[…] One of the things we need to do in English
language education is grasp the entanglements of
English (Pennycook, 2021; 2022b). If we want to
understand the role, spread and position of English in
the world, and our role as language educators in relation
to this, we need ways to think about how English (or
any language) is interwoven with social, cultural,
material and political relations. […]
One of the real difficulties is coming to grips with
the complexities at stake here. […] Leya Mathew
(2022) sheds light on the desperate cycle of hope,
desire, disappointment and inequality with which
English is involved in southern India. Disenfranchised,
lower-caste women want access to English for their
children, which they see as a means for social mobility
for the next generation. Those who already have such
access advise against this, promoting first language
education. As we know, promotion of first-language
education for those who feel that their upward mobility
may depend on English is always a fraught argument,
and the poor may spurn education in the first language,
instead finding themselves paying for poor quality rote
English that may not provide the ticket to change that
is hoped for. Thus, the hegemonic role of English in a
post-colonial context like India is constantly reproduced,
and the agents of this reproduction may be impoverished
women as much as wealthier men. English for these
mothers becomes, at least in their eyes, a tool for
emancipation from class and caste-based segregation
and subjugation, and yet, English language education
and policies also serve to maintain these inequalities.
As English language educators, we have to grasp
these complexities, and understand all these local
instantiations of English. This is not about local varieties
of English nor about one hegemonic role for English but
rather a complexity of entangled relations. It is into
these spaces that we teach.
(Adapted from: PENNYCOOK, A.; SILVESTRE, V. P. V.; PESSOA, R. R. Reflections on Critical Applied Linguistics and Decoloniality: a follow-up conversation with Alastair Pennycook. Calidoscópio, São Leopoldo, v. 20, n. 2, p. 568–569, 2022. DOI: 10.4013/cld.2022.202.12.
