International Journal of Bilingual
Education and Bilingualism
Editor: Colin Baker, University of Wales, Bangor
Review Editor: Aneta Pavlenko, Temple University, Philadelpia
|
Volume: 6 Number: 5 Page: 313–331
|
|
|
|
|
'Language of the Enemy': Foreign Language Education and National Identity
|
|
Aneta Pavlenko
|
|
The focus of the present paper is on the relationship between national identities and foreign-language education policies and practices. The paper examines this relationship through a juxtaposition of three
sociohistoric contexts in which sociopolitical events led to major changes in foreign-language education: post-World War I United States, post-World War II Soviet Union, and post-communist Eastern Europe.
On the example of these case studies, it is argued that shifts in national identity images and sociopolitical allegiances have implications for foreign-language policies and practices. It is also argued
that foreign-language learners may choose to construct oppositional identities in language classrooms: some, for patriotic reasons, may reject the languages imposed on them, while others may instead reject
the dominant national identity and create an alternative one through the means of a foreign language.
Keywords: FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION, NATIONAL IDENTITY, GERMAN, ENGLISH, RUSSIAN
© Multilingual Matters 2003
Full text PDF
|
