Abstract:
In this keynote presentation, I will explore the often-fraught tensions in
language policy in the global South in relation to the dominance of national
languages and a related emphasis on public monolingualism, the burgeoning
expansion and influence of English as a world language, and their collective
impact on the maintenance of individual multilingualism.
I will critically examine the still-apparent tendency in language policy – rooted
in its colonial origins - to undermine individual multilingualism in a wide
variety of local languages in favor of monolingualism in national languages
and/or delimited bilingualism in an international language such as English. In
so doing, I will also question the often-naïve assumption that the acquisition
of English is the key to social, economic, and educational mobility in an
increasingly globalized world.
