Local literacies and global literacy

Abstract

The future of English as a global language seems assured. Although there are other world languages, only English is used transnationally with a majority of its users now those for whom it is a second language (Graddol 1999). In response to this expansion, and going against the grain of mainstream values and discourses, many teachers and scholars have wished to defend and valorize the local over the global. Vernacular speech or literacy is set against standard, institutionalized and mainstream language varieties. ‘Little’ languages are seen like little people as needing to be defended. At the same time, there is a strong implication that the local offers the best means for the expression of ‘authentic’ identity and political resistance on the part of subordinated groups. In this chapter I wish to challenge some of these assumptions. I want to argue that, as teachers of English, our best response to the global future of English is not resistance to the language which provides us with a living, nor even an apologetic defence, but a rethinking of what kind of English best serves the needs of its users for the twenty-first century.

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