Dismantling the Supremacy of English in Transcultural Academic Settings

Unconference: Jennifer Teeter (Kyoto Seika University), Kae Amo (Kyoto Seika University), Evelyn Kwok (Hong Kong Baptist University) and Rada Leu (Zurich University of the Arts)

Abstract

Language serves as a vehicle for transmitting meaning and belief. It also has the power to produce power imbalances between people in varying social strata. Often, it is assumed that English is the medium of transnational academic discourse. While facilitating communication across borders for those with the privilege to have academic English proficiency, this assumption excludes people who have either not had the access to English as a Foreign Language or who have simply devoted their time to other, equally important academic pursuits. A result of the dominance of English is the perpetuation of both native speakerism and the privileging of Inner Circle varieties of English, their socio-cultural paradigms and practices. Furthermore, these practices are consistent with mechanisms of power and control in colonial ideology (Macedo, 2017) where certain cultures and their languages are “negated…undervalued or even forgotten (Navas-Davilla, 1978). In this unconference, we draw upon specific experiences of the presenters, who co-taught an interdisciplinary online summer school for students in the arts in the context of the emerging global cooperation platform, Shared Campus, in the last two years. In congruence with the focus of the programs on destabilizing hierarchical structures and emancipating invisibilized knowledge systems (Spivak, 1994), as we address how the multi-faceted transcultural program interacted with the different abilities and proficiencies of students and how we, as teachers, can anticipate and accommodate a varied linguistic setting. Furthermore, we question the assumption that English is and should be the language of transnational exchange while presenting strategies for instilling in participants that global communication is the responsibility of both the speaker and the listener.