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The Role of Applied ELT in Globalization 1. Introduction

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The Role of Applied ELT in Globalization 1. Introduction Archive of SID The Role of Applied ELT in Globalization Zeinab Azizi Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Abstract Globalization is profoundly recognized as a social structure that transforms the lives of people around the world and also links their lives to global interrelations. Today the world is called as a global village which described how the globe has been contracted into a village and how the instantaneous movement of information from every quarter to every point at the same time happened. In fact globalization as a concept refers both to the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole…both concrete global interdependence and consciousness of the global whole in the twentieth century. The role of life syllabus in globalization in all its diverse forms of world-wide interconnection is a crucial point in this research which tries to manifest how the process of globalization will be relieved by the aid of Applied ELT by focusing on the life syllabus in a variety of ways. Pishghadam (2011) introduced a new type of syllabus which directed English teachers to give priority to life issues rather than language in class. In fact, another significant aspect of applied ELT, according to Pishghadam (2011), is that it goes beyond the typical linguistic syllabus considering life issues as against linguistic matters as its top priority. This new syllabus is dubbed as life syllabus. It is also need to be understood in terms of how they operate in conjunction with one another to transform human life fundamentally. The current study is an attempt to see how Applied ELT helps globalization as something less monolithic, something that is being contested and reworked, something that ties the world together in a range of both constraining and empowering ways, something that is constantly changing, and something that therefore can also be changed. Key words: Aspects of globalization (social, cultural, philosophical), Imperialism, Advantages and disadvantages of globalization, Applied ELT 1. Introduction Globalization, according to Bhatt (2008), represents a new, post-traditional order, forging new identities, institutions and ways of life. It is ‘the way we live now’, in a worldwide network of social relations, seemingly unfettered by the constraints of geography. And yet the situation is almost certainly more complex: while no one would deny that global flows of capital, of people(s) and of cultural products (e.g. media, language or music) have increased dramatically in their intensity and reach over recent years, it is hardly the case that national boundaries have evaporated, or that geography no longer matters. Fass (2007) believes that while globalization is 1 www.SID.ir Archive of SID having effects worldwide, those effects are neither the same everywhere nor having uniform consequences. Globalization has certain identifiable characteristics, although there is no consensus in the held about any of them! In the first place, it involves a growing consciousness of the world as a single place. This is reflected in phrases such as ‘the global village’ and ‘the global economy’. Few places are more than a day’s travel away and communication across territorial borders is now almost instantaneous. In 1980 there were about 1 million international travelers per day. In 2000 more than 3 million people crossed territorial borders as tourists each day (Griffiths & Callaghan, 2002). There is no agreement among scholars as to the origins of globalization. It has been dated as far back as the dawn of Western civilization. Some look to the origins of the modern state system for signs of globalization, while others speak about the significance of the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable in the mid-nineteenth century. Nevertheless, what distinguishes globalization today is the intensity and the speed at which these changes are occurring. The causes of globalization are many. Among the most important are liberal capitalism and the revolution in information and communications technologies. Liberal capitalism simply refers to the conjunction of liberal values (freedom, human rights, individualism, and democracy) with an economic system based on the market. This world view is widely held to have triumphed over communism and the idea of a planned economy, resulting in an international environment conducive to the free movement of capital and goods. 2. Aspects of Globalization 2.1.Social aspect of globalization The social dimension of globalization refers to the impact of globalization on the life and work of people, on their families, and their societies. Concerns and issues are often raised about the impact of globalization on employment, working conditions, income and social protection. Beyond the world of work, the social dimension encompasses security, culture and identity, inclusion or exclusion and the cohesiveness of families and communities. Globalization refers to the increasing integration of production, development and communication among nations on a worldwide scale. Globalization is often divided into three categories: economic, political and social. Though all three are interdependent, economic and political forces are usually the driving factors of globalization, while social changes generally occur as a result of those activities. Social globalization pertains to human interaction within cultural communities, encompassing topics like family, religion, work and education. Social globalization refers to the interconnectedness of societies around the world (Datko, 2011). 2 www.SID.ir Archive of SID Globalization brings new potentials for development and wealth creation. But there are divergent views and perceptions among people as concerns its economic and social impact, and indeed widely varying impacts on the interests and opportunities of different sectors and economic and social actors. Some argue that the present model of globalization has exacerbated problems of unemployment, inequality and poverty, while others contend that globalization helps to reduce them. Of course, these problems predated globalization, but it is clear that for globalization to be politically and economically sustainable, it must contribute to their reduction. Hence the goal of a globalization meets the needs of all people. 2.2.Cultural aspect of globalization Pajagopalan (2008) believes the idea that languages are indissociably tied to specific cultures is very much part of popular imagination. It is one of the leftovers of the mindset typical of the 19th century. And many theories about language have also incorporated the idea. “World English” (WE) belongs to everybody who speaks it, but it is nobody’s mother tongue.’ Pajagopalan (2008, p 185) cites as follows: “And, furthermore, WE is a linguistic phenomenon that is altogether sui generis . It defies our time-honoured view of language which is structured around the unargued assumption that every natural language is typically spoken by a community of native speakers, and exceptionally, or marginally by a group of non- natives. There is no such thing as a single culture backing up what is called “World English”. And the simple reason is that World English has no native speakers. According to McArthur (2002), not that it is culturally neutral or that it knows no culture. Rather, it is multicultural in its very essence”. Our experience of the world is not a universally homogeneous phenomenon; rather, people across different cultural groups conceptualize at least some experiences differently. This extends to their internal as well as external experiences. Anthropologists have provided ample evidence of this from various cultural groups. Human languages play a significant role in these culturally constructed conceptualizations, or cultural conceptualizations in that language embodies preserves and communicates these conceptualizations. Hutchins (1995, as cited in Sharifan, 2008) considers that a group’s cultural cognition is more than the sum of the cognitive systems of its members. Cultural cognition is an emergent property of the interaction between members of a cultural group. Speakers across cultural groups develop their own cultural conceptualizations through their communicative interactions, and constantly negotiate and renegotiate them across time and space. These conceptualizations are by no means equally imprinted in the minds of the members of a cultural group but are rather heterogeneously distributed across the group, and as such ‘cultural cognition’ is a form of ‘distributed cognition’. 3 www.SID.ir Archive of SID The relevance of cultural conceptualizations to the global spread of English and the case of World Englishes is that many speakers use English to express and encode the conceptualizations of their culture of origin. This results in the localization of English, or, in other words, the development of new Englishes. A critical analysis of the relevant literature, according to Kumaravadivelu (2006), reveals the emergence of three overlapping schools of thought. Members of the first school, represented by political theorist Benjamin Barber, sociologist George Ritzer and others, believe that some kind of cultural homogenization is taking place in which the American culture of consumerism constitutes the dominant center. They see a simple and direct equation: Globalization = Westernization = Americanization = McDonaldization. That is, they consider globalization predominantly a process of Westernization which, in their view, is not substantially different
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