Janina Brutt-Griffler Kristen Lee Canagarajah 597F

1. Class, Ethnicity, and Language Rights: An analysis of British Colonial policy in Lesotho and Sri Lanka and some implications for language policy Janina Brutt-Griffler Kristen Lee Canagarajah 597F

2. Spread of English: a threat? • English spread from past makes English an inseparable reality now for many places • A threat? : • “global spread of English” --Skutnabb-Kangas (2000) • “ecology of language” --Phillipson (1999) • Problematic assumption from the language rights • Why research colonial era to help us figure it all out? • “colonial inheritance” (Phillipson, 1992) • How the ideological imperatives of empire building and the justification of English on the world from the colonial period, still permeate in the world today. Isn’t it interesting how a lot of fields (example applied linguistics) has taken up a “green” approach with its terminology?

3. Why these two? - former British colonies - representative of larger British Africa/Asia - size To note: According to the colonizers English valued higher: a language for the civilized and cultivated which the other language did not have. English was “the accomplishment of the few” How it should be viewed: English here is like university level “at home” Mother tongue education here was problematic because it didn’t necessarily mean the pupil’s mother tongue, just an avoidance of teaching English

4. English as a Killer? My 2 cents in understanding whose “fault” it is… The idea of “forcing” a group; reluctance of group to choose a certain action • English wasn’t spread, it was restricted • Economics: supply and demand -->result: exploitation • Through language policy, they were able to maintain socioeconomic stratification • Ecological effects in Basutoland • Implications: whose fault • Adaptive response (move to mountain = people in colonial rule to seek access to English) • Hegemonic powers saying: “In the name of ------” I wonder… Adaptive response is questionable… because what isn’t focused on is WHY they had to adapt.. JBG says it was taken on the Basuto’s own initiative…

5. Making Linguistics “Green” Question: Is linguistic diversity as “necessary for the existence of our planet as biodiversity”? Is the linguistic adaptive response off Basuto (access to English) to the socioeconomic oppression within the world economy really relevant for the natural environment? • Endangered language list? • Ecological crisis in the “access to the mother tongue(s)” and with it, a “language-related identity” (SKG, 2000) • Analysis is universalistic language (“we”) • All-encompassing solutions (mother-tongue education) • No reference to particular conditions • Identifiable villains/victims • Question: so can the “man” assure you of your linguistic rights? • Going medical: “Language rights treat symptoms and not causes”… need to look at underlying context of spreading English Brutt-Griffler says watch out: Sometimes, the language rights group have identifiable groups, and other times use “we”… well he questions, we who? B-G notices that when there is a clear language used, (a versus b), it’s always when dealing with the problem, but when it comes to the solution, it turns to “we”, the dominators Who’s responsible for maintaining and promoting of linguistic diversity?

6. Identity--part of language policy equation • Collective identity (ethnic, national) or individual identity • Interest in relation to identity • Dependent on unit of analysis • Ethnic identity: interest in maintaining their mother tongue language • Class identity: interest in accessing dominant languages • Is language policy a class thing or a ethnic thing?

7. The politics behind “rights” • “uninformed assumption” • What do you do when parents still are adamant about their uninformed assumption? Do they have the right to, even though it may have negative consequences to linguistic diversity? • Problematizing the notion of “English to equality” • Regardless of whether or not English is your mother tongue, should you have the rights to English, not just as a ESL? • Linguistic rights based on “natural collective rights” of ethnicity (“mother tongue”) and language groups • How can this notion from the language rights answer to multilingualism? • TSK “forced into multilingualism” vs.. JBG “forced into monolingualism” due to socioeconomic state

8. Concluding remarks • Lightly held promise of access to dominant language and mother tongue rights • Actuality: unlimited right to mother tongue, right to access to English, conditional • The policy of excluding English on behalf of maintaining mother tongue • Perpetuation of making English accessible to high class • Solution: Since it is the case that English is a factor in material/symbolic access… • Universal rights to language choice and the right to an education in any language spoken within a given nation (regardless of official/unofficial) • Emphasize the need for bilingual education for all • Language policy be looked at from the POV of “potentially differential impact on disempowered socioeconomic groups.. and sociopolitical categorizations applied within ‘language groups’” (230) Your opinion: Is access to any language a universal right? Somewhat of an ethical question: If minority languages have a right due to preservation, could there stand a right for dominant language based on preservation as well? Since according to JBG, this whole idea of “mother tongue” language is based upon ethnicity, should then that apply as well to those who are “ethnically” a part of the dominant language? (this is following JBG’s idea of what TSK’s line of thought is)

9. “Do not cut my tongue, let me live and die with my language.” A comment on English and other languages in relation to linguistic human rights Tove Skutnabb-Kangas

10. JBG’s misrepresentation • Other languages as additive not subtractive • “unqualified access to English” --JBG • Not a question of learning English, but the right to be a bilingual (mother tongue and official language) • JBG: either/or claims • Both/and stance • Multidisciplinary

11. Looking at things through a different lens • Poverty as “capability deprivation” • To solve big gaps in equity --> education • If we are concerned with enhancing capability, then one must look at the best method for cognitive, intellectual development • Role of English-- medium of instruction • False explanations.. “Moving on up with English” • the real: the “contextual factors which constitute the phenomena of deprivation and poverty” (Misra & Mohanty, 2000) Deviating just a little bit. What do you believe concerning this issue: IS it just a figment of our imagination that English is a prerequisite for upward mobility? Would using English as the LOI mean abandoning the mother tongue? Another question: What if one of these contextual factors IS not knowing English?

12. Promoting Bilingualism • In terms of cognitive and intellectual skills, metalinguistic and metacognitive task performance and educational achievement, bilinguals did better than monolinguals (Mohanty 2000 research on Kond children) • Mother-tongue bilingual education improves human capabilities • Case in India: when socio-economic conditions are constant, kids from regional medium schools did better in cognitive and language-related tasks better than children from English-medium schools • Brings about the cognitive skills to be aware of their poverty situation • Not a question of the “right to English”; rather the issue is the failure to access symbolic/material because they of the refusal to give those that use nonstandard or mother tongue rights.

13. Concluding remark • My question: Access to English: is it a right? • TSK: English-medium instruction is not a right (at least for people whose mother tongue isn’t it), but access to a good knowledge of the English language “is from the human rights perspective similar to access to other important school subjects which one ought to know” (Skutnabb-Kangas, 2004) In your opinion, is this a satisfactory answer?

14. The Sound of Retreat: the linguistic imperialist camp in disarray Janina Brutt-Griffler’s response to TSK

15. Theoretical Retreat • Shift from colonial to postcolonial • Now linguistic imperialism --> postcolonial policy • If spreading one’s culture and language is an innate yearning, why is there a spread of English post WWII • Going against initial idea of “colonial inheritance” • Shift from killer to a “friend” • Access to English should only be for Europeans, and seen as a danger to everyone else • OR- support for promoting English around the world Question: Why does JBG give such an emphasis on the Brits? Couldn’t a contributing factor to this spread of English post-WWII be a reaction to the past inaccessibility of English? Is it really a shift? Here’s a thought: could we say that even in postcolonial policy, the ideologies of linguistic imperialism still exist? Does post- really mean that it’s a past thing? Why should it be contained only within the colonial era?

16. Contradiction? Question: Do you agree with JBG here? Is TKG focusing on linguistic medium in order to get away from answering the question of accessibility to a language? • The “good” in English • Principle versus practice • Ex. US and abolition of slavery • Human rights perspective--Medium vs.. Access • Voices heard, validated • Bilingualism • Linguistic imperialism is rooted upon the belief of English as an “either/or”