The English-Vernacular Divide: Postcolonial Language Politics and Practice

Author: Vaidehi Ramanathan

Format:
Paperback
Related Formats:
Ebook(PDF)
ISBN:
9781853597695
Published:
Publisher:
Multilingual Matters
Number of pages:
160
Dimensions:
210mm x 148mm
Availability:
Available

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This book offers a critical exploration of the role of English in postcolonial communities such as India. Specifically, it focuses on some local ways in which the language falls along the lines of a class-based divide (with ancillary ones of gender and caste as well). The book argues that issues of inequality, subordination and unequal value seem to revolve directly around the general positioning of English in relation to vernacular languages.  The author was raised and schooled in the Indian educational system.

Vaidehi Ramanathan is an Associate Professor in the Linguistics department at the University of California, Davis She was raised and schooled in the educational system she writes about and she has been involved in issues related vernacular and English language teaching for several years in a variety of contexts, including teacher-education. Her publications include: The Politics of TESOL education  (RoutledgeFalmer) and Alzheimer’s discourse: some sociolinguistic dimensions (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates).

Preface
1 Introduction: Situating the Vernacular in a Divisive Postcolonial Landscape
2 Divisive Postcolonial Ideologies, Language Policies and Social Practices
3 Divisive and Divergent Pedagogical Tools for Vernacular and English-medium Students
4 The Divisive Politics of Divergent Pedagogical Practices
5 The Divisive Politics of Tracking
6 Gulfs and Bridges Revisited: Hybridization, Nativization and Other Loose Ends
Afterword
Appendices
References
Index

Postgraduate, Research / Professional
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