awej 5 no.4 full issue 2014

AWEJ Volume.5 Number.3, 2014Global English and World Culture: A Case Study of the SubjectiveWu & KeIntroductionThe global spread of English is one of the major controversies in applied linguistics (Seidlhofer,2003, p.2). It continues as globalization progresses. More and more attention has been given tothe topic, not only from applied linguistics (see Jenkins, 2006), but also from fields such aseconomics (e.g. Lysandrou & Lysandrou, 2003) and politics (e.g. Ives, 2006). With theemergence of a global language, discussions on the possibility of a global culture or worldculture abound (e.g. Robertson, 1992; Inkeles, 1998). Topics like global English and worldculture are interdisciplinary in nature; however, these topics are usually approached in atheoretical manner. Rarely were these concepts connected with real life experiences. As a boldattempt, this qualitative study aims to provide grounded insights into how four English teachersin Taiwan experienced and conceived the evolving world and English through the lenses ofworld culture and global English. The purpose is to explore related issues emerged fromconnecting the macro theoretical and micro practical perspectives. Moreover, the experiencesand conceptions of two groups of teachers with contrasting linguistic and cultural backgrounds(North-American native speakers and local Taiwanese) provide entry points to examinetheoretical concepts in global English and world culture.Global EnglishThe idea of ‗global English‘ (Graddol, 2006; Sonntag, 2003) or ‗global Englishes‘ (Pennycook,2007) can be traced to the studies in World Englishes and Kacrhu‘s (1985) three concentriccircles, and is usually associated with English an international language (EIL) (McKay, 2002)and English as a lingua franca (ELF) (Seidlhofer, 2001). One line of studying global English isrooted in linguistics. The main assumption is that global English is developing into a linguisticsystem that contains its own features. Studies concerning global English--phonology (Jenkins,2000), pragmatics (House, 2002), lexicogrammar (Seidlhofer, 2004), and spoken academic ELF(Mauranen, 2006).Another approach to global English focuses on its socio-cultural implications. The birth of aglobal language challenges the taken-for-granted connections between languages on the onehand and place, nationality, race, and culture on the other. Just as globalization transcends thenational boundaries and worldviews based on national societies, global English confrontsfundamental assumptions on the roles of language. It also arouses polarized reactions: scholarson the left (e.g. Phillipson, 1992; Skutnabb-Kangas, 1998) lament that the Empire used Englishto exploit the world and destroy other languages while those on the right see global Englishpromoting mutual understanding, exchange and cooperation (Gimenez, 2001) and facilitating(economic) development (Fishman, Conrad, & Rubal-Lopez, 1996).In this paper, the term ‗global English‘ is used in a general sense to refer to the globalspread of English, not a particular variety of English. The reason of using the term ‗globalEnglish‘ is that the global spread of English is conceptualized as part of the globalizationprocess. Globalization leads to global English, which facilitates the process of global integrationin a reciprocal way (Graddol, 2006,p.58).The concepts related to global English may be categorized into the following four domains.(1) Ownership: English users and learners around the world can and should become participantsin the evolution of this global language (Widdowson, 1994). (2) Identity: What language(s) wespeak and who we are do not have direct and clear connections (Brutt-Griffler, 2005; Erling,2007). (3) Culture: Cultures are decoupled from English, which becomes ‗cultural free‘ or ‗themost culture-rich language‘ (Medgyes, 1999: p.187-188). (4) Pedagogy: Communicability andArab World English JournalISSN: 2229-9327www.awej.org173