English Language Cultural Bias in the Process of Globalization: Analysis of Interchange Series

Document Type : Research

Authors

1 Director, English Language Center, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan iran

2 English department-faculty of basic sciences, Qom university of technology, Qom, Iran

3 Ministry of Education, Isfahan Province

Abstract

English enjoys a unique place in the process of globalization, of which many other languages are deprived. In commerce, science, technology, politics and cultural relations English has an undeniable presence and influence. To mitigate the dominating role of the English language and to alleviate the challenging attitudes towards this language, a few models have been proposed which mostly emphasize the global nature of English and attempt to ignore its cultural interactions and impacts. Globalization in its present form is a model and way of life imposed upon the world by the U.S and the other western countries which share a great deal of cultural similarities. English serves as a medium for boosting the cultural impact of the western countries such as U.S and England upon the world. Through the English language, thoughts, cultural values and traditions of the western nations are propagated in the world, which leads to the hegemony of the western culture. This form of globalization does not conform with globalization which is defined as sharing the values and notions of all cultures and nations. In fact, this tendency may lead to the hegemony of one language and its associated culture over other languages and cultures. It seems that the more a language is employed in various social, economic or military situations, the more its hegemony reveals itself in international affairs. The power of the English language is closely associated with the GNP of the U.S and England. Economic power leads to military power and paves the way for colonialism and imperialism. As the recent history reveals, the colonies had to learn English because it meant survival in a changing world. Additionally, the new colonialism is forcing the people of all nations which want to have a share in the globalization process to adopt the same strategy, which means to speak English. Nowadays, English is employed as the language of the international organizations and financial bodies, the language of science and technology, the language of trade and economy, the language of international law and judiciary systems, the language of tourism, media, higher education, etc. Globally, English is the language of the top fifty scientific journals of the world which are published in the U.S and England. At the same time, the greatest bulk of the published materials are in English.
     On the basis of the discussion, English as a means through which globalization process is spreading has turned out as threatening other languages and cultures. The domination of this language has thus been associated with the hegemony that English speaking countries, especially United Sates, are exerting across the world. This hegemony has sometimes been very radically interpreted as linguistic genocide resulting in the destruction and extinction of other languages. In order to fight the challenges posed by the unilateral dissemination of the English Language, some scholars have been stimulated to think up new models for the English language, all of which lay an emphasis on the global identity of English as a multicultural and value-free medium. Despite all the attempts made, the status quo does not seem far removed. The present article is thus intended to argue that the growing prevalence of English worldwide is the growth of a specific thought and culture, with globalization as an asymmetrical pattern for world convergence, not contributing to the universality of the language. To that end, the paper first theoretically brings to the fore the significant changes occurring to the advantage of the English language showing that the neutral models attempted to account for the fair role of the language cannot be justifiably explained. In other words, it is argued that the top-down force of the economy and sociopolitical power of the US has pushed aside much of the linguistic and cultural diversity. To concretize the argument, the paper presents a content analysis of Interchange Series to unfold the unilateral cultural density of the books. The findings reveal that the Interchange Series are fraught with the lopsided views of culture defining features such as ‘values, norms, carrier agents of cultures, and cultural products’ which are detected in the books. The results substantiate the theoretical stance of English Language unilateralism elaborated above, and the hegemonic effects it is assumed to exert on the learners of the language.

Keywords

References

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ZABANPAZHUHI (Journal of Language Research)
Volume 10, Issue 29
February 2019
Pages 151-178

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