Educating Supranational Citizens: The Incorporation of English Language Education into Curriculum Policies

Abstract

English language education is now a global phenomenon. The transnational diffusion of policy discourses on English language education across non-Englishspeaking countries deserves close scholarly attention from various theoretical frameworks so as to further understanding of the relationship between globalization and education. While the importance of providing schoolchildren with English language education has been widely acknowledged in the context of an increasingly globalized world (Crystal, 2003; Grabe, 1988), a range of critical perspectives has also evolved that problematizes the global dominance of English and its impact on the individual and society at multiple levels (Pennycook, 1998; Phillipson, 1992; Tsuda, 1999). Considering that the rise of English as the most dominant international language undergirds today’s global clamor for teaching and learning English, the institutionalization of English language education around the world constitutes a key and critical topic that must be explored in relation to the larger global context, a context that brings about both new hopes and fears about the possibility of equitable distribution of power and opportunity not only within countries but also internationally.