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English Language as Hydra: Its Impacts on Non-English Language Cultures
Author(s): Vaughan Rapatahana (Editor), Pauline Bunce
- Publisher: Multilingual Matters
- Publication Date: 15 Jun. 2012
- Language: English
- Print length: 304 pages
- ISBN-10: 1847697496
- ISBN-13: 9781847697493
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
A wonderful and rewarding collection of contributions which critically examine how English can take over the language curriculum in schools throughout the world, almost always at the expense of other languages.
English Language as Hydra is both poignant and honest in its reasoned and passionate evocation of this language's entrenched link with some of the ills of the world and its impact on speakers' subjectivities.
English Language as Hydra opens our eyes to how empires and imperialism operate through linguistic ideologies and discourse strategies as powerful tools of domination - often with the active participation of the leaders of subaltern peoples and minorities.
English Language As Hydra is a useful reminder of the political dimensions of the cultural sphere and a fascinating crtique of the cognitive processes which accompany globalisation. This is an important book for anyone interested in the dynamics of education, culture and politics in a globalised world.
In Greek mythology, the swamp-dwelling monster Hydra, is almost invincible, with its multiple heads that grow back after being cut off. Such is the power of the English language on the users it dominates. The English language as Hydra is the central image presented in this collection of case studies about how the language was used and manipulated in various parts of the world. As the case studies reveal, English linguistic imperialism does exist in various parts of the world. Still, the authors of the chapters are careful not to present the language per se as monster, but the agents and the attitudes that perpetuate its dominance at the expense of other languages. In addition, for most of the chapters, there are descriptions of various forms of resistanceto English as Hydra. Thus, while the book is a stern reminder to all who embrace English as decontextualizedand neutral, it is also recognition of human agency, as well as of critical and intelligent responses to English linguistic imperialism among stakeholders of the language.
Read it if you can: it is an important bookthat highlights some of the damaging effects of the global spread of English, a phenomenon in which our industry is complicit.
The book offers fresh and concrete evidence that the hydra stalks the postcolonial world pervasively and persistently.
The chapter contributors, including literary heavyweights Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and Muhammad Haji Salleh, make the figurative connections between the Hydra's many indestructible heads and the highly destructive forces that English teaching exerts on non-dominant languages and cultures around the world.
The engaged and politically accountable scholarship exhibited in this volume offer both example and hope for creating a more equitable linguistic world order.
This book does offer a different perspective on the impact of learning English in non-English speaking countries. It gives readers another point of view as most might only look at the positive influence of English on the society in terms of the economic and social benefits, and overlook the negative impact it has on local cultures and indigenous languages. Hence, this book would be of interest not only to language policy makers but also English language teacher trainers and teachers who need to be aware of these important issues.
This book is thus an important one, which all language planners, ministers of education, English educators and other related authorities should be encouraged to read.
About the Author
Vaughan Rapatahana was born in Patea, Aotearoa-New Zealand. He has a doctorate from the University of Auckland and he has worked as a teacher in the Republic of Nauru, Brunei Darussalam, the United Arab Emirates, China and Hong Kong. He has written widely in a variety of genres, and is the author of several books, collections of poems and poetry teaching resources.
Pauline Bunce is an Australian teacher who has worked in Sri Lanka, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Her doctoral research with Charles Darwin University in Australia and her regular feature articles in the South China Morning Post have had a major influence on English teaching practices in Hong Kong.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
English Language as Hydra
Its Impacts on Non-English Language Cultures
By Vaughan Rapatahana, Pauline Bunce
Multilingual Matters
Copyright © 2012 Vaughan Rapatahana, Pauline Bunce and the authors of individual chapters
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84769-749-3
Contents
Contributors,
Acknowledgements,
Series Editor's Note Tove Skutnabb-Kangas,
The Genesis of this Book Vaughan Rapatahana and Pauline Bunce,
Foreword Robert Phillipson,
Introduction: English Language as Thief Vaughan Rapatahana,
1 The Challenge – Ndaraca ya Thiomi: Languages as Bridges Nguugi wa Thiong'o,
2 English Language as Bully in the Republic of Nauru Xavier Barker,
3 Out of Sight, Out of Mind ... and Out of Line: Language Education in the Australian Indian Ocean Territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands aa a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a Pauline Bunce,
4 English Language as Juggernaut – Aboriginal English and Indigenous Languages in Australia Robyn Ober and Jeanie Bell,
5 English Language as Nemesis for Maori Graham Hingangaroa Smith and Vaughan Rapatahana,
6 A Personal Reflection: New Zealand Maori and English Tamati Cairns,
7 The Malchemy of English in Sri Lanka: Reinforcing Inequality through Imposing Extra-Linguistic Value Arjuna Parakrama,
8 English Language as Governess: Expatriate English Teaching Schemes in Hong Kong Eugene Chen Eoyang, Pauline Bunce and Vaughan Rapatahana,
9 English Language as Auntie: Of 'Good Intentions' and a Pedagogy of Possibilities – ELT in the Philippines and its Effects on Children's Literacy Development Lalaine F. Yanilla Aquino,
10 It's Not Always English: 'Duelling Aunties' in Brunei Darussalam Noor Azam Haji-Othman,
11 English Language as Siren Song: Hope and Hazard in Post-Apartheid South Africa Sandra Land,
12 English Language as Border-Crossing: Longing and Belonging in the South Korean Experience Joseph Sung-Yul Park,
13 English and Mandarin in Singapore: Partners in Crime? Rani Rubdy,
14 English Language as Intruder: The Effects of English Language Education in Colombia and South America – a Critical Perspective Anne-Marie de Mejía,
Afterword: Could Heracles Have Gone About Things Differently? Alastair Pennycook,
Coda: One Colonial Language: One Great Tragic Epic. English in Malaysia and Beyond Muhammad Haji Salleh,
CHAPTER 1
The Challenge – Ndaraca ya Thiomi: Languages as Bridges
Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Andu amwe moigaga ati thiomi nyingi thiini wa bururi kana wa thi ni ta nyumba ya mbamberi, atiuiguwano gatagatiini ka miikarire na ka nduriri no urehirwo ni gukorwo andu makiaria ruthiomi rumwe tu. uguo ti gwo ma. Kiria kiagiriire ni thiomi kwaraniria, hatari uhoro wa imwe kuhinyiriria iria ingi ... Thiomi ihane ta ndaraca cia kunyitithania miikarire.
Some people argue that many languages in a country or in the world can make a house of Babel; they believe that understanding between cultures and among nations can only be brought about by speaking one language. I don't believe that to be the truth. What is important is for languages to be able to communicate without a few of them dominating others. Languages can become bridges.
A bridge assumes an existing gulf, almost impassable ordinarily, between two entities. A bridge enables crossings across the gulf. The nature of the gulf dictates the design and architecture of the bridge. A recognition and close assessment of the gulf is essential in determining the kind of bridge that is needed. In other words, do not spend your resources and energy building bridges where there are no gulfs to cross. A bridge enables a constant to-and-fro between two entities – in short, it enables crossings, transitions and even continuities. In other words, a bridge is not a one-way crossing, for exodus only. The image of the bridge, therefore, brings to the fore the intellectual and artistic wealth that could be an enormous commonwealth, if we built bridges to enable crossings.
The opposite of a bridge is a wall, a barrier, that which bars contact and exchange, or if there is contact and exchange, it is that of a horse and its rider. Remember that between the horse and the rider there is plenty of contact, exchange and even a flow of trust and affection. But the structural basis of their relationship is that of a dictator and the dictated. Uneven power relationships, even those enabling contact, can be barriers to mutually beneficial crossings, transitions and continuities between languages and cultures.
Unfortunately, relationships between languages have not always been characterized by the image of the bridge, but by that of the wall. This is the wall of the inequality of power. The inequality has its basis in economics and politics, but philosophically, its roots lie in the conception of a relationship between languages in terms of a hierarchy: a kind of linguistic feudalism and linguistic Darwinism.
Linguistic and cultural feudalism is the view, consciously or unconsciously held, that some languages – between and even within nations – are of a higher order than others; that they constitute an aristocracy, while others – in a descending order of being – occupy lesser positions, different degrees of minionage. This is because the dominant languages have become perceived, even by the dominated, as having all the magic power of knowledge and the production of ideas – culture itself – whereas the dominated languages are seen as having the opposite. They are seen as incapable of producing knowledge, good ideas and good art.
This perception has nothing to do with the inherent powers of languages. It has been brought about by a historical process. In my book, Decolonising the Mind, published in 1984, I told the story of my relationship to my mother tongue, Gikuyu, and my language of education, English. English was also the official language of the colonial state. I told how we used to be punished when we were caught speaking an African language in the school compound. We were humiliated by being made to carry a piece we called 'Monitor' around our necks, literally stating that we were stupid. Thus, humiliation and negativity were attached to African languages in the learning process. A good performance in English, on the other hand, was greeted with acclaim. Two things were taking place in the cognitive process: a positive affirmation of English as a means of intellectual production and a criminalisation of African languages as means of knowledge production. With English, went pride; with African languages, shame. For a long time, I used to think that this was an African problem.
But some years ago, when I was researching my new book, Something Torn and New, I found out that what was done to Africans had already been done to the Welsh. In the 19th century, Welsh children caught speaking their mother tongue in the school compound were also humiliated by being made to carry something around their necks with the initials, 'W.N.' (Welsh Not). At the very least, my colonial story had been re-enacted in Wales.
Even earlier than Wales was the case of the relationship between the English and the Irish languages. English colonial settlement was first tried out in Ireland in the 16th century. But the English were finding it difficult to conquer the Irish or, rather, to tame them. In 1598, Edmund Spenser – a contemporary of Shakespeare and the celebrated author of The Fairie Queene...
