Global English Academia and Local Academic Identities

Educational Linguistics educational_linguistics at hotmail.com
Mon Aug 5 12:45:43 UTC 2002


English-speaking academia is perhaps becoming what could be termed a 'Global
English Academia' in the sense that (socio-)linguistically speaking, more
and more scholars of different backgrounds probably have to (or want to?)
use English as an academic lingua franca. The perk, of course, is to
facilitate academic communicationa/cooperation.

Nevertheless, a Global English-Academia (or a Global-English Academia)
could, knowingly or unknowingly, become a form of academic imperialism in
which different academic identities and ideologies might find it hard to
establish themselves in the international academic world.

When more and more people tend to choose to pursue their studies in
English-speaking countries under their academic ideologies and practices,
this form of academic imperialism might become less and less "coercive" in
the sense that academics worldwide might simply take it for granted!

I am now attempting to explore: (1) what constitute local academic
identities; (2) how local academic identities can "survive" in response to a
Global English Academia (if any); and (3) how a Global English Academia
could be exploited to facilitate (instead of debilitating) local academic
identities.

Any relevant references (e.g., Ammon 2001) or any constructive academic
suggestions or comments would be much appreciated.





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