Linguistics In An Age Of Globalization

This book is the third of a series of collected volumes on language and linguistics published by the AUC Press. The chapters this time are based on papers delivered at the second International AUC-Oxford University Conference on Language and Linguistics, held in 2006 at the American University in Cairo. The contributions reflect global concerns related to both the Arabic and the English languages and to linguistics in general and are the work of world-renowned scholars, whose concerns address diverse but related topics in language and information dissemination. The resulting collection presented here boasts a wide range of scholarship from the Arabic-speaking world as well as the United States, Canada, and western and eastern Europe. Twelve chapters grouped in four sections cover a wide variety of topics--phonetics, syntax, variation, computational linguistics, and globalization and its effects on linguistic discourse and language teaching--and reflect the latest research in the various fields, together giving a global perspective on Arabic linguistics. Contributors: Kirk Belnap, Robert Berman, Samira ElAtia, Mervat Mohamed Ahmed Fashal, Konrad Gunesch, Jacob Høigilt, Zeinab Ibrahim, Gunvor Mejdell, Mark Van Mol, Mustafa Mughazy, Dilworth Parkinson, Irena Vassileva, Diana Yankova.

In our globalizing world of today, the significance, status and demand of languages are experiencing changes which are unmatched in human history. These changes also relate to the languages of Japan as well as to the way that they are being taught and studied. In this book 14 authors from four continents present their research results on Japanese as foreign language (JFL) in the age of globalization. The participation of these authors reflects the fact that research into JFL has itself become global. Since JFL in the age of globalization is a field too extensive to be comprehensively covered by a single book, we restricted ourselves to three topics which we believe are central in discussing this issue. New kinds of language learners and new teaching paradigmsNative – non-native speaker interaction or contact situations in a more general senseNew insights into cognitive processes in language learning

This book investigates lexical borrowing processes of our era in a sociolinguistic context. Innovatively, it seeks to examine language contact in a comprehensive way, taking into account socio- and psycholinguistic aspects as well as implications for language politics. As the sociolinguistic focus is primary, the volume also discusses how technology influences languages and to what extent it creates new conditions for language contact. As a result, it is proposed that the term language contact needs to be reevaluated, since the context of globalization has changed its very essence. As the increase in the importance of English has been the most significant global geolinguistic event in the past fifty years, the role of English as an international lingua franca in modern borrowing is analyzed in detail. Two case studies are also given, one on the role of English in the EU and another on the linguistic situation of multilingual Switzerland. The characteristic features of lexical borrowing are illustrated in a complex way on linguistic material of a total of over 5000 recent loans in English, Spanish, German and Hungarian.

This revised second edition is a comprehensive overview of why we speak the languages that we do. It covers language learning imposed by political and economic agendas as well as language choices entered into willingly for reasons of social mobility, economic advantage and group identity.

This book, by an international group of scholars, focuses on a number of sociolinguistic issues, some of them complex and controversial, linked to language education in the age of globalisation. It examines these in different contexts of immigration and super-diversity, in the light of new mobilities and new conceptualisations of changing social realities and language communities. The various investigations presented in the volume are often united and interconnected in their approaches to these key areas of focus, although each peer-edited chapter brings its own relevance to the work as a whole, and each reflects the complexities and practices of the particular contexts and speech communities examined. The insights presented provide a useful way of looking at the current state of the art of language education across the different levels of schooling and also within the various contexts analysed. Because of the increasing interest in language education as a result of both the growing number of migrant children in schools and the globalisation associated with the rapid spread of English, the volume will be of interest to a wide international readership, including scholars and students of sociolinguistics and language education.

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.

Language, while seemingly static, is dynamic and ever-changing, necessitating adaptability in various fields of language studies. It is especially true in a globalized world and an information age. In the field of language and its applications, it is essential to reconsider and redefine existing issues and envision how the changes may have impacts on human beings and on the entire globe. Redefining the Role of Language in a Globalized World is an essential scholarly publication that explores the role language will play in a globalized world and how language changes over time through its interdependent relationship with technology. Featuring a wide range of topics such as bilingualism, native speaker prejudice, and social inequality, this book is essential for educators, linguists, researchers, curriculum designers, academicians, policymakers, librarians, and students.