Gibson Ferguson Language Planning and Education Edinburgh ...

The global spread of English 125
identity or repository of culture, and for this reason it is better adapted to explain
the spread of lingua francas such as English, which are adopted principally for the
instrumental, practical advantages they confer, than it is to explain the condition of
lesser-used national languages, where identity considerations are more finely weighed
against practical communicative benefits. The reason for this is that while external
network effects operate relatively unimpeded in the case of spreading lingua francas,
with lesser-used ‘central’ or ‘periphery’ languages, there are countervailing forces.
First, linguistic protectionism: we have already referred to the powers states have to
insist on the use of the national language in certain reserved public domains, policies
that may be duplicated on a lesser scale by minority communities who take collective
action, coercively or cooperatively, to maintain the community language and the
cultural capital it represents. Second, identity considerations, and the emotional
costs of deserting the ancestral language, are likely –even in these unequal conditions
– to not so much prevent an eventual switch to the dominant language as to retard
it, or – in the best circumstances – produce a more or less stable bilingualism.
These points are, however, minor qualifications to the value of de Swaan’s (2001a)
framework, which – drawing on well-founded social science concepts – does more to
illuminate the dynamics of language spread than the hypothesis of linguistic
imperialism. One of its principal contributions, particularly relevant in this context,
is that it highlights the self-reinforcing nature of, and the very diffuse agency
underlying, the spread of English, suggesting thereby that this spread is not under
the control of any single collection of institutions, countries or individuals. This
being so, calls by Phillipson (2000a: 102) and others for language policy/planning to
restrain the spread of English and mitigate its effects, while well-intentioned, are
overly optimistic about its potency. This is not to say that the unbridled spread of
English is to be lauded. Far from it, as we see, as we now turn to the effects and
implications of the global spread of English.
5.2 EFFECTS OF THE GLOBAL SPREAD OF ENGLISH
A benign view of the effects of the global spread of English, what Pennycook (2001,
2000: 108) calls the ‘colonial-celebratory’ and ‘laissez-faire liberalism’ positions, is
sometimes portrayed as the dominant one. This is questionable, however, for recent
publications (e.g. Pennycook 2001, 2000a, Skutnabb-Kangas 2000, Tollefson
2002a) have given greater prominence to critical views, which now tend, one
might argue, to define the terms of the debate over global English. Because they
problematise rather than accept the dominance of English, they are also more
intellectually provocative, and for these reasons we now engage with them, albeit
more briefly than is ideal.
Surveying the literature, there appear to be four main criticisms focused on the
effects of the spread of English:
1. English as a global lingua franca produces inequalities in communication
between native and non-native speakers of English, leading to inequity (e.g.
Phillipson 1992, 2000b, 2003; Ammon 2000; Braine 1999).