Cultural Globalization And Language Education

We live in a world that is marked by the twin processes of economic and cultural globalization. In this thought provoking book, Kumaravadivelu explores the impact of cultural globalization on second and foreign language education.

This book considers the issues globalization raises for second language learning and teaching in an economy where the linguistic skills of workers is becoming increasingly important.

This book examines the links between globalisation and the way we teach and learn languages.

An exploration of the impact of globalization on diverse cultures and how this effects the dominant languages across Asian civilisations.

Globalization is a complex phenomenon that has deep ties in the past movement of people and ideas around the world. While many people voice the fear that the power of Western culture, and in particular American culture, will overwhelm or even obliterate indigenous cultures and languages, this author argues that the impact of culture is never a one-way street. The interconnectedness of the modern world allows input from the United States to the rest of the world, and at the same time allows the movement of ideas and people from faraway countries to our shores. Book jacket.

Globalization, the concept used to account for the multitude of linkages, interconnections and interdependences that currently transcend territorial and sociocultural boundaries in the world, has been in the centre of continual controversy over its meaning, scope, intensity and social significance for post-modern societies. However, whether considered from the narrow angle of current socio-economic developments, or from the broad perspective of evolutionary processes straddling all spheres of life, globalization is generally acknowledged to refer to a complex set of processes of modernization, technologization, liberalization and integration operationalized through language and in a language shared by all those involved. For a number of geo-historical, socio-political, economic and technological reasons the language that has firmly established itself as the language of international communication is English. As a result, Global English takes a primary place in discussions of the effect of globalization on world societies and culture. The volume Globalization in English Studies addresses the issue of how globalization impacts upon culture, literature, language communication and language learning and use policies, which are taken to constitute the multiplex disciplinary space of English Studies. Written by authors with different language, cultural and theoretical backgrounds, this collection of eleven chapters throws light on how “global” and “local” entities are subtly intertwined, refashioned and rescaled in different geo-political and sociocultural contexts. The book is divided into four parts: The first part, Globalization in Culture, dwells upon the effects of globalization in particular cultural domains and the institutional attempts in some countries at reducing its negative consequences for local practices. The second part, Globalization in Literature, examines the impact of global integration processes on social life. In particular, it focuses on new developments as the “hybridization” and “technologization” of societies that tend to wipe out borders traditionally taken as reference points in building identity and a sense of belonging. The third part, Globalization in Language Communication, focuses on intercultural communication and the opportunities different multi-modal settings offer for the the realisation of intertextuality and interdiscursivity. Of particular interest is how local people select, appropriate , and creatively utilize cultural entities designed for global consumption to make them appear as their “own”. The last part, Global English and English Language Teaching/ Learning Policy, approaches the issue from a pedagogical perspective and examines the changes that globalization has caused for learners, learning environments and ways of speaking. Ranging over a variety of domains subsumed within English Studies, this collection of studies can serve as a good base for the cross-disciplinary synergy of ideas and fruitful debate among scholars and practitioners with a vested interest in Global English.

Publisher Description

This book offers insight into the spread and impact of English language education in China within China’s broader educational, social, economic and political changes. The author's critical perspective informs readers on the connections between language education and political ideologies in the context of globalizing China. The discussion of the implications concerning language education is of interest for current and future language policy makers, language educators and learners. Including both diachronic and synchronic accounts or China’s language education policy, this volume highlights how China as a modern nation-state has been seeking a more central position globally, and the role that English education and the promotion of such education played in that effort in recent decades.