On (Not) Speaking English: Colonial Legacies in Language Requirements for British Citizenship

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...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociology (Oxford) 2018-12, Vol.52 (6), p.1254-1269
Main Author: Fortier, Anne-Marie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applicants
Audibility
Bilingualism
Citizenship
Cohesion
Colonialism
Common sense
English language
Immigrants
Language
Monolingualism
Multilingualism
National languages
Provinces
Social cohesion
Teaching
World Englishes
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary: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.
ISSN:0038-0385
1469-8684
DOI:10.1177/0038038517742854