A Political Sociology of the World Language System (1)

Abstract

This first of two installments, the second of which will appear in LPLP 22/2, opens with a section providing a broad sketch of the evolving world language system. The next section introduces an index for the communication potential (Q-value) of languages within this constellation. The third section identifies languages as collective goods that also display "external network effects", charac teristics they share with standards and non-excludable communication networks: "hypercollective goods". The collective cultural capital of a language group consists of the totality of accumulated texts accessible in the language and carries the same hypercollective properties.

WhenEnglish just is not enough: ‘Multilingualism withEnglish’ in contemporaryEuropean higher education

“…Such programmes provide a powerful means of redressing a competitive disadvantage that non‐English‐native‐speaking countries suffer in the market for international students, where the US and UK are the undisputed leaders by a significant margin (Maiworm and Wächter ). Such moves towards an “Englishization” (McArthur : 335) of higher education in Europe reflect global sociolinguistic changes favouring the development of English as the most used language of international communication (De Swaan , ; Crystal , ; Graddol ) and a dominant lingua franca of science. This global linguistic arrangement has led to the emergence of an ideology in multiple scientific communities across disciplines of “publish in English or perish” (Viereck : 20).…”

Hold Your Courses: Language Education, Language Choice, and Economic Development

“…This fact increases the chance that-because economic growth is not a zero-sum game, with one participant destined to lose out if another gains-the wealth born of increased exchanges will accrue to the community of participants in these exchanges. Clearly, English plays a key role in this process, and its position as the tool of choice for worldwide communication is probably unassailable (de Swaan, 1998). Thus, it is proper for English language educators to concern themselves not only with designing appropriate pedagogies for each setting but also with guarding against the negative side effects of bringing languages and cultures of unequal power into contact.…”

Language and Aging in Multilingual Contexts, Edited by Kees de Bot and Sinfree Makoni

“…These frameworks include the linguistic imperialism postulate (e.g. Crystal 1997;Phillipson 1992) and the global language system hypothesis, which explains the ascendancy of English as a lingua franca of an emergent transnational society (de Swaan 1998(de Swaan , 2001. Each of these hypotheses benefits from lucid, in-depth treatment, with the author laying out the arguments, exposing the caveats, and discussing the implications for de facto language policy.…”