Hard Work, Growth Mindset, Fluent English

Highet, Katy; Percio, Alfonso Del

doi:10.4324/9780367815172-7

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Despite the fractured, unequally valued, and heterogeneous nature of various Indian English practices (Ramanathan, 2015)—which are often linked to bifurcated types of schooling (vernacular‐medium versus English‐medium; government schools versus private or “convent” schools), English continues to be reified and objectified as a desirable object that can provide its speakers with cultural capital, prestige, and pride (Proctor, 2015). The association of English with a particular middle‐classness is so potent (Highet and Del Percio, 2021a, 2021b) that the inability to command the language comes to be perceived as the only obstacle to social mobility: “the reason for their social backwardness” (Roy, 2015, 525). While many have shown this promise to be somewhat elusive and misleading (Duchêne and Daveluy, 2015; Highet, 2022; Tabiola and Lorente, 2017), the supply of and demand for English education and training centers have boomed over the last few decades.…”

Section: Colonial and Classed Contours Of English In Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“RIPEnglish”: Race, class and ‘good English’ in India

Highet

2023

J Linguistic Anthropol

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This article explores how metapragmatic discourses on “good” and “bad” English in India are mobilized in ways that allow actors to negotiate their status as English speakers. Adopting an intersectional framework that highlights the relationality of colonial, racialized, and classed claims to authority, the article shows how the co‐naturalization of language and race shapes assessments of competency and legitimacy and how this is mitigated through anti‐Blackness and appeals to class status. These judgments of “good” and “bad” English work to reassert and undermine racialized authority over the language and position actors within an imagined, global stratified community of speakers. This ambivalent positioning not only helps actors negotiate relational legitimacy as English speakers but also works strategically to benefit certain speakers and reproduce colonial, class, and racial orders.

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Section: Colonial and Classed Contours Of English In Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“RIPEnglish”: Race, class and ‘good English’ in India

Highet

2023

J Linguistic Anthropol

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“…In the postindependence period, the hierarchies of colonialism were replicated because children of the Anglophone elite who could afford to attend high-quality English-medium schools were given differential access to government and privatesector jobs at home and abroad (Annamalai 2004, Sandhu 2016). In the past two decades, processes of globalization and neoliberalism have led to an ever-increasing demand for English education among people of all ethnic, religious, caste, class, and gender backgrounds (Highet & Del Percio 2021, Lukose 2009, Proctor 2014.…”

Section: Global Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

South Asian Language Practices: Mother Tongue, Medium, and Media

LaDousa

Davis

2022

Annu. Rev. Anthropol.

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Scholars such as Murray Emeneau and John Gumperz made India prominent in the development of sociolinguistics as a field of study through their simultaneous attention to difference and cohesiveness. Later, scholars stressed the ideological mediation of practice, especially the importance of colonial constructions that continue to be relevant in the postcolonial period. Work on specific notions such as mother tongue and medium of instruction, and the salience of English, led scholars to provide insights into multilingual practices in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Finally, a vast scholarship on an array of older and newer media forms ranging from early print publications to social media has posed questions about the possibilities of representation and participation. Ethnographic approaches to digital media that focus on the complex dynamics between ideologies and practices have put South Asia at the forefront of studies of communication. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Anthropology Volume 51 is October 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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“…Throughout India, proficiency in written and spoken English is widely understood to be a prerequisite for higher education, which is almost entirely in English, and for access to lucrative government and private sector employment (Faust and Nagar 2001; Jayaram 1993; Proctor 2014; Ramanathan 1997; Rubdy 2008; Verma 1994). In the last few decades, processes of globalization and neoliberalism have led to an increased demand for English‐medium education among people of all ethnic, caste, and class backgrounds, further fueling the rise in numbers of private schools (Bhattacharya and Jiang 2022; Highet and Del Percio 2021).…”

Section: Mother Tongue and English In Postcolonial Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Postcolonial Language Ideologies: Indian Students Reflect on Mother Tongue and English

LaDousa

Davis

Choksi

2022

J Linguistic Anthropol

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The 2020 National Education Policy (NEP) proposes a revision to the Indian education system. The document foregrounds “mother tongue,” a concept that has been highly salient in India since the mid‐nineteenth century, by specifying that students should learn in it. But it makes little mention of English, despite its importance, and the desire for it, at every level of education. The construction of nation and language in the NEP begs a question: how do the constructions, foci, and relative silences of policy resonate with people's understandings and uses of languages? This article incorporates interviews at an engineering university in western India, the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, to examine graduate students' reflections on mother tongue in relation to their multilingual practices on campus and at home. The students exhibited a range of ideological perspectives on mother tongue and English that are not addressed in policy measures. Using the heuristic of postcolonial semiotics, we show that the students were unable to simultaneously identify with the nation (via mother tongue) and English. We contribute to linguistic anthropology and South Asian studies by foregrounding people's metadiscourse in how they make sense of, and ultimately problematize, constructions of colonial and postcolonial policy.

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Hard Work, Growth Mindset, Fluent English

Cited by 8 publications

References 1 publication

“RIPEnglish”: Race, class and ‘good English’ in India

“RIPEnglish”: Race, class and ‘good English’ in India

South Asian Language Practices: Mother Tongue, Medium, and Media

Postcolonial Language Ideologies: Indian Students Reflect on Mother Tongue and English

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