Synopses & Reviews
Bringing together scholarship on issues relating to language, culture, and identity, with a special focus on Asian countries, this volume makes an important contribution in terms of analyzing and demonstrating how language is closely linked with crucial social, political, and economic forces, particularly the tensions between the demands of globalization and local identity. A particular feature is the inclusion of countries that have been under-represented in the research literature, such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Pakistan, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Korea. The book is organized in three sections:
*Globalization and its Impact on Language Policies, Culture, and Identity;
*Language Policy and the Social (Re)construction of National Cultural Identity; and
*Language Policy and Language Politics: The Role of English.
Unique in its attention to how the domination of English is being addressed in relation to cultural values and identity by non-English speaking countries in a range of sociopolitical contexts, this volume will help readers to understand the impact of globalization on non-English speaking countries, particularly developing countries, which differ significantly from contexts in the West in their cultural orientations and the way identities are being constructed.
Language Policy, Culture, and Identity in Asian Contexts will interest scholars and research students in the areas of language policy, education, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, and critical linguistics. It can be adopted in graduate and advanced undergraduate courses on language policy, language in society, and language education.
About the Author
Amy B.M. Tsui is Chair Professor in Language and Education at The University of Hong Kong. She obtained her Ph.D. in linguistics at the University of Birmingham, U.K., and has taught in Hong Kong and Singapore. Her research interests and publications cover a range of areas, including conversational analysis, classroom discourse analysis, medium of instruction policy, teacher education, and information technology in education. Her most recent publications include
Understanding Expertise in Teaching (Cambridge University Press, 2003), and
Classroom Discourse and the Space of Learning (with Ference Marton, Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004),
Medium of Instruction Policies—Which Agenda? Whose Agenda? (co-edited with James W. Tollefson, Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004),
Introducing Classroom Interaction (Pengin) and
English Conversation (Oxford University Press).
James W. Tollefson is Professor of English at International Christian University in Tokyo. He obtained his PhD in linguistics at Stanford University, and has taught in Japan, Philippines, Slovenia, and Yugoslavia. His research interests include language policy, migrant education, teacher education, and medium of instruction policies. His publications include Planning Language, Planning Inequality: Language Policy in the Community (Longman, 1991), Power and Inequality in Language Education (Cambridge Unviersity Press, 1995), Language Policies in Education: Critical Issues (Lawrence Erlbaum, 2002) and Medium of Instruction Policies—Which Agenda? Whose Agenda? (co-edited with Amy B.M. Tsui, Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004).
Table of Contents
Contents: Preface.
A.B.M. Tsui, J.W. Tollefson, Language Policy and the Construction of National Cultural Identity.
Part I: Globalization and Its Impact on Language Policy, Culture, and Identity. K. Hashimoto, Japan’s Language Policy and the “Lost Decade”.
Y. Sungwon, Globalization and Language Policy in South Korea.
M.K. David, S. Govindasamy, The Construction of National Identity and Globalization in Multilingual Malaysia.
P.G-L. Chew, Remaking Singapore: Language, Culture, and Identity in a Globalized World.
T. Clayton, Transition, Culture, and Language in Cambodia.
Part II: Language Policy and the (Re)Construction of National Cultural Identity. A.B.M. Tsui, Language Policy and the Social Construction of Identity: The Case of Hong Kong.
M. Saxena, Multilingual and Multicultural Identities in Brunei Darussalam.
R.A. Benton, Mauri or Mirage? The Status of the Mäori Language in Aotearoa New Zealand in the Third Millennium.
Part III: Language Policy and Language Politics: The Role of English. R.K. Agnihotri, Identity and Multilinguality: The Case of India.
S.K. Sonntag, Change and Permanence in Language Politics in Nepal.
T. Rahman, The Role of English in Pakistan With Special Reference to Tolerance and Militancy.
T. Hossain, J.W. Tollefson, Language Policy in Education in Bangladesh.
J.W. Tollefson, A.B.M. Tsui, Issues in Language Policy, Culture, and Identity.