6. Dr. Phillipson: In the March, 2009 interview Marinus Stephan on this blog, Dr. Stephan

mentions that your book Linguistic Imperialism is one of the best books he has read in the politics of ELT. He also says that much criticism has been leveled at your book. No doubt, Dr. Stephan is alluding to criticism of your arguments which come from what I feel are un-informed people who refuse to see the connections between colonialism, Americanization, and now globalization. How would you reply to people who say that the “native speaker fallacy” is no longer relevant when it comes to policy decisions and hiring practices?

Dr. Phillipson: I agree that much of the criticism of Linguistic imperialism tends to be rooted in political differences. I am also tired of the book being misrepresented, even by eminent scholars like John Joseph, and Bernard Spolsky, to whom I have responded in ‘Linguistic imperialism: a conspiracy, or a conspiracy of silence?’ Language policy, 6/3-4, 2007, 377-383.

7. How do you think we should call ourselves? What do you think English speakers should be called in the future? Would terms such as intercultural speakers, multi-linguals, or translinguistic teachers be more accurate and representative than "non-native speakers"? (Questions 7 and 8 are from Ana Wu, City College of San Francisco, ESL Instructor).

Dr. Phillipson: I strongly agree with the need to get away from the non-native label. It may be no comfort for you to learn that teachers of English in Scandinavia are never referred to in this way! Also, ESL means very different things in different parts of the world. Obviously TESOLers should be minimally bilingual. There was a symposium on this topic organised by Shelley Taylor at TESOL 2008 in New York (with, among others, Tove, Jim Cummins, Ofelia García, and Joan Wink), one purpose being to attempt to persuade the High and Mighty in TESOL to make a clear break with monolingualism. The short papers from this symposium are appearing in a number of the TESOL Quarterly which I have already read proofs for.

I don’t think my (European) views on what labels might go down well in your local contexts are relevant. Good luck in producing something snappy and valid.

8. You have written and discussed very controversial issues. How do you deal with criticism? How do you react to people who disagree with your ideas?

Dr. Phillipson: This is a tricky issue. Tove told me, as soon as Linguistic imperialism was published, that I would need to develop a thick skin. I felt the need to spend quite a bit of time responding to critiques of my work that I thought were invalid, in several journals. I list the references in my new book, which does not regurgitate these ‘dialogues’, though the book does contain my reviews of books by people like David Crystal, Abram de Swaan, and Janina Brutt-Griffler, scholars who basically claim that linguistic imperialism never existed (!), and that I got it all wrong – which happily a lot of people worldwide don’t agree with (the book was published in China in 2000 and in India in 2008, better late than never). One is tempted to simply ignore attacks that either misrepresent what one has written or contradict one’s conclusions on false premises. This has also happened with what Tove and I have written about linguistic human rights. On the other hand, if one does not challenge conflicting views, they have a habit of getting recycled by others as though they are uncontested. Ideally scholarly dialogue should take things forward, and lead to better empirical descriptions and to an improvement of our concepts and theoretical approaches – for which all of us, including myself, need to be open-minded.

Ana Wu: Thank you very much for your time and insightful interview!

Instruction: Clues in the context – views and ideas.

Vocabulary in context gives you clues to views and ideas expressed in the interview. Professor Robert Phillipson is the author of the contradictory concept of linguistic imperialism. He claims that the English language is a tool of the US imperialist policies aimed at imposing American ideology upon the rest of the world.

In ordinary extensive reading text, there always are a number of clues that can help you determine the views and ideas of the author as well as the meaning of ambiguous or/and unknown words or phrases.

Synonymous word combinations

Compare the two sentences:

“Tove told me, as soon as Linguistic imperialism was published, that I would need to develop a thick skin.” The word combination to develop a thick skin is understood from another sentence in the same paragraph: “One is tempted to simply ignore attacks that either misrepresent what one has written or contradict one’s conclusions on false premises.”

Examples

Very often examples are given in the text to illustrate the meaning of a word:

“... well-intentioned NGOs in Scandinavia were attempting to support Namibian refugee children living in camps in Angola and Zambia by sending them literacy materials. “

“And guess what? Large amounts of money were being spent on British mother-tongue basic readers presenting a world in which ‘Peter is helping Daddy wash the car, while Susan is doing the washing-up with Mummy’... .”

From the above example, it is clear that large amounts of public money were wasted.

Contrast

The meaning of some sentences and words may be understood by contrasting them to other sentences and words. E.g.: “The financial constraints that increasingly drive higher education in the UK mean that English for Academic Purposes, pre-sessional language training, is being privatised, since there is cash in the foreign students industry, and universities can then maintain their language departments, and an ‘apolitical’ focus on literature, unchanged.

By contrast, native speaker mythology has never taken root in most countries of continental Europe, which have a relatively successful tradition of learning foreign languages, including English, taught by locals with proficiency in the target language.”

From this paragraph, it is clear that the phrase native speaker mythology is signaling Dr. Phillipson is critical of native speaker language training and higher education in the UK, in general.

Semantic and thematic groups

Semantic groups are formed of words and phrases close in meaning; thematic groups are formed of words referring to the same variety or type of objects or phenomena. Making up a glossary of semantically/thematically close words and phrases is an effective tool if you group them on the principle of similarity or closeness of meaning. E.g.: Linguistic imperialism, linguistic imperialism of neoliberal empire, the linguistic imperialisms of dominant languages, global and local inequalities, the oppressed.

Word nests

It is easier to memorize words when they are organized into root-related groups of words. E.g.: colonialism, neo-colonialism, colonizers, decolonizing, the colonized.

MODULE 2-2. THE SKILLS OF CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Unit 2-7. CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION – THE NEW NORM

Guidelines for extensive reading of ESP texts

Teaching basics of cross-cultural communication in the ESP extensive reading course presupposes general understanding of longer texts with the aim of gaining specific field experience and acquiring special information in this area. Extensive reading is individualized, with students being offered a choice of assignments in which they are to combine content and language learning. This module emphasizes the importance of understanding cultural differences and cross-cultural communication skills in various contexts.

Text 2-7. CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

(After Michelle LeBaron’s Cross-Cultural Communication. Beyond Intractability)