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rchers began to question the spread of English as being Ânatural'
and Âneutral', and attempted to deconstruct 'English' and `EIL'. Tollefson (1991), for
example, relates the close relationship between language policy, power, and
privilege. Arguing that language education has become increasingly ideological with
the spread of English, he shows how language is one criteria for determining which
people will complete different levels of education. In other words, whenever people
must learn a new language to have access to education or to understand classroom
instruction, language is a factor in creating and sustaining economic division.
Phillipson's (1992) timely book, Linguistic Imperialism, an extensive study of the
development and spread of ELT throughout the world - and a lucid account of
'North-South inequalities and exploitation' - received much attention when it first
appeared.2 Quoting an English-language entrepreneur who Said, `Once we used to
send gunboats and diplomats abroad; now we are
Le début de la domination
de I'anglais à Singapour ne
fut pas le résultat d'un
impérialisme linguistique
mais plutôt celui d'une
décision délibérée prise
par les dirigeants et le
peuple après avoir
soigneusement considéré
les tendances mondiales
et les conditions locales本文出自www.51lunwen.org，在代写英语毕业论文与留学生论文方面具有丰富的经验！如果需要原创英语论文，英文论文请联系 QQ：949925041
39
sending English teachers,' Phillipson advanced the idea of 'linguistic imperialism':
that is, that the spread of English as a post-colonial plot an the part of the core
English-speaking countries, which hoped to maintain their dominance over
ÂperipheryÊ (mostly developing) countries.
Another term introduced by Phillipson was 'linguicism', a situation where the
imposition of a language - in this case, English - was equated to the imposition of
the cultural, social, emotional, and linguistic norms of the dominating society onto
the dominated society, thus maintaining an unequal allocation of power and
resources. Phillipson further cites the preferential allocation of educational
resources to English in a multilingual environment as a good example of linguicism
in action, and identifies two mechanisms frequently used to legitimise this ideology
in the context of English language education. First, the fact that English is the
language of science and technology, thus making it the only viable choice of
modern education; and second, the effect of disconnecting ELT theory and practice
from its broader societal context.
Linked to the suspicion of 'linguicism' is the accompanying fear that the
dominante of English, if allowed to follow a natural course, will not only diminish
the use of minority languages but replace them entirely (cf. Shannon, 1995;
Sonntag, 1995). This is not without some justification since language in contact has
become, increasingly, to be viewed as languages in competition (Fishman, 1994;
Pool, 1991). Researchers such as Skutnabb-Kangas and Cummins (1988) have
described the phenomenon of linguistic hegemony in the case of languages
achieving the Status of `dominant', 'prestigious' or `inferior' as a result of
competition with other languages. Once a language achieves hegemonic status,
dominated languages are more easily perceived as inferior, and their speakers
internalise their lowly status. Consequently