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11 - A Fractured Dream of the Decolonisation and De-eliticisation of English within EMI Programmes in South Asia

from Part III - The Politics of English in Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2025

By
Shaila Sultana
Edited by
Seyyed-Abdolhamid Mirhosseini  and
Peter I. De Costa
Seyyed-Abdolhamid Mirhosseini
Affiliation:
University of Hong Kong
Peter I. De Costa
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
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Summary

With reference to the ethos of the ‘neoliberal turn’ in education, the chapter critically analyses and interprets English Medium Instruction (EMI) in South Asia as it is promoted exogenously and realised at the grassroots level endogenously. The chapter identifies in what ways EMI creates unequal opportunities for people from different socioeconomic, educational, demographic, and indigenous backgrounds and consequently results in discrimination and social injustice in South Asian contexts. The chapter also shows that EMI policies and practices indicate a strong presence of monolingual biases, ideologies, and negative attitudes towards mother tongues and indigenous languages. In addition, colonialism rearticulated in neoliberal higher education promotes the English language. In the end, the chapter suggests that a more context-driven, rational, synchronised, and holistic approach to EMI is needed to decolonise and liberate EMI policies and establish linguistic equality, language rights, and social justice in South Asia.

Keywords

EMIneoliberalismde-eliticisation of Englishdecolonisation of EnglishSouth Asia
Type
Chapter
Information
Critical English Medium Instruction in Higher Education , pp. 183 - 199
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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