Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T11:05:25.475Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Response to Gil: The double danger of English as a global language

In ET 101, Jeffrey Gil suggested Australians needed to learn Asian languages – because not everyone speaks English. Meredith Stephens responds from Japan.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2011

Meredith Stephens
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Gil (2010) argues that Australia needs to develop proficiency in Asian languages and cultures in order to ‘pursue its interests’ (p. 54) in the region. One of the reasons is that although English is widely studied in Asia few speakers achieve proficiency. However this view is contrary to the way the status of English is perceived in at least one Asian society that will be discussed here, Japan.

Type
Original Article
Information
English Today , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 35 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Asahi, Shimbun. 2010. Interview/Yukio Tsuda: ‘Stop being “happy slaves” of English hegemony.’ Online at http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201010150360.html (Accessed October 28, 2010)Google Scholar
Clyne, M. 2007. ‘Are we making a difference? On the social responsibility and impact of the linguist/applied linguist in Australia.’ Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 30(1), 3.1–3.14. DO1: 10.2104/aral0703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gil, J. 2010. ‘The double danger of English as a global language: Why Australia still needs to learn Asian languages.’ English Today, 26(1) 51–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hino, N. 2009. ‘The teaching of English as an international language in Japan.’ AILA Review, 22, 103–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kouritzin, S., Piquemal, N. & Renaud, R. 2009. ‘An international comparison of socially constructed learning motivation and beliefs.’ Foreign Language Annals, 42: 3, 287–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maher, J., Millar, M., Sayanagi, N., Rackham, D., Nishizono-Maher, A., Usui, N. & Buckley, L. 2010. ‘Multilingual awareness in Japan: A national survey of young people's attitudes.’ Japan Journal of Multilingualism and Multiculturalism, 16(1), 36–49.Google Scholar
McCrostie, J. 2010. ‘The right stuff: Hiring trends for tenured university positions in Japan’. The Language Teacher, 34(5), 31–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, K. 2010. Personal communication.Google Scholar
NCOLCTL. 2003. ‘Welcome to councilnet.’ Online at http://www.councilnet.org/index.html (Accessed September 15, 2009)Google Scholar
O'Connell, S. 2006. Making it work: A study of Australian expatriate language and cultural strategies for the workplace in Japan ‘Cross-cultural encounters in the Australia-Japan relationship.’ New Voices 1, 75–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegal, M. 1996. ‘The role of learner subjectivity in second language sociolinguistic competency: Western women learning Japanese.’ Applied Linguistics 17(3), 356–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, R. 2008. ‘Foreign languages: A guide for the inhibited.’ Language Learning Journal. 36(1), 111–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar