The legitimacy of the many postcolonial Englishes in the world necessitated an imperative to expl... more The legitimacy of the many postcolonial Englishes in the world necessitated an imperative to explore their use in the classroom. This pedagogic imperative in many cases has collided with many problems because of deeply entrenched ideologies in educational systems around the world. This configuration of issues surrounding the sociolinguistics of Englishes has resulted in the burgeoning of scholarly investigations into constraints and possibilities of World Englishes (WE), English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), and English as an International Language (EIL) in classrooms around the world. In this paper, I will argue that Englishes as a pedagogical problem is partly a construction or creation of such investigations and, in many ways, is disconnected from the daily challenges of English language teachers. What is the place of Englishes as an academic pedagogical issue among the myriad of problems teachers face every day? This paper draws on a 3-year localization project in ELT curriculum development in several institutions in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. In particular, it tracks the stories of three teachers in each of the last three countries, to give substance to the paper's argument that the current line of inquiry in the pedagogical "implications" of the sociolinguistics of Englishes is unequal, and usually treats the teacher and the classroom as a recipient, not a co-constructor, of knowledge in the field. Keywords World Englishes • English as a Lingua Franca • English as an international language • Localization • English teacher R. Tupas () English Language and Literature
This volume tracks the complex relationships between language, education and nation-building in S... more This volume tracks the complex relationships between language, education and nation-building in Southeast Asia, focusing on how language policies have been used by states and governments as instruments of control, assimilation and empowerment. The individual chapters each represent one of the countries in the region, namely Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Written by established and well-known scholars of language, education and politics in Southeast Asia, the chapters examine the place of minority or non-dominant languages in nation-building agendas and practices, as well as their impact both on the linguistic ecology of specific countries and on the cultural, socio-economic and political well-being of their speakers. With a recent worldwide push towards multilingual education as one way to address the cultural, political and economic marginalization of millions of people around the world, this volume also examines the possibilities and challenges of implementing mother tongue-based education programmes in the region
‘How are you?’, I asked one of my former students who came for an interview with me in a school c... more ‘How are you?’, I asked one of my former students who came for an interview with me in a school cafe. ‘I’m good. I feel good,’ she quickly answered. ‘I always try. I need to look professional all the time’.
‘The functional equality of all languages’, according to Hymes (1985, p. v), ‘has been a tenet of... more ‘The functional equality of all languages’, according to Hymes (1985, p. v), ‘has been a tenet of the faith from the founders of structural linguistics to most practitioners of linguistics today’. This faith has been ‘the progressive force’ that has resulted in ‘the appreciation of the marvelous variety of forms taken by human linguistic creativity’ (p. v). This volume argues that it is the same faith in linguistic equality that has served as political and ideological anchor for much of the work on the development and spread of the English language around the world. It is ‘progressive’ in the sense that it has repudiated and unmasked practically all deep-seated beliefs about what constitutes the nature of English today. There is no one English, but many Englishes. No one has exclusive rights to the language; anyone who speaks it has the right to own it. The norms of use are multilingual norms and the strategies to teach English are also multilingual in nature. The English language is deeply embedded in the multilingual and multicultural lives of its speakers— so who are the native speakers of English today? To insist that those who can be called native speakers are only those who come from Inner Circle countries, especially the United States and the United Kingdom (where users of English are typically described as ‘native speakers’), is to disenfranchise the majority of English speakers today.
The legitimacy of the many postcolonial Englishes in the world necessitated an imperative to expl... more The legitimacy of the many postcolonial Englishes in the world necessitated an imperative to explore their use in the classroom. This pedagogic imperative in many cases has collided with many problems because of deeply entrenched ideologies in educational systems around the world. This configuration of issues surrounding the sociolinguistics of Englishes has resulted in the burgeoning of scholarly investigations into constraints and possibilities of World Englishes (WE), English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), and English as an International Language (EIL) in classrooms around the world. In this paper, I will argue that Englishes as a pedagogical problem is partly a construction or creation of such investigations and, in many ways, is disconnected from the daily challenges of English language teachers. What is the place of Englishes as an academic pedagogical issue among the myriad of problems teachers face every day? This paper draws on a 3-year localization project in ELT curriculum development in several institutions in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. In particular, it tracks the stories of three teachers in each of the last three countries, to give substance to the paper's argument that the current line of inquiry in the pedagogical "implications" of the sociolinguistics of Englishes is unequal, and usually treats the teacher and the classroom as a recipient, not a co-constructor, of knowledge in the field. Keywords World Englishes • English as a Lingua Franca • English as an international language • Localization • English teacher R. Tupas () English Language and Literature
This volume tracks the complex relationships between language, education and nation-building in S... more This volume tracks the complex relationships between language, education and nation-building in Southeast Asia, focusing on how language policies have been used by states and governments as instruments of control, assimilation and empowerment. The individual chapters each represent one of the countries in the region, namely Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Written by established and well-known scholars of language, education and politics in Southeast Asia, the chapters examine the place of minority or non-dominant languages in nation-building agendas and practices, as well as their impact both on the linguistic ecology of specific countries and on the cultural, socio-economic and political well-being of their speakers. With a recent worldwide push towards multilingual education as one way to address the cultural, political and economic marginalization of millions of people around the world, this volume also examines the possibilities and challenges of implementing mother tongue-based education programmes in the region
‘How are you?’, I asked one of my former students who came for an interview with me in a school c... more ‘How are you?’, I asked one of my former students who came for an interview with me in a school cafe. ‘I’m good. I feel good,’ she quickly answered. ‘I always try. I need to look professional all the time’.
‘The functional equality of all languages’, according to Hymes (1985, p. v), ‘has been a tenet of... more ‘The functional equality of all languages’, according to Hymes (1985, p. v), ‘has been a tenet of the faith from the founders of structural linguistics to most practitioners of linguistics today’. This faith has been ‘the progressive force’ that has resulted in ‘the appreciation of the marvelous variety of forms taken by human linguistic creativity’ (p. v). This volume argues that it is the same faith in linguistic equality that has served as political and ideological anchor for much of the work on the development and spread of the English language around the world. It is ‘progressive’ in the sense that it has repudiated and unmasked practically all deep-seated beliefs about what constitutes the nature of English today. There is no one English, but many Englishes. No one has exclusive rights to the language; anyone who speaks it has the right to own it. The norms of use are multilingual norms and the strategies to teach English are also multilingual in nature. The English language is deeply embedded in the multilingual and multicultural lives of its speakers— so who are the native speakers of English today? To insist that those who can be called native speakers are only those who come from Inner Circle countries, especially the United States and the United Kingdom (where users of English are typically described as ‘native speakers’), is to disenfranchise the majority of English speakers today.
My presentation highlights the intricate relationship between globalization, nationalismand mothe... more My presentation highlights the intricate relationship between globalization, nationalismand mother tongues, arguing that ‘multilingualism’ does not merely refer to the distributionof many languages within a particular linguistic ecology, but also in what I call inequalitiesof multilingualism (Tupas, 2015; also Tupas & Salonga, 2016) which embed deep-seatedideological debates and unequal social relations unique to specific communities and/ornations. The tension between globalization and nationalism continues to animate andimpact the shape of language politics, but interestingly such tension has opened upideological and communicative spaces for the mother tongues. I will focus on such spaces,providing examples of recent initiatives in the region which have strategically helped somelocal languages to flourish again, albeit still in a limited way, especially in educationalsystems. Inequalities of multilingualism are hugely stacked against the flourishing of themother tongues, but it is precisely through our heightened awareness of such inequalitiesthat we can reasonably (re)claim the place of our local languages in our increasingly globalizing societies and communities.
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Books by Ruanni Tupas
Papers by Ruanni Tupas