13.07.2015 Views

Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS
  • No tags were found...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

In sharp contrast, the learn<strong>in</strong>g of foreign languages is <strong>in</strong> steep decl<strong>in</strong>e <strong>in</strong> boththe schools and universities of the United K<strong>in</strong>gdom (Table 2). L<strong>in</strong>ked to this lack oflanguage skills, there has been a sharp decl<strong>in</strong>e <strong>in</strong> the numbers of British studentsparticipat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the EU’s ERASMUS exchange scheme, from 12,000 <strong>in</strong> 1994/5 to7,539 <strong>in</strong> 2002/3 (House of Lords 2005).Table 2. Evolution of admissions to French, German and Spanish s<strong>in</strong>gle-honours modern foreignlanguagedegree programmes <strong>in</strong> the UK (home students) 1996−2000Year French German Spanish Total1996 980 322 239 1,5412000 738 275 259 1,272Source: UCAS 2002The dom<strong>in</strong>ance of English <strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>ternational publish<strong>in</strong>gThere are more publications <strong>in</strong>English than any other language(about 17 per cent of global output)and they are read widely outsideof the English-speak<strong>in</strong>g countries(Graddol, 1997; Crystal, 2003; Phillipson,2003). In addition over halfof the books translated today are outof English <strong>in</strong>to other languages. Sothose writ<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> English enjoy ageographical diffusion around theglobe far exceed<strong>in</strong>g that of thosewrit<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> other languages both <strong>in</strong>the orig<strong>in</strong>al and the translated form(Melitz, 1999). A brief exam<strong>in</strong>ationof literary translations <strong>in</strong> and out ofFrench <strong>in</strong> 2003 give some <strong>in</strong>sights<strong>in</strong>to the dom<strong>in</strong>ance of English<strong>in</strong> this <strong>in</strong>tercultural doma<strong>in</strong> (seeTable 3).Table 3. Translation flows <strong>in</strong>to and out of French <strong>in</strong> 2003Translations <strong>in</strong>to FrenchfromTranslations out ofFrench <strong>in</strong>toEnglish 825 Spanish 606German 89 Korean 581Italian 72 Italian 572Spanish 69 Portuguese 584Japanese 68 Ch<strong>in</strong>ese 485Dutch 20 English 383Russian 17 German 327Hebrew 17 Greek 220Swedish 16 Romanian 212Portuguese 13 Japanese 198Norwegian 9 Russian 191Polish 9 Polish 181Others 53 Others 1383Total 1277 Total 5923Source: SNE/La Centrale de l’Edition 2003Does the dom<strong>in</strong>ance of English threaten <strong>in</strong>tercultural understand<strong>in</strong>g?This short paper can only encourage geographers to exam<strong>in</strong>e this immenselycomplex question by mak<strong>in</strong>g some broad <strong>in</strong>troductory observations. First, fearsthat an ‘English-language hegemony’ threatens <strong>in</strong>tercultural understand<strong>in</strong>g emerge<strong>in</strong> various contexts. For example, public discourse <strong>in</strong> France is marked by the conceptof ‘la pensée unique’ which conjures up a vision of a globalis<strong>in</strong>g world where manypeople assume that, <strong>in</strong> the words of former British Prime M<strong>in</strong>ister Thatcher, ‘there isno alternative’ to ‘Anglo-Saxon’ free-market capitalism based on liberal democracy;295

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!