297. Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove (2013). Entry ” Robert Phillipson”. the Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, General Editor Carol A
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297. Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove (2013). Entry ” Robert Phillipson”. The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, General Editor Carol A. Chapelle, area editor Joseph Lo Bianco. Malden, MA: Blackwell. DOI: 10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal1073. Title: Robert Phillipson Author: Tove Skutnabb-Kangas Robert Phillipson was born in the United Kingdom in 1942. He was a chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral Choir School in London from 1950 to 1956 (the choir toured the United States for two months in 1953), after which he was a scholar at Cranbrook School in Kent. In 1961 he spent six months in Austria, Germany and France before studying at the University of Cambridge. He completed a BA in Modern Languages and Law in 1964, and was employed by the British Council from 1964 to 1973. Robert Phillipson (RP) trained as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language at the British Institute in Madrid, Spain, and from 1965 to 1968 was attached to the British Institute in Algiers and various Algerian higher education institutions. This involvement in a country that had recently achieved independence kindled a lifelong interest in colonialism, language policy, and efforts to achieve a more just world order. RP studied for an MA in Linguistics and English Language Teaching at the University of Leeds 1968-69. His thesis was on intonation in court cross-examination, using recordings from the Survey of English Usage at University College, London. This was an early effort at studying language in context before discourse analysis and forensic linguistics became established. He also took an elective course in African literature in English. From 1969 to 1972 RP was attached to the British Council in Yugoslavia, with responsibility for organizing and teaching on in-service training courses for teachers of English, in partnership with the Yugoslav authorities in each republic, and a colleague at the US embassy. From August 1972 he was employed for a year in London at the English-Teaching Information Centre as head of a unit collecting and disseminating information on English teaching in Europe. This work was funded by the British government as a result of the UK joining the European Union (then the European Economic Community) as a member state in 1973. RP emigrated to Denmark in 1973. He was briefly employed at the University of Copenhagen, where he collaborated with Danish scholars on a large empirical study of the learning of English in Danish education. This led to the book Learner language and language learning, (Færch, Haastrup and Phillipson 1984), which was published in both the UK and Denmark. RP was employed at the University of Roskilde from 1973 to 2000. The university was a revolutionary educational experiment, with multidisciplinary student group projects as the main system of learning, and a requirement that fundamental academic disciplines should be integrated into problem-oriented, methodologically explicit reports. RP was deeply involved in university administration, with lengthy periods as Head of the Department of Languages and Culture, Dean of Humanities, and chair of PhD studies for the whole university. He was appointed as Research Professor at Copenhagen Business School in 2000, where he is now professor emeritus. RP has published extensively on a wide range of language policy topics but is probably still best known for his path-breaking book Linguistic imperialism, published by Oxford University Press in 1992. This had its origins in a doctoral thesis that was awarded a distinction at the University of Amsterdam in 1990. The book has also been published in China and India, and in translation into Arabic. Many factors led to the elaboration of a work that sees English teaching in wider political and economic contexts, past and present: first-hand experience of British and American promotion of English worldwide, including access to the British Council’s confidential files; a realization, largely triggered by scholars from ‘Third World’ countries, that dependence on Western ‘aid’ was perpetuating inequality locally and globally, with educational language policy playing a decisive role; experiencing that Scandinavian donors were providing refugees from apartheid with English learning materials from the UK that were inappropriate culturally and linguistically; and inspiration from the work of his wife, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, in theorizing how inequality by means of language, linguicism, could lead to the analysis of how structures and ideologies of English linguistic imperialism could be approached. She and RP have edited several books and written scores of articles together. Linguistic imperialism was controversial because it challenged the dominant paradigm of English teaching as a technocratic, apolitical task. The book reveals that the Anglo-American English teaching business is essentially determined by geopolitical and commercial interests. In language teaching a key set of tenets (monolingualism, the native speaker as the ideal teacher, the earlier the better, etc.) is shown by scholarship on language learning and multilingualism to be fundamentally false. The book has maintained its relevance because these ideas are still influential, especially in Asian countries - where importing native speakers has not significantly improved the learning of English – and in other parts of the world. Many developments have continued the global dominance of English into the neoimperial world of the early 21st century. Central among them are the place of English at the top of a hierarchy of languages in most international fora, the prevalence of education solely through the medium of English in many postcolonial contexts (against solid research evidence), the mushrooming of English-medium universities worldwide, and the myth of English as a ‘lingua franca’ serving all equally well. The book Linguistic imperialism continued (Routledge 2009) brings together articles and book reviews written by RP since 2000 that explore such issues and also develop a theoretical framework for analyzing contemporary patterns of linguistic imperialism. The linguistic capital that English represents, and which accounts for its popularity, can be converted into other types of capital, economic and political. But linguistic capital accumulation, like other types of capital accumulation, typically involves processes of dispossession of the capital of speakers of other languages. Hence the importance of language policy formation, nationally and internationally, in order to maintain linguistic diversity along with other types of diversity, in ecolinguistic balance. One means of counteracting linguistic imperialism is through ensuring observance of principles of linguistic human rights. Elaboration of this as a field of scholarly activity, in tandem with political struggles for more respect for human rights, has required looking in depth at the evolution of relevant national and international laws, and making a case for language rights as fundamental human rights. This is now increasingly accepted, though the struggle for the implementation of such rights is uphill in most parts of the world, as can be seen from the many contributions to two co-edited anthologies, Linguistic human rights: overcoming linguistic discrimination (1994), and Language, a right and a resource. Approaching linguistic human rights (1999). The edited volume Rights to language. Equity, power and education (2000) has 50 contributors, from anthropology, applied linguistics, communication, discourse analysis, economics, education, law, linguistics, media studies, policy analysis, political science, psychology, social theory, and sociolinguistics, as well as creative writers. RP has always seen multi- and transdisciplinary work as necessary. The expanding role of English in continental Europe has been a major interest since the 1990s. RP spent half a year studying language policy in Australia, India and Singapore as a stepping- stone towards the analysis of how an increased use of English interlocks with the intensive integration of the European Union, both in EU institutions and in member states. The EU has expanded from a small set of six countries in the 1950s to 27 member states in 2010, with 23 official and working languages. The management of multilingualism, nationally and internationally, in speech (assisted by interpretation) and writing (through translation) is therefore complex. Market forces risk strengthening English at the expense of all other languages, hence the need for explicit language policy formation so as to maintain linguistic diversity as well as ensuring effective international collaboration. English-only Europe? Challenging language policy (Routledge 2003) covers the history of (some) languages in Europe, global trends impacting on European language policy, language use in EU institutions, criteria for equitable communication, and recommendations for action on language policies. RP has been attached to universities in Cambridge, UK, Hungary, Australia, and India. He continues to collaborate with Indian scholars (see Social justice through multilingual education, 2009). He has been invited to guest lecture and advise on language policy in most parts of the world. He has functioned as an expert for the Commission of the European Union, evaluating projects concerned with promoting multilingualism, as well as applications for research funding on language policy topics. RP has contributed dozens of entries to various encyclopedias, handbooks, etc. and written some 200 book chapters and journal