Linguistically privileged and cursed? American university students and the global hegemony of English

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper analyzes written discourse generated in response to an open‐ended questionnaire administered to 136 students at two different universities in the southwestern United States and to 15 non‐American students at a large Danish university. The questionnaire aimed to inspire reflection about the impact of the global rise of English on American mother‐tongue speakers of English as well as on those who do not have English as a mother tongue, especially with respect to the question of mono vs. multilingual practice. Most American and non‐American respondents represented the learning of a foreign language as something American mother‐tongue speakers should do but as something which is not necessary. There was widespread, though not unanimous, agreement that English is necessary for non‐mother‐tongue speakers. Responses are also grouped, discussed, and analyzed in terms of the instrumental, multicultural, or mix of multicultural and instrumental logic used. The author is especially concerned with the intersections between the global hegemony of English and the learning of foreign languages. The study and analysis conducted here offer insight into these intersections. Given that so much is at stake in terms of the relationship between the global expansion of English and foreign language learning, the author concludes that further research into this relationship is needed.

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