydra’s reach and the power of local peoples to resist its seemingly inevitable spread. I look forward to a third book in the series.
-- Traci L. Jordan, Indiana University, USA * AlterNative 2017, Vol. 13(2) 131–135 *
This volume would be a great text for both educators and students to explore the multiple ways and means English has impacted on indigenous language loss.
-- Patrick Coleman, Lincoln University, New Zealand * TESOLANZ Journal, Volume 24, 2016 *
Table of ContentsContributors;
Tove Skutnabb-Kangas: Series Editor’s Foreword;
Pauline Bunce, Robert Phillipson, Vaughan Rapatahana and Ruanni Tupas: Introduction
I: Hydra At Large
1. Alamin Mazrui: The English Language in a Global Context: Between Expansion and Resistance
2. Robert Phillipson: Promoting English: Hydras Old and New
3. Ruanni Tupas: English, Neocolonialism and Forgetting
4. Hywel Coleman: The English Language as Naga in Indonesia
5. Mehdi Boussebaa: Offshore Call Centre Work is Breeding a New Colonialism
II: Hydra Mythology
6. Ryuko Kubota and Tomoyo Okuda: Confronting Language Myths, Linguicism and Racism in English Language Teaching in Japan
7. Hilary Smith: Mr Jones: Mi Laik Askim Yu Samting
8. Phiona Stanley: Must the (Western) Hydra be Blond(e)? Performing Cultural ‘Authenticity’ in Intercultural Education
9. Pauline Bunce: Voluntary Overseas English Language Teaching: A Myopic, Altruistic Hydra
10. Ari Páll Kristinsson: English Language as ‘Fatal Gadget’ in Iceland
11. Bill Templer: The English Hydra as Invader on the Post-Communist ‘New Periphery’ in Bulgaria
12. Pauline Bunce: The English Alphabet: Alpha-Best or Alpha-Beast?
13. Tammy Ho Lai-Ming: ‘Languages’
III: Confronting The Hydra
14. Lindsey Collen and the Ledikasyon Pu Travayer Team: Mauritian Kreol Confronts English and French Hydras
15. Kathleen Heugh, Blasius Agha-ah Chiatoh and Godfrey Sentumbwe: ‘Hydra Languages’ and Exclusion versus Local Languages and Community Participation in three African Countries
16. Zubeida Mustafa: The Destruction of Nadia’s Dream: The English Language Tyrant in Pakistan’s Education System
17. A. Giridhar Rao: The (Illusory) Promise of English in India
IV: Resistance and Cohabitation with The Hydra
18. Aja Y. Martinez: A Personal Reflection on Chican@ Language and Identity in the US-Mexico Borderlands: The English Language Hydra as Past and Present Imperialism
19. Christof Demont-Heinrich: The Struggle to Raise Bilingual Kids in the Belly of the English Hydra Beast: The United States of America
20. Julian Edge: TEFL and International Politics: A Personal Narrative
21. Miklós Kontra: Hungary: A Sham Fight-Back Against the Domination of English
22. Mobo Gao & Vaughan Rapatahana: The English Language as a Trojan Horse within the People’s Republic of China
23. Clarissa Menezes Jordão: TEFL as Hydra: Rescuing Brazilian Teacher Educators from ‘Privilege’
24. Vaughan Rapatahana: ‘Writing back (to the centre)’
Afterword: Ahmed Kabel
