The power of words (By Elizabeth Cripps, The Guardian, June 15, 2004)
Why are the French so reluctant to speak in English? One reason, according to Dr Bhaskaran Nayar, is that if you talk in another person's language, then you are surrendering a bit of power.
Nayar, senior lecturer in language communication at Lincoln University, argues that the political implications of the widespread use of English are enormous - and perpetuated by English teachers.
"English teaching is big business for Britain," he says. He has noticed the politics of economic aid being dragged into the relationship between teacher and non-native learners, for example in African countries. An almost colonial attitude - "the feeling that we give you a gift" - is, says Nayar, "still very much alive, particularly when America is brought in".
He has observed a tendency "to see the English language as a means of communicating a whole value system". The subtext is: "'Talk the way we tell you, just as when we give aid - we will give it if you spend it as we say.' There is the same us and them attitude, the same mild patronisation."
Nayar, who speaks English (his fourth language) with a cut-glass accent, was prompted by his own experiences. "Americans found it very disorientating to talk to me," he says. "Lots of Americans saw an Asian face, then heard an English voice, and didn't know how to react." He realised that "people don't really listen to the message of what you are saying"; they listen to how you speak the language.
Nayar is involved in the new area of critical language pedagogy, looking at the ideological undercurrents when English is taught. "Mostly it is done innocently," he says. "You can't help promoting English values. This [critical language pedagogy] makes teachers aware that they may be doing this."
It happens, he agrees, whenever you learn another language. "But it is different with English because it is institutionalised into powerful organisations like Tesol." (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages is a global organisation for the promotion of English as a second language.) "Part of the agenda, consciously or subconsciously, is something like linguistic imperialism."
The power dynamics, Nayar adds, are apparent in former colonies such as Nigeria. "There is an English-speaking elite. In films in the third world, if the policeman says: 'You are under arrest' in English, that's the final word - switching into English is a sign of power. Then if the guy replies in English, it is his way of saying: 'I know English too, so don't think you can mess with me.'"
Nayar is also interested in the gap between speaking a language and being able to communicate. In India, he used a questionnaire with some "ordinary British humour" and found that English-speaking postgraduate students often didn't understand the joke.
Examples were: "Are you a man or a mouse?" "Well, have you got any cheese?"
Or a note on a restaurant/hotel in Lincoln: "You don't have to sleep with us to eat with us." Or, in a lecture hall: "These chairs have legs only for standing, not for walking."
"I started to think what else there is in communication: shared beliefs, shared value systems, knowledge of each other's value systems," says Nayar.
"People assume that if you speak the language you can talk, and often you can, but there are a lot of other things there - the general conventionalised codes in a community about what to say, how to say what you want to say and how to read the information underneath."
Nayar, who has published articles on the politics of discourse, intends to turn his research into a book on the sociolinguistics of world communication in English.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2004/jun/15/workinprogress.highereducation?INTCMP=SRCH
Discussion Questions
1. Describe the issues of power Nayar presents about language and language learning.
2. How does Nayar compare international English language teaching and linguistic imperialism?
3. Does Nayar’s point support or refute your thesis for your upcoming essay?
4. Have you ever had any objections to your attendance at this school? For what reasons? Have you ever been in a situation where someone has criticized you for using English?