This collection of 10 studies from Asian and African contexts begins with a general introduction by Luke that links many strands and challenges to current radical educational thinking as well as an introduction by the two editors; it terminates with a conclusion with reflections by Canagarajah. The editors present an intellectually challenging framework for reading the country studies and draw on themes to articulate a case for rethinking much language-in-education policy. Their hope is that the volume goes beyond state-of-the art description and theorization and can lead from coherent deconstruction to proactive reconstruction. This is needed because many of our analytical categories remain simplistic, and inadequate educational policy leads to the perpetuation of social inequalities. A key paradox is the widespread demand for more English, although English does not serve all equally well. Many do not develop high-level competence, whereas dominant groups or classes are groomed for the economy of globalization that has dashed most decolonization hopes. Across differing country reports, the pattern is of an “emptying out of the ‘linguistic local’ and the one-sided pursuit of the ‘linguistic global’” (p. 9).
Annamalai makes a rich, subtle presentation of educational language policy in colonial and postcolonial India. Most useful for SLA are remarks on how English nativization processes are taken on board in education and what the implications are for mobility nationally, for inclusion or exclusion, and for participation in the global economy. He also stresses various decolonization needs, both in terms of attitudes (escaping from ingrained orientalism at all levels of education) and teacher competence.
Lin's chapter on Hong Kong makes the methodological point that a periphery scholar should not merely take over center epistemologies and argues that our research approaches risk being self-referential (purely academic) and lack self-reflection. Lin eloquently shows how critical discourse analysis unmasks the legitimization of an inequitable social structure (now under Chinese management). Proficiency in English remains an elusive goal for the many, but the education system is functional for the local elite, for China, and for global commerce. However, even if her ethnographic data unearth the attitudes of the marginal (those who know their life chances are adversely affected by not knowing English), the gap between scholarship and societal change remains wide. She ends by endorsing a challenge from Luke: “TESOL must do something other than what it currently does. Otherwise, it will remain a technology for domesticating the ‘other’, whatever its scientific and humanitarian pretenses” (p. 52).
The analysis of 40 years of independent Singapore, by Rubdy, vividly reveals an activist approach to language policy: the conscious replacement of mother tongues by the key language of global capitalism, English—and to a lesser extent Mandarin—in order to create and cement a new national identity and ensure the economy. The overtly elitist educational policies support the lie that English is neutral, because losers are condemned to the variant of English, Singlish, that, however authentic, is considered irrelevant by an authoritarian state. One current challenge is the need, because of changes in the global economy, for education to produce more critical, creative citizens while retaining their loyalty to the top-down national project.
Martin's chapter presents classroom discourse samples from multilingual Sarawak that suggest that very little learning of any kind is taking place. Although Martin makes the connection between national educational and economic goals, it is unlikely that teachers or pupils can do so, and failure to provide literacy in the minority languages looks like slavish adherence to a Western modernist agenda.
Riazi's run-through of four millennia of Iranian history is a more general chapter, but it is a fascinating summary of the major cultural and linguistic influences on the country. In recent decades, pressure to globalize has created a massive demand for English, which the Islamic state tolerates. English is extensively taught in schools in a quantitative grammar-translation way. Riazi bemoans the almost complete lack of language planning for status purposes.
The chapter by two American scholars, Reagan and Schreffler, on a Turkish higher education institution, unfortunately devotes much of the text to a general language policy and planning survey. The issue of striking a balance between an increased use of English as the medium of instruction (with serious problems in ensuring quality) and maintaining the vitality of the local language is of general interest, because this is a key issue in northern Europe as well (Phillipson, 2006). This chapter is exceptional in addressing the ideological implications of assigning a greater role to English in higher education. The authors note that there is generally limited awareness of wider issues of linguistic imperialism and globalization among their Turkish colleagues.
Three chapters present language-in-education analyses in Africa, which, with the exception of part of the South African economy, experiences the negative effects of globalization (unlike Hong Kong and Singapore, key players in financial globalization). The three chapters are grim reading, as the classroom evidence from Kenya (Bunyi), Tanzania, and South Africa (Brock-Utne, citing local scholars) tells of inappropriate pedagogy and little learning. Probyn's summary of the complexities and contradictions of South African language policy is exceptionally lucid. The case for bilingual education has been made strongly by African researchers for over 30 years, so that the present picture of waste merely confirms the stranglehold that keeps Africans in a dependent, largely semiliterate state, with elites buying themselves into English-medium education. Aggravating factors include the perception of English as a panacea, poor policy implementation, insufficient resources for work on African languages, and inappropriate donor policies.
Canagarajah teases out some of the main tensions revealed and relates them to top-down language policy (which he regards as a failure) and education, stressing the potential of integrating learning with language ecology, multiliteracies, and bottom-up approaches that recognize that globalization has overtaken decolonization. (Does this mean SLA should transform into multiple language acquisition?) Although the volume is exceptionally coherent and inspiring, there still remains a gap between sophisticated analysis and proactive policies that explicitly explore what incorporation by globalization and the proliferation of English actually entail. Educational sociology has explored how and why “education cannot compensate for society” (Bernstein, 1970), whereas the role of TESOL in globalization still remains largely unexplored. The global proliferation of English is a precondition for the success of corporate globalization; therefore, how and why the language is learned and used ought to be a major concern in the neo-imperial age in which we now live.
