Journal Articles by Alastair Pennycook
In a series of articles critical of aspects of the idea of translanguaging, MacSwan (e.g. 2022) h... more In a series of articles critical of aspects of the idea of translanguaging, MacSwan (e.g. 2022) has suggested that deconstructivism has derailed the translingual project. This paper draws attention to a number of weaknesses in this argument that are important for taking critical questions about language seriously. The term deconstructivism operates more as a derogatory label than a description of a theoretical stance, an appeal to popular notions about the postmodern rather than to intellectual debate about modes of inquiry. The notion of deconstruction itself is a common term referring to the need to pull structures apart before reassembling them, as suggested by deconstructivism in architecture (to describe the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, for example). Ontological curiosity about languages also has a long history and is an important step before reconstruction, reinvention, or reconstitution. This paper makes a case for critical engagement, an argument for intellectual care when dealing with critical theory, and critical resistance, the question of whether contemporary language matters of concern are better served by traditional or current sociolinguistic frameworks.
Approaches To Faculty Evaluation For Esl - Comment
Tesol Quarterly, 1990
Critical pedagogy and second language education
System, 1990
A major lacuna in second language education is its divorce from broader issues in educational the... more A major lacuna in second language education is its divorce from broader issues in educational theory. While this same point was made last year in this journal by White [Curriculum studies and ELT. System 17, 83-93 (1989)], his work ironically also demonstrates a lack of understanding of some basic issues in curriculum philosophy. White misrepresents some key ideological aspects and is thus able to reject the work of many more radical educators, and to adopt Skilbeck's limited model for curriculum development. The nature of second language education, however, requires us to understand our educational practice in broader social, cultural, and political terms, and it is to critical pedagogy that I think we could most profitably turn to extend our conception of what we are doing as language teachers. © 1990.
The Diremptive/Redemptive Project: Postmodern Reflections on Culture and Knowledge in International Academic Relations
Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 1990
Tesol Quarterly, 1991
23:42 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discov... more 23:42 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Turning English inside out
Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2002
Beyond plagiarism: transgressive and nontransgressive intertextuality
Journal of Language, Identity and Education, 2004
English in Australia, 2004
Global noise and global englishes
Cultural Studies Review, 2003
Islam, English and 9/11
Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 2005
Performing the personal
Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 2005
Talking across time: Postcolonial challenges to language, history and difference
Journal of Contemporary Thought, 2007
A question of dialogues: Authorship, authority, plagiarism
Education Canada, 2008
Articulating identities: Communities, histories, migrations
TESOL in Context, 2008
Multilithic English(es) and language ideologies
Language in Society, 2008
With the growth of Asia's manufacturing and service industries, the prediction that China and Ind... more With the growth of Asia's manufacturing and service industries, the prediction that China and India, respectively, will have the first and third largest global economies within 30 years, a population that comprises over 50% of the world's people, and massive English language programs throughout the region, it is no surprise that the role of English in Asia has become a major concern. At a recent (2006) Asia TEFL conference in Japan, the notions of Asian English(es), along with Asian methodologies and Asian knowledge, were topics of considerable discussion. The size and diversity of Asia, however, makes it a very difficult entity to define: The Asia TEFL conference included delegates from Israel and Iran, and two of the books under review here, Braj Kachru's Asian Englishes: Beyond the canon(AEBC) and Yamuna Kachru & Cecil Nelson's World Englishes in Asian contexts(WEAC), include (with identical maps) Australia and New Zealand. In some ways, the idea of Asia is defined by what it is not: Europe and North America. It is also not, of course, South America or Africa, though with WEACcontaining a chapter on African Englishes (as well as African American Vernacular English, or AAVE), it seems as if they might be allowed in. It is clear nevertheless that various notions of Asia ? as an economic zone, as a cultural entity, and as a user of a type or types of English ? are widely used. We need to take the notion of Asia and Asian English(es) seriously, if only to try to understand what is meant by Braj Kachru's explanation that AEBCis ?essentially about the Asianness in Asian Englishes and their gradual, yet marked, distinctiveness?
Translingual English
Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 2008
Translingual Englishes
Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 2008
In their introduction to this special edition of ARAL, Michael Clyne and Farzad Sharifian have la... more In their introduction to this special edition of ARAL, Michael Clyne and Farzad Sharifian have laid out a number of the general concerns we need to consider when trying to grapple with the global spread of English. There is much of value in their proposal for a more symmetrical understanding of the pluricentricity of English; for a focus on cross-cultural/ intercultural communication, especially on pragmatic, discourse, and conceptual variation in English language classes; and for language policies that emphasise bilingualism and multilingualism. Their position nevertheless stops short in its exploration of the wider concerns raised by the gobal spread of English: While rightly critiquing the monolingual mindset that is blind to multilingualism and gives support to the use only of English, Clyne and Sharifian nevertheless fail to problematise the assumptions that underlie all these discussions around the global spread of English. It is not enough just to question monolingualism and argue for multilingualism, since both conceptions emerge from the same context of European-based thinking about language. As long as we still operate with the same epistemological framework of languages that emerged from the colonial/modernist context (Errington, 2008; Nakata, 2007), we will not be able to think our way out of the dilemmas posed by language and globalisation
Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 2010
Critical directions in applied linguistics can be understood in various ways. The term critical a... more Critical directions in applied linguistics can be understood in various ways. The term critical as it has been used in critical applied linguistics, critical discourse analysis, critical literacy and so forth, is now embedded as part of applied linguistic work, adding an overt focus on questions of power and inequality to discourse analysis, literacy or applied linguistics more generally. In this paper I will argue, however, that although critical discourse analysis and critical literacy still make claims to a territory different from their `non-critical counterparts, much of this work has become conventional and moribund. The use of the term `critical (with its problematic claims and divisions) has perhaps reached saturation level. This is not to say, however, that the basic need to bring questions of power, disparity and difference to applied linguistics is any way diminished, but rather that we may need to look in alternative directions for renewal.
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Journal Articles by Alastair Pennycook