The next public lecture organised by the project Vaud Multilingue, in collaboration with colleagues from the HEP Vaud, will take place on Thursday, 5 December 2019 at 18h at the HEP Vaud (Avenue de Cour 33, 1007 Lausanne), in room C33-520. After the lecture drinks and snacks will be served.
We are delighted that Dr. Eva Codó (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) will give a presentation on the following topic : « Englishization policies in education: ‘Democratizing’ English or recreating social inequalities? »
To learn more about Dr. Codó, take a look at the following website : http://blogs.uab.cat/advancedenglishstudiesma/ambits-lecturers/linguistics/linguistics-staff/dr-eva-codo/
ABSTRACT:
Englishization policies in education: ‘Democratizing’ English or recreating social inequalities?
Eva Codó, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
This talk aims to critically examine and contrast two simultaneous processes of school Englishization (where English is introduced as a language of instruction) and their consequences for social justice. I will be drawing on data from a recently-completed funded research project on multilingualization of compulsory education in Barcelona, Spain. The two high schools analysed are very distinct in nature and clientele. One of them is state-owned and attended by lower-middle class students whereas the other one is a fully-private international school attended by local elites and around 15% expatriate families. The two linguistic projects are also radically different. While the public school focuses on English Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), the international school showcases its intensive multilingualism including ‘rare’ capitals such as Mandarin, official trilingual policies (Catalan, Spanish and English) and ‘English immersion’ as a distinctive language learning methodology. Despite English being a central aspect of the educational project in both cases, the elite school seeks to distinguish itself from the public sector by selling ‘premium’ English. But what is this premium English and how is it different from ‘just English’? I will examine what kinds of English language practices are constructed as desirable in each school, what linguistic ideologies they are grounded on and how they are connected to the historical trajectory and educational project of each school. I will also seek to elucidate what role the native speaker plays in structuring practices and (de)legitimising teachers, and in so doing question commonly-held assumptions about what constitutes ‘good’ English.
