Ne uccide più la lingua che la spada. E’ in questo vecchio e senza confini adagio che troviamo la durezza di un Ghandi che, nel 1908, arriva a sostenere:«Dare a milioni di persone la conoscenza dell'inglese equivale a schiavizzarli». Ora... more
Ne uccide più la lingua che la spada. E’ in questo vecchio e senza confini adagio che troviamo la durezza di un Ghandi che, nel 1908, arriva a sostenere:«Dare a milioni di persone la conoscenza dell'inglese equivale a schiavizzarli». Ora che la campana suona a morte per il 90% delle lingue e culture del mondo anzitutto ad opera dell’anglofonia quella frase assume inaspettata attualità.
La Guerra delle Lingue è oggi una realtà globale ben più concreta e terribile rispetto a quella guerra di religioni da molti temuta tra cultura cristiana e cultura islamica.
[...]
Following the trend of much of the Western, non-English speaking world, Colombia has tirelessly strived for spreading English education in an effort to augment economic benefits. This paper aims at providing a critical account of foreign... more
Following the trend of much of the Western, non-English speaking world, Colombia has tirelessly strived for spreading English education in an effort to augment economic benefits. This paper aims at providing a critical account of foreign language education policy in Colombia, with special attention to English. It outlines the impact of its multiple transitions over the past decades through a historical description that overviews all previous policies, the critical reception by scholars, and present-day initiatives. We then move on to analysing the choice of English as a synonym for bilingualism and conclude with emerging questions that are to be considered for future debates and reassessments of Colombia's English-Spanish bilingual education policy.
The history of English in Nepal was first recorded in the seventeenth century. Although English was adopted as a foreign language in Nepal in the past, it has gained multi-dimensional status such as an additional language, second language... more
The history of English in Nepal was first recorded in the seventeenth century. Although English was adopted as a foreign language in Nepal in the past, it has gained multi-dimensional status such as an additional language, second language and even primary language. At present English language is indispensable part of Nepalese life as it has impinged on all the spheres of their lives. Currently a number of scholars have argued that a distinctive variety of English has grown in Nepal with its own unique features at all language levels because of its long tradition and wider use. This paper begins with demographic information of languages spoken in Nepal and subsumes different historical eras of English in Nepal.
La negazione di pari opportunità e pari diritti linguistici tra gli eurocittadini si traduce, dal punto di vista economico, in enormi vantaggi e passaggi di risorse solo ai Paesi madrelingua inglese. Eppure la perdita di sovranità... more
La negazione di pari opportunità e pari diritti linguistici tra gli eurocittadini si traduce, dal punto di vista economico, in enormi vantaggi e passaggi di risorse solo ai Paesi madrelingua inglese. Eppure la perdita di sovranità linguistica dell'italiano in Italia a favore dei paesi madrelingua inglese non conosce soste.
The purpose of this paper is to examine and compare the concepts of linguistic colonialism and cultural alienation in University textbooks for teaching English as opposed to the theories about culture in the decolonial turn. Dichotomous... more
The purpose of this paper is to examine and compare the concepts of linguistic colonialism and cultural alienation in University textbooks for teaching English as opposed to the theories about culture in the decolonial turn. Dichotomous categories were established based on the analysis of the cultural component of the textbooks for the teaching of English. The corpus consisted of six textbooks produced by multinational publishers and used in Colombia during the years 2006-2018. Documentary analysis procedures were used to discuss emergent themed contents in relation to cultural components from a critical perspective that unveiled imperialism practices. Results showed that the textbook contents dealt with high levels of alienation burden, superficial cultural components and instrumentation to the submissive person who favors the dominant culture of English and does not offer possibilities to embrace interculturality in ELF teaching contexts.
The purpose of this paper is to examine and compare the concepts of linguistic colonialism and cultural alienation in University textbooks for teaching English as opposed to the theories about culture in the decolonial turn. Dichotomous... more
The purpose of this paper is to examine and compare the concepts of linguistic colonialism and cultural alienation in University textbooks for teaching English as opposed to the theories about culture in the decolonial turn. Dichotomous categories were established based on the analysis of the cultural component of the textbooks for the teaching of English. The corpus consisted of six textbooks produced by multinational publishers and used in Colombia during the years 2006-2018. Documentary analysis procedures were used to discuss emergent themed contents in relation to cultural components from a critical perspective that unveiled imperialism practices. Results showed that the textbook contents dealt with high levels of alienation burden, superficial cultural components and instrumentation to the submissive person who favors the dominant culture of English and does not offer possibilities to embrace interculturality in ELF teaching contexts.
The word kills more than the sword.. Echoing the sense of this universal old adage, in 1908 Gandhi went so far as to claim: «To give millions a knowledge of English is to enslave them». Now the bell is tolling for 90% of the world’s... more
The word kills more than the sword.. Echoing the sense of this universal old adage, in 1908 Gandhi went so far as to claim: «To give millions a knowledge of English is to enslave them». Now the bell is tolling for 90% of the world’s languages and cultures, threatened above all by English, and the old adage is more relevant than ever.
The War of Languages is now a much more concrete and terrible reality than the widely-feared war of religions between the Christian and Islamic cultures.
Much more concrete and terrible not only because the heritage at stake is much greater in numerical terms than that of religions, but above all because the War of Languages, unlike wars of religion, does not aim to change your moral values and customs but your way of thinking, the instrument of your thoughts.
[...]
