The Politics of English Studies in World Language Problems
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The Politics of English Studies in World Language Problems Studies in World Language Problems (WLP) focuses on political, sociological, and economic aspects of language and language use. It is especially concerned with relationships between and among language communities, particularly in international contexts, and in the adaptation, manipulation, and standardization of language for international use. It aims to publish monographs and edited volumes that deal with language policy, language management, and language use in international organizations, multinational enterprises, etc., and theoretical studies on global communication, language interaction, and language conflict. Published in cooperation with the Centre for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems. For an overview of all books published in this series, please see http://benjamins.com/catalog/wlp General Editor Humphrey Tonkin University of Hartford Editorial Board E. Annamalai François Grin Central Institute of Indian Languages University of Geneva Richard B. Baldauf, Jr. Kimura Goro University of Queensland Sophia University, Tokyo Ina Druviete Timothy Reagan University of Latvia Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan Mark Fettes Simon Fraser University, Vancouver Volume 4 The Politics of English. South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Asia Pacific Edited by Lionel Wee, Robbie B.H. Goh and Lisa Lim The Politics of English South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Asia Pacific Edited by Lionel Wee Robbie B.H. Goh National University of Singapore Lisa Lim University of Hong Kong John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam / Philadelphia TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of 8 the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The politics of English : South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Asia Pacific / edited by Lionel Wee, Robbie B.H. Goh and Lisa Lim. p. cm. (Studies in World Language Problems, issn 1572-1183 ; v. 4) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. English language--Political aspects--Asia. 2. English language--Variation--Asia. 3. English language--Asia--Usage. 4. English language--Foreign countries. 5. Language and culture--Asia. I. Wee, Lionel, 1963- editor of compilation. II. Goh, Robbie B. H., 1964- editor of compilation. III. Lim, Lisa, editor of compilation. PE3501.P65 2013 306.44095--dc23 2012049584 isbn 978 90 272 2835 2 (Hb ; alk. paper) isbn 978 90 272 7213 3 (Eb) © 2013 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa Table of contents Preface vii 1. Language policies, language ideologies and local language practices 1 Alastair Pennycook Part I. South Asia 2. The politics of Hinglish 21 Anjali Gera Roy 3. Globalization and multilingualism: Text types in the linguistic ecology of Delhi 37 Viniti Vaish 4. Kaduva of privileged power, instrument of rural empowerment? The politics of English (and Sinhala and Tamil) in Sri Lanka 61 Lisa Lim 5. The interface of language, literature and politics in Sri Lanka: A paradigm for ex-colonies of Britain 81 D. C. R. A. Goonetilleke Part II. Southeast Asia 6. Governing English in Singapore: Some challenges for Singapore’s language policy 105 Lionel Wee 7. Uncertain locale: The dialectics of space and the cultural politics of English in Singapore 125 Robbie B. H. Goh 8. The encroachment of English in Malaysian cultural expression 145 Ismail S. Talib vi The Politics of English 9. “They think speaking in English isn’t good, you know”: Negotiating bilingual identities in the Malay community 167 Joanne Rajadurai 10. The grip of English and Philippine language policy 187 Beatriz P. Lorente 11. Nimble tongues: Philippine English and the feminization of labour 205 Maria Teresa Tinio Part III. Asia Pacific 12. English vs. English conversation: Language teaching in modern Japan 227 Mie Hiramoto 13. Language policy and practice in English loanwords in Japanese 249 Emi Morita 14. English speakers in Korea: A short literary history 269 Eun Kyung Min 15. English, class and neoliberalism in South Korea 287 Joseph Sung-Yul Park 16. Conclusion 303 Lionel Wee, Lisa Lim and Robbie B. H. Goh Contributors 317 Index 321 Preface In August 2009, the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore hosted a workshop on “The Politics of English in Asia: Language Policy and Cultural Expression”. The participants of the workshop consisted of established and emerging scholars. All were especially invited on the basis of their expert knowledge of specific Asian countries. The format of that workshop was simple yet extraordinarily effective: each country was discussed by at least two different authors, one providing a critical assessment of that country’s language policy on English, and the other an analysis of the use of English in some cultural domain(s). The discussion that followed was lively, insightful and provocative, resulting in a heightened appreciation of the issues facing various Asian countries and also lead- ing to a general interest in cross-comparisons across these countries. This collection of essays is inspired by that workshop. We say “inspired” because these essays are not proceedings that directly reflect what went on in the workshop. Rather, subsequent to the workshop, the authors writing about a particular country were asked to read each other’s essays, engage with the ideas therein, and revise their essays accordingly. Moreover, not all the essays in this volume have their origins in the workshop, and a few significant workshop presen- tations are not part of this volume. Elaine Ho and Arjuna Parakrama, who spoke about Hong Kong and Sri Lanka respectively (and Kingsley Bolton who was ulti- mately unable to participate in the workshop with his essay on Hong Kong) were unable to contribute their essays to this collection, and their absence from this volume is regrettable. We feel very fortunate however to be able to complement the other Sri Lanka essay by including an essay by renowned Sri Lanka scholar D. C. R. A. Goonetilleke, which is a revised version of an essay that first appeared as “The Interface of Language, Literature and Politics in Sri Lanka” in The Politics of English as a World Language: New Horizons in Postcolonial Cultural Studies, edited by Christian Mair (2003). In this regard, we thank Rodopi, and Ms Esther Roth, for kindly granting permission to reprint this essay. Nevertheless, the organization of this volume does reflect the successful format adopted in the workshop. Consequently, the essays here can be seen to engage a number of related concerns: the ways in which the language policies of Asian countries attempt to manage the presence of English, and how the states of viii The Politics of English affairs envisaged in these policies compare with actual English language practices in these countries. These concerns are not new, of course. Indeed, various scholars in earlier works have observed that a recurring challenge for language policies in Asia is managing the presence of English (Pennycook 1994; Rappa and Wee 2006; Tsui and Tollefson 2007), with the English language still having strong association with higher education, internationalism, modernity, job mobility and career development in all Asian societies (Bolton 1992). Most of the studies in this area to date have focused mainly on the domain of education. What is needed, there- fore, is a broader-based coverage of the different social domains in which English is making its presence felt. This is an issue of increasing importance, and it takes on a special resonance as Asian countries grow – in their demographic profile, with the total English-using population of Asia now more than that of the Inner Circle, and English the main medium in demand for bi-/multilingualism in the region (Kachru 2005: 15), in economic importance, and in cultural confidence – in what is sometimes described as the “Asian Century”. The present collection of essays provides this much needed broad coverage. The countries discussed come from South Asia (India, Sri Lanka), Southeast Asia (Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore) and the Asia Pacific region (Japan, South Korea), and thus represent different levels of penetration of English in the different societies. The domains discussed range from political discourse to language teaching to creative writing, and the tensions therein. Inevitably, in a volume such as this, it has not been possible to cover every single country that might be considered “Asian”. Whatever the final choice of countries, we realize that there will undoubtedly always be concerns that some countries have been omitted despite their significance (e.g. Hong Kong, China, Indonesia) or that some countries should have been included precisely because they have tended to be marginalized (e.g. Vietnam). There are also practical con- straints, of course, since sixteen essays is already a lot for a single volume, and any attempt to exhaustively cover all “Asian” countries would probably call for multiple volumes. In order to address this issue of coverage, rather than add more countries, we have added a concluding chapter that provides a linking discussion of the themes in the preceding chapters