Workshop on ¡°English with Asian Accents¡±

: English for Intercultural Communication in Asian Contexts

 

 

July 21-26, 2008

Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

 

A workshop on ¡°English with Asian Accents: English for Intercultural Communication in Asian Contexts¡± will be held in conjunction with the 18th International Congress of Linguists (CIL 18).

                          

Organizer:

Dr. Angel Lin

Associate Professor

Faculty of Education

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong

Phone: (852) 2609-6983

Fax: (852) 2603-6129

Email: [email protected]

 

Description:

English has become an everyday presence in many cosmopolitan cities in Asia today.  For instance, in international airports in Seoul, Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing or Kuala Lumpur, bilingual or multilingual signs are everywhere, and among them there are always English signs.  The global spread of English has arisen from a host of historical, political and socioeconomic factors.  In many Asian contexts such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, where English was historically a colonial language imposed by former British colonial governments, English has carried with it the baggage of colonial histories and exploitations.  However, today English has also become a predominant medium of global trade, finance and commerce, science, technology and the Internet.  It serves as a chief medium of communication for different peoples coming from both within and beyond Asia.  It is a common scene in Asian cities that people of diverse ethnic backgrounds are communicating in some variety of English.  So, has English shaken off (or merely masked?) its colonial history and become a widely used ¡°lingua franca¡± for intercultural communication among peoples from Southeast Asia and beyond?  In this workshop debates revolving around the global spread of English, linguistic imperialism, World Englishes and the theories of postcolonial performativity will be discussed.  In particular the following topics will be addressed by the workshop papers:  Is English a cultural imperialistic tool of the West, or is English being increasingly hybridized and used for their own daily purposes by many Southeast Asian peoples?  How is English being learnt, taught and appropriated by Asian peoples for their own intercultural communication in their everyday life?  What are the implications of ¡°English with Asian accents¡± for intercultural communication and English language teaching and learning in Asian contexts? 

 

Important Dates:

 

¡Ü August  31, 2007: Deadline for submitting the abstract.

¡Ü November 30, 2007: Notification of acceptance.

 

Form and submission of abstracts:

 

An abstract(.pdf or .doc file) should be up to 3 pages long, including data and references.

The abstract should start with the title of the paper, followed by the text of the abstract.

Please do not include the author's name in the abstract. On a separate page, please give

the author's name, affiliation, e-mail address, telephone number, mailing address, the paper title and the session number(title).

 

Please send the abstract and the author's information to both [email protected] and [email protected].