Crazy for English: Language Learning and Self-Fashioning in Shenyang, China
by Dr Eric Henry, Assistant Professor from Carleton University
Date: Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Time: 3.00pm
Venue: USP Conference Room, Level 7, Blk ADM
Abstract
Far from merely a rational response to global economic forces, the study of English in mainland China speaks to the very constitution of a modern Chinese identity. In this paper, I argue that foreign language study in China is intimately tied to popular narratives of modernization and development, and that using English places Chinese speakers in a particular relation to the forces of social and economic transformation.
In essence, speaking English becomes a prerequisite for developing an identity as a modern global citizen. I also argue that the form of English is fundamentally altered as it is adapted to the communicative norms and needs of a Chinese context.
About the Speaker
Eric Henry is a cultural and linguistic anthropologist who has done research on foreign language education and language use in the People's Republic of China. With an eye towards China's growing economic and political influence, his research asks what role foreign and global languages, particularly English, play in China's growing sense of itself as a modern and developed nation. Through an ethnographic program of research, he examines the complex interplay between global and local languages in producing a sense of place and citizenship both at home and abroad. Eric received his doctorate in Anthropology from Cornell University in 2008, and is currently an Assistant Professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
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