The Rise of English : Global Politics and the Power of Language Global Politics and the Power of Language

Abstract

Is English a bridge or a barrier to economic advancement and social mobility as it spreads worldwide? To what extent do domestic and global politics determine those outcomes? Who are the winners, losers, and resisters? How are France and China using the “soft power” of language to overtake English, and to what ends? What role do globalization, a knowledge-based economy, and neoliberalism play in these developments? Using education as its lens, this book critically unpacks these and related questions in a sweeping journey across four continents through diverse political and historical settings. It begins in Europe with the European Union and its promotion of multilingualism and with controversies over English-taught courses and programs in universities in the name of internationalization. It then moves to the postcolonial world, where disputes over English in the schools reveal longstanding grievances and the inequities of historically rooted and politically motivated language policies, and where French is losing its hold to English in some former French-speaking colonies. It finally shifts to the United States, where state and local officials and grassroots organizers are addressing the “foreign language deficit” and initiating programs that promote multilingualism. Drawing on a vast store of interdisciplinary research, interviews, court decisions, political commentary, literature, and popular culture from across the globe and in multiple languages, the book makes the case for a common global language (English for now) as a core component of multilingualism in a world that is growing smaller, more diverse, and more politically uncertain by the nanosecond.