Disinventing and reconstituting languages [[electronic resource] /] / edited by Sinfree Makoni and Alastair Pennycook

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910450984403321
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Clevedon, : Multilingual Matters, 2007
• ISBN: 1-280-70538-8; 9786610705382; 1-85359-925-5
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (265 p.)
• Collana: Bilingual education and bilingualism
• Altri autori (Persone): MakoniSinfree; PennycookAlastair <1957->
• Disciplina: 400
• Soggetti: Language and languages; Semantics; Electronic books.
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: 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
• Sommario/riassunto: 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.