Rights statement: The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Sociology,52(6), 2018, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2018 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Sociology page: http://http://journals.sagepub.com/home/SOC on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - On (not) speaking English
T2 - colonial legacies in language requirements for British citizenship
AU - Fortier, Anne-Marie
N1 - The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Sociology,52(6), 2018, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2018 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Sociology page: http://http://journals.sagepub.com/home/SOC on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/
PY - 2018/12/1
Y1 - 2018/12/1
N2 - This article examines the colonial legacies shaping current language requirements for immigrants applying for settlement or citizenship in Britain. The article argues that common sense understandings of ‘national language’ and monolingualism/multilingualism were developed in the context of imperial expansion, the legacies of which resonate today in a disdain for multilingualism and other Englishes conceived as hampering cohesion. Put simply, other languages and other English are spoken here because English was there. Drawing on interviews with applicants and English teaching professionals, the article discusses how participants variously experience English language requirements. The analysis shows how the colonial legacies supporting the rise of English as a ‘world language’ cast it as the locus of a regime of audibility that establishes a hierarchy between ‘the English’ and the ‘anglicised’. In today’s Britain, the multilingualism of the other is not external and prior to Britain, but rather speaks volumes to and about contemporary Britain.
AB - This article examines the colonial legacies shaping current language requirements for immigrants applying for settlement or citizenship in Britain. The article argues that common sense understandings of ‘national language’ and monolingualism/multilingualism were developed in the context of imperial expansion, the legacies of which resonate today in a disdain for multilingualism and other Englishes conceived as hampering cohesion. Put simply, other languages and other English are spoken here because English was there. Drawing on interviews with applicants and English teaching professionals, the article discusses how participants variously experience English language requirements. The analysis shows how the colonial legacies supporting the rise of English as a ‘world language’ cast it as the locus of a regime of audibility that establishes a hierarchy between ‘the English’ and the ‘anglicised’. In today’s Britain, the multilingualism of the other is not external and prior to Britain, but rather speaks volumes to and about contemporary Britain.
KW - Britain
KW - citizenisation
KW - citizenship
KW - English language
KW - language tests
KW - linguistic imperialism
KW - multilingualism of the other
KW - regimes of audibility
KW - other Englishes
U2 - 10.1177/0038038517742854
DO - 10.1177/0038038517742854
M3 - Journal article
VL - 52
SP - 1254
EP - 1269
JO - Sociology
JF - Sociology
SN - 0038-0385
IS - 6
ER -