Political Transitions and the Internationalisation of English: Implications for Language Planning, Policy-making and Pedagogy

Abstract

Languages change and adapt to new political, socio-cultural and economic realities, and people change in terms of their attitudes towards languages, the languages they learn, the circumstances in which they use those languages and the purposes they use them for. These changes have important implications for language planning and language policy, and for determining the ends and means of language teaching. This paper outlines the different roles and functions of English and attitudes towards the language during its transition from colonial language to international lingua franca. I argue that attitudes, and particularly the attitudes of those involved in the English language teaching ‘industry’, have failed to take these changes adequately into account. The paper distinguishes between international and intra-national purposes for using English, and considers the target language proficiency, curriculum content and the ideal teachers for a notional international (as opposed to intranational) variety of English. The paper concludes that identifying such a variety would free the international language from native-speaker, and other, ethnocentrisms, and from any remaining colonial or neo-colonial assumptions of cultural and linguistic superiority. Defining International English in this way would also make it easier, quicker and cheaper to learn.