Is English the World's Lingua Franca or the Language of the Enemy? Choice and Age Factors in Foreign Language Policymaking in Iran

Autor/in	Mazlum, Farhad
Titel	Is English the World's Lingua Franca or the Language of the Enemy? Choice and Age Factors in Foreign Language Policymaking in Iran
Quelle	In: Language Policy, 21 (2022) 2, S.261-290 (30 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Mazlum, Farhad)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1568-4555
DOI	10.1007/s10993-021-09613-0
Schlagwörter	English (Second Language); Second Language Learning; Language Role; Language Planning; Foreign Countries; National Curriculum; Educational Policy; Policy Formation; Decision Making; Public Officials; Administrator Attitudes; Language Attitudes; Ideology; Foreign Policy; Second Language Instruction; Clergy; Trust (Psychology); Power Structure; International Relations; Western Civilization; Religious Factors; Neoliberalism; Language of Instruction; Iran + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Zweitsprachenerwerb; Sprachwechsel; Ausland; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Politische Betätigung; Decision-making; Entscheidungsfindung; Sprachverhalten; Ideologie; Außenpolitik; Fremdsprachenunterricht; Klerus; Internationale Beziehungen; Neo-liberalism; Neoliberalismus; Teaching language; Unterrichtssprache
Abstract	Choosing which additional language to include in national curricula and when to begin teaching it are important educational policy decisions. The current study aims to provide a contextually embedded picture of such policymaking process in the Iranian context. More specifically, the study is intended to explain the agency mechanism of different actors involved in the choice of foreign languages and its start age. Data come from official documents, interviews with key officials in Iran's Ministry of Education, a questionnaire and textual and on-line archival data. Data analyses revealed that despite official acknowledgement of diversity in foreign language education couched in a monopoly/antitrust discourse to manage English spread and attempts to delay its learning, Iranian (in)visible planners choose English exclusively and formulate their own policies to begin learning it much earlier. I argue that foreign language policymaking in Iran is torn between the religious and state officials' English demotion rhetoric rooted in post-Revolutionary de-Westoxication and anti-imperialism ideology and the need of the state for defused English to meet its neoliberal globalization goals on the one hand, and the growing obsession of policy arbiters with English viewed by officials as soft power asset of the West, on the other. I also suggest that to understand Iran's foreign language policymaking one needs to consider both the long-strained Iran-America relations as well as the unique authority and power mechanism of people-with-power actor conferred to him by Shia-Islam system of governance and how/why his directives, statements, orientations and speech carry significant implications to foreign language policymaking process in all key state organizations and entities including the Ministry of Education. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01