Challenging the Economic and Cultural Currency of English

Abstract

I. INTRODUCTIONthe extensive library of scholarship in sociolinguistics -from language ideology to language practice and language policy -has proven to us in no uncertain terms that english is the world's current linguistic superpower. people study it as a second language because it promises socio-economic mobility and advancement in the global neoliberal market. Nation states around the world have responded with strategic top-down language policies whereby english is now, across all continents, a compulsory element to some extent in formative education (cf. Jenkins et al. 2011; ricento 2015;Spolsky 2009). In the Netherlands, for example, where this chapter was written, children as young as five might start to acquire english in the classroom. this early preparation makes sense. In the Netherlands, english holds ongoing prestige as a lingua franca for european integration and cooperation. Outward-looking Dutch commercial interests are often necessarily english medium, and even tertiary education is increasingly provided through english (Gerritsen et al. 2016). the story in other societies -european or otherwise -is similar. Besides english being a linguistic pivot in the global political economy, the omnipresence and popularity of cultural exports that originate from the anglo world -commonly, but perhaps not affectionately, referred to as the McDonaldization of society (Smart 1999)mean this is not undesired.the purpose of this chapter, however, is to play the devil's advocate to this established view of english. It does this by exploring examples of language ideologies at the local level that are posing challenges to the high status and prestige of english in ways contextualized by local histories, socio-economics and politics. Specifically, the chapter takes us to multilingual Malaysia and bicultural New Zealand as two divergent but nonetheless related case studies. their divergence is perhaps most obvious. Malaysia, at a crossroads in Southeast asia, hosts a Malay-speaking majority and a plethora of heritage languages spoken by its Chinese, Indian and non-Malay indigenous minorities. however, english is the language of Malaysia's internationalized free market economy, and the exploitation of multilingual repertories is the norm. New Zealand, on the other hand, is a predominantly english-speaking nation in the South pacific, but where the BLO_11_BWE2_C011_docbook_new_indd.

Language ideologies in metaphors: Exploring L2 Saudi students’ conceptualization of language mixing as a language practice

“…Perceiving language mixing as an effective tool for the modern e conomy suggests that the students challenged the common discourse that often associates English with economic values at the expense of other languages and linguistic practices. This finding reminds us of Albury (2021) argument that "cracks have emerged in what may otherwise be seen as the ironclad universal status of English." (p. 189).…”