The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language

Download or read book The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language written by Alastair Pennycook and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering a wide range of areas including international politics, colonial history, critical pedagogy, postcolonial literature and applied linguitics, this book examines ways to understand the cultural and political implications of the global spread of English. Firstly, it explores how a particular view of English as an international language has come into being by examining its colonial origins, its connections to linguistics and applied linguistics, and its relationships to the global spread of teaching practices. It then offers an alternative, critical understanding through the concept of the 'worldliness' of English. This concept suggests that English can never be removed from the social, cultural, economic or political contexts in which it is used.