Disinventing and reconstituting languages / edited by Sinfree Makoni and Alastair Pennycook.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Makoni, Sinfree.

Pennycook, Alastair, 1957-

Series:

Bilingual education and bilingualism.

Bilingual education and bilingualism

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language and languages.

Semantics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (265 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Clevedon : Multilingual Matters, 2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book questions assumptions about the nature of language and how language is conceptualized. Looking at diverse contexts from sign languages in Indonesia to literacy practices in Brazil, from hip-hop in the US to education in Bosnia and Herzegovina, this book forcefully argues that a critique of common linguistic and metalinguistic suppositions is not only a conceptual but also a sociopolitical necessity. Just as many notions of language are highly suspect, so too are many related concepts premised on a notion of discrete languages, such as language rights, mother tongues, multilingualism, or code-switching. Definitions of language in language policies, education and assessment have material and often harmful consequences for people. Unless we actively engage with the history of invention of languages in order to radically change and reconstitute the ways in which languages are taught and conceptualized, language studies will not be able to improve the social welfare of language users.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

The Contributors

Foreword

Chapter 1. Disinventing and Reconstituting Languages

Chapter 2. Then There were Languages: Bahasa Indonesia was One Among Many

Chapter 3. Critical Historiography: Does Language Planning in Africa Need a Construct of Language as Part of its Theoretical Apparatus?

Chapter 4. The Myth of English as an International Language

Chapter 5. Beyond ‘Language’: Linguistic Imperialism, Sign Languages and Linguistic Anthropology

Chapter 6. Entering a Culture Quietly: Writing and Cultural Survival in Indigenous Education in Brazil

Chapter 7. A Linguistics of Communicative Activity

Chapter 8. (Dis)inventing Discourse: Examples from Black Culture and Hiphop Rap/ Discourse

Chapter 9 .Educational Materials Reflecting Heteroglossia: Disinventing Ethnolinguistic Differences in Bosnia- Herzegovina

Chapter 10. After Disinvention: Possibilities for Communication, Community and Competence

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786610705382

9781280705380

1280705388

9781853599255

1853599255

OCLC:

560208513