1st day

Yay my first day of WE! Today we covered a lot of material. One of the things that kept coming to my mind during discussion of the different articles and issues related WE, I couldn't help but think but reflect back on the Yukio Tsuda' article "English Hegemony and English Divide." Ever since reading Tsuda's article, I can't help but to view WE from more critical perspective. I think because I read that article prior to taking the WE course and the different articles assigned for the course, I think I might be approaching WE with a certain level of hesistancy. The reason being is due in part to the argument that Tsuda makes against WE. Tsuda argued that Kachru and WE proponents should be applauded for their efforts towards the promotion and acceptance of other varieties of English. However, he argues that WE is still ideologically based and although it promotes other varieties of Englishes, WE continues the promotion of English and its dominance in the world. He claims that WE "simply affirms the global spread of English without examining the impact of the dominance of English." In a way, I do adhere to Tsuda's view regarding WE. Similar to Tsuda, I do agree that WE and WE proponents is a good step in the right direction in regards to promoting equality among the different varieties of Englishes that are found in the world. However, I still find WE as being problematic because I think the linguistic hierachies are still be perpetuated but just recreated into additional layers. Instead of having the hierarchy of "Standard" English that is often associated with the inner circle, under the WE paradigm the WE English level is position as the level below "Standard" English...ahhh need to finish this train of thought...to be continued!!! :D


Reference: Tsuda, Y. (2008). English hegemony and English divide. China Media Research. 4(1), 47-55.