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Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

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<strong>Geography</strong> and Languages <strong>in</strong> Intercultural <strong>Education</strong>: doesthe spatial diffusion of English h<strong>in</strong>der or help <strong>in</strong>terculturalgeographical understand<strong>in</strong>g?Mark WiseSchool of <strong>Geography</strong>, University of Plymouth, UKe-mail mwise@plymouth.ac.ukAbstractEnglish is rapidly strengthen<strong>in</strong>g its position as the world’s dom<strong>in</strong>ant <strong>in</strong>ternational language.Its geographical spread becomes ever wider and it penetrates deeply <strong>in</strong> a wide range ofl<strong>in</strong>guistic doma<strong>in</strong>s. It is pre-em<strong>in</strong>ent <strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>ternational research and is <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>gly used as alanguage of <strong>in</strong>struction <strong>in</strong> universities and other education <strong>in</strong>stitutions outside of Englishspeak<strong>in</strong>gcountries. English overwhelms other tongues <strong>in</strong> the global ‘language-market’ with,for example, well over 90% of secondary school students <strong>in</strong> Europe choos<strong>in</strong>g it as their ma<strong>in</strong>foreign language. Meanwhile, the learn<strong>in</strong>g of languages <strong>in</strong> the Anglophone countries is <strong>in</strong>steep decl<strong>in</strong>e. There are more publications <strong>in</strong> English than any other language and about 50%of translated works are out of English <strong>in</strong>to other languages. The reverse flow <strong>in</strong>to English ism<strong>in</strong>ute <strong>in</strong> comparison. This spatial diffusion of English can be seen as a positive developmentwhich facilitates <strong>in</strong>ter-cultural understand<strong>in</strong>g across language barriers. However, others fearthat it poses a threat to cultural and <strong>in</strong>tellectual diversity by facilitat<strong>in</strong>g a dom<strong>in</strong>ance of waysof thought (la pensée unique) and ‘world-views’ flow<strong>in</strong>g out of the Anglo-American world.This debate is beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g to open up with<strong>in</strong> academic geography [Gutiérrez & López 2001;Rodríguez-Pose 2004]. Thus Garcia-Ramon argues that the ‘grow<strong>in</strong>g hegemony of Englishas a global language privileges the geographical discourse of the ‘Anglophone world’ at theexpense of other scholarly traditions, with a consequent loss of cultural diversity [Garcia-Ramon 2003: 1]. Others fear that monol<strong>in</strong>gual English-speakers are culturally isolated bytheir lack of language skills [Watson 2004]. This paper will present the ma<strong>in</strong> dimensionsof this develop<strong>in</strong>g debate and its implications for the teach<strong>in</strong>g of geography along withlanguages as means of <strong>in</strong>tercultural education.Key words: English language dom<strong>in</strong>ance, Geographical education, <strong>in</strong>tercultural understand<strong>in</strong>g,university and secondary educationIntroductionEnglish is rapidly strengthen<strong>in</strong>g its position as the world’s dom<strong>in</strong>ant <strong>in</strong>ternationallanguage. This geol<strong>in</strong>guistic phenomenon is seen by some as a positive developmentwhich facilitates <strong>in</strong>tercultural understand<strong>in</strong>g across language barriers and by othersas a negative process which threatens to cultural diversity. This short <strong>in</strong>troductorypaper <strong>in</strong>vites geographers to participate <strong>in</strong> these debates th<strong>in</strong>k about their implicationsfor <strong>in</strong>tercultural education.292

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