English Language as Hydra

Download or read book English Language as Hydra written by Vaughan Rapatahana and published by Multilingual Matters. This book was released on 2012-06-22 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In far too many places, the worldwide trade in English-language teaching, testing and publishing has become a self-perpetuating, self-congratulating, neocolonial monster ... a veritable multi-headed Hydra. Too often the English language industry aggressively promotes itself as some sort of “uplifting”, “essential”, “proper” or even “better” means of communication than any other language. Unfortunately, its relentless global outreach is taking place at the direct expense, and the active denigration, of local and regional languages – not to mention individual identities. English Language as Hydra brings together the voices of linguists, literary figures and teaching professionals in a wide-ranging exposé of this monstrous Hydra in action on four continents. It provides a showcase of the diverse and powerful impacts that this ever-evolving, gluttonous beast has had on so many non-English language cultures - as well as the surreptitious, drug-like ways in which it can infiltrate individual psyches.