1 / 14

語言、文化與文學 Language, Culture and Literature

語言、文化與文學 Language, Culture and Literature. Cheang Wai Fong Center for General Education Chang Gung University, Taiwan cheangwf@mail.cgu.edu.tw. English=European costume.

karen-lucas
Download Presentation

語言、文化與文學 Language, Culture and Literature

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. 語言、文化與文學Language, Culture and Literature Cheang Wai Fong Center for General Education Chang Gung University, Taiwan cheangwf@mail.cgu.edu.tw

  2. English=European costume • What English is to us today can be comparable to what “European costume” is to the Turkish astronomer in Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s world-famous book, The Little Prince (1943). Without his “European costume,” the Turkish astronomer was not believed. Without English, we would not be heard in the international community, less to say to be believed.

  3. English = international language • It cannot be denied at this very historical moment that English is the international language. The urge and the need to globalize have prompted lots of us whose native tongues are not English to learn the language.

  4. Edward W. Said’s remarks • However, we cannot ignore what Edward Said once said about the English learning in a national university in a Gulf state.

  5. “[t]his all but terminally consigned English to the level of a technical language almost totally stripped of expressive and aesthetic characteristics but also denuded of anycritical or self-conscious dimension” (1990, p.3).

  6. Local Colors and Confidence • The present social context of the English language is a multi-cultural one; and the ruling out of local colors is thus the placing of English learning in an impossible vacuum. • It is important to develop local student’s confidence. This aspect should be given more consideration than the demand for standard English.

  7. 1. Cultural: Possible Critical and Self-Conscious Dimension • Historical perpective: • Our present historical context strengthens the need to globalize, and under such a need, a mastery of English for international communication allows English to enjoy a prestigious position. • However, if one mounts onto the time machine and travels back to eleventh-century England, one discovers that the English language did not have the status it enjoys today.

  8. The Norman Conquest • The Norman Conquest made French the prestigious language in England for over two centuries. During that period “anybody whose native tongue was English, and who wanted to get on in the world, had to learn French” (Barber, 1993, p.135). • The language of the conqueror was the desired language.

  9. Norman Conquest • From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia on net. • The Norman Conquest was the conquest of England by William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy), in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings and the subsequent Norman control of England. It is an important watershed in English history for a number of reasons. • It changed the English language and culture.

  10. Our own historical existentialism Not unlike Englishmen during the Norman Conquest who were eager to learn French, today we are eager to learn English, a language that would help us “get on in the world.” We are, in a sense, determined by our own historical context. Nevertheless, our intellect must attempt to go beyond the confines of our times, to attain a critical perspective.

  11. Linguistic imperialism and colonization • Scholars such as Ngugi Wa Thiong and Robert Phillipson are extremely critical of the triumphant spread of the English language. They have presented to us that the wide spread of English is a kind of linguistic imperialism and colonization. • Language is a constituent of culture, and the great influence of culture, as our post-modern consciousness is aware of, explains why the spread of English can be greeted with alarm.

  12. American Hegemony • Marc Ferro’s Colonization: A Global History: “European hegemony” is replaced by “American hegemony” in the Twentieth Century (1997, p.345). • In Taiwan, we can discover the impact of American influence in our daily lives. • The wide spread of English schools, especially ones that are entitled “Mei-yu” (literarily, American language) schools, reflects Taiwan’s historical determinism .

  13. A remark on our present praxis • It is obvious that our present English learning and teaching policy lack the clairvoyance to reflect on the cultural or ideological aspect of language. • (It focuses on the functional aspect of the language and regards English as a necessary means for globalization.)

  14. Sociolinguists: English is a must now • Sociolinguist, Joshua A. Fishman, observes that “the real ‘powerhouse’ is still English.” • He says that “[English] doesn’t have to worry about being loved because, loved or not, it works”(1983, p.20). • In a similar fashion Nash claims that “English goes with the new technology, with fashion, with business, with life in the fast lane” (1992, p.185).

More Related