Attitudes to Languages Other Than English in the Context of British

ATTITUDES TO LANGUAGES OTHER THAN ENGLISH IN THE CONTEXT OF BRITISH NATIONALISM Martin Conboy Thesis submitted as part requirement for Ph.D. Institute of Education, University of London, July 1990 Acknowledgements and Thanks Many thanks to those who have helped me materially and with their support over the last four years. Special thanks to my mum for generously donating the funds to buy the machine on which the bulk of the work was produced; to Tina Humphries for allowing me the use of her flat as an office for so long and for putting up with my ranting; to Jimmy and Rosy Lee, the copy-editing cats from Edinburgh; to my brother Mick and John Allan for their advice and help in finding source materials; to Nigel Rosenberg for completing the final task of numbering all those pages; finally to David Harris for his keen eyes and perceptive comments which prevented my taking many a false road. May you all find satisfaction in everything you do. Abstract This thesis is concerned with the negative attitudes of the British towards foreign languages. Though such prejudice could perhaps be illustrated by statistical evidence from secondary schools, examination boards and social surveys, the emphasis of this work lies elsewhere. What will be the prime concern here is an examination of the broader cultural and even political implications for the British of their well-documented inability to be willing to learn foreign languages. I hope to be able to show that nationalism contains a specifically linguistic factor which is able, along with many other factors, to contribute towards the cohesion within British culture. I will examine the exclusivity and the need for self- aggrandisement within nationalism and argue that the British experience of imperialism deepened the potential for such sentiments. It is possible that the experience of being a British English speaker does bind British society in a very special way. It is also possible that this linguistic experience in part defines the British world view. This study will use the three opening chapters to establish a basis on which the evidence of the following five chapters may be judged In order to examine the extent to which such assertions are true a wide net will be cast to gather evidence to prove the hypothesis that the experience of speaking English has defined British culture more specifically than is often thought. Chapters 4 and 5 will examine the effect of certain colonial policy decisions concerning language, not on the societies of the Empire but upon the British themselves. I hope that such examples will illustrate the growing role of language, ironically a much neglected and often invisible partner in the political processes, which formed the views which the British had of themselves and their place in the world. I do not believe that there has ever existed a monolithic body of prejudice towards other languages among the British. Indeed, one of the purposes of this work is to illustrate that the role of the English language within British culture has been developed historically in such a way that any such prejudice often has all the unassailable strength of what appears to be common sense. Until the twentieth century in Britain, it would have been unreasonable to expect any but the ruling imperialist politicians or the colonial administrators to have had anything other than the dimmest appreciation of the existence of languages other than English. This provides a second reason for searching as widely as possible for different sources of evidence. If the development of prejudicial attitudes to foreign languages and their transmission through a society have constituteda long and complex process, then this process must be examined at contrasting periods and levels of society. The chapters on boys' comics and film in the 1930s will show the extent to which attitudes had developed and spread beyond a narrow colonial base. This period has been chosen because it represents the flowering of a truly broad and popular perception of British nationalism as magnified through the experience of imperialism. Immediately before the Second World War, this sense of the strength and worth of the British nation was, arguably, at its height. These chapters will indicate the centripetal role which perceptions of the English language, as contrasted with other languages, played in such a blossoming. Finally, I will present a chapter surveying the position of foreign languages in the British education system in the 1930s. This will provide a counter-balance to attitudes in the popular media of the previous two chapters. In case this thesis might be criticised for merely finding evidence for an already well-known phenomenon, I will attempt to view all such evidence from a special perspective. I will be searching not only for the ideas and attitudes underpinning any prejudice against foreign languages but also the social forces which lie behind them. 3 Abstract p1 Index of Chapters and Contents P4- Chapter One Nationalism Ul Introduction p12 1:2 A Definition p13 1:3 Nationalism and Religion p21 1:4 Nationalism - The Extension of its Base. Printing, Capitalism, Industrial Revolution p26 1:5 Nationalism - Political and Philosophical Background p31 1:6 Nationalism - Dating and Emphasis p35 1:7 Nationalism - Its Values and Limits p40 1:8 Nationalism and Racism p47 1:9 Nationalism and Language p50 1:10 The English Situation p58 1:11 English in the British Isles p65 1:12 Nationalism - Conclusion p72 Chapter Two Imperialism 2:1 Imperialism - Introduction p74 2:2 Imperialism - A Definition p75 2:3 The Cultural Precedents p78 2:4 Naval Power and imperialism psi 2:5 From Nationalism to Imperialism p82 2:6 The Legitimation of Empire p84 2:7 The Cult of Superiority p84 2:8 Popular Legitimation p90 2:9 Imperialism - Conclusion p94 Chapter Three Linguistic Relativity 3:1 Introduction p95 3:2 Linguistic Relativity p97 3:3 The German Tradition p99 3:4 The American Tradition pi08 3:5 Conclusion p112 6 Chapter Four British Attitudes to Languages in India 4:1 Introduction p114 4:2 The Liberal Phase p116 4:3 The Classical-Conservative Phase p121 4:4 The Neo-Liberal Phase p126 4:5 The Anglicist Case p135 4:6 Attitudes in Literature on India p143 4:7 Conclusion p151 7 Chapter Five British Language Policy in the Cape Colony 1806-1834 5:1 Introduction p152 5:2 Historical Background p153 5:3 Initial British Language Policy in the Cape p158 5:4 Cultural Attitudes to European Languages in the Cape p163 5:5 Conclusion p172 Chapter Six Imperialism, Popular Culture and Language Attitudes 6:1 Introduction p173 6:2 Boys' Comics p181 6:3 Boys' Comics pre-1930 6:4 Boys' Comics in the 1930s 193 (i)Attitudes to French p193 (ii) Attitudes to Italian p198 (iii) Attitudes to German p202 (iv)Attitudes to Asian Languages p204 6:5 Attitudes to Languages of the British Empire p209 A) The Foreign Language Environment p211 B) The Languages and Their Context p214 6:6 Conclusion p217 Chapter Seven Attitudes to Foreign Languages in the Cinema of the 1930s 7:1 Introduction p218 7:2 Cinema as an Expression of National Identity p220 7:3 Rhodes of Africa p223 7:4 Sanders of the River 229 7:5 The Four Feathers p237 7:6 The Drum p245 7:7 Conclusion p252 Chapter Eight Foreign Languages and the Educational Establishment in the 19:30s 8: 1 Introduction p253 8:2 Awareness of the Problem p255 8:3 Cultural Blocks to the Learning of Foreign Languages p256 8:4 Structural Blocks to Language Learning p259 8:5 Methodological Blocks to Language Learning p261 8:6 Commerce and Measures to Promote Foreign Language Learning p266 8:7 Conclusion p273 General Conclusion p274 References to Chapters p278 1 1 Chapter One - Nationalism Introduction ( 1:1 ) The fact that the British are poor language learners by the standards of any other major European state is really not open to dispute. Whenever the language learning capacity of the British is mentioned, a great sigh of despondency is almost audible among teachers and increasingly these days among others outside the educational world. Incentive and motivation in language learning seem to be lacking among the British. From school students to tourists and those professionally involved in international trading, competence in a foreign language seems to be an exception rather than a rule. This apparent lack of motivation is rooted in a tradition which because of its longevity seems to have defied any serious analysis. Excuses for this lack of motivation hover between the erroneous impression that all foreigners speak English and a reliance on the past glories of our far-flung Empire to ensure that at least they ought to! It would seem too simplistic to cite the enormously wide usage of English around the world as the only reason for this apparent apathy. Similarly, the wide spread economic concerns of a former colonial power could not, by themselves, explain it away. Yet they may combine with other factors to form a specifically British attitude. This opening chapter will begin by examining the part that language plays in the construction of a national identity. What will be of particular importance to the rest of this study will be any conclusions which can be drawn about the relationship between British nationalism and the English language. Such a relationship may well prove to be a central factor in the chronic inability of the British to learn foreign languages. Nationalism - A Definition ( 1:2 ) Nationalism could be crudely defined as a sense of belonging and a feeling of loyalty shared by a group of people who consider themselves to be a nation.

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