Socio-educational Factors and the Soft Power of Language: The Deluge of English in Poland and Portugal

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Anna Odrow-Coates shows that English, as a language of European integration and communication, has become an element of social status. In privileged social groups, its position has changed from a foreign language to a second language, which demonstrates a linguistic shift with long-term consequences. Socio-educational Factors and Soft Power of Language critically examines the cultural and individual implications of this phenomenon in the context of field study in Poland and Portugal. Odrow-Coates uses institutional ethnography with a combination of theoretical constructs, including soft power and positioning theory, to examine evidence of English as a new tool for social stratification and its effect on language policies as well as the ways in which it impacts people's lives and their opportunities. Whilst critical of the neoliberal, neo-colonial, and imperialistic dimensions of English language hegemony, Odrow-Coates argues for a gendered perspective of English as a language of opportunity, inclusion, and empowerment. She focuses on discourses that are shown to be products of and the makers of the material aspects of language. Using an ethical imperative not only to question, but also to participate in the existing power structures in order to change the power dynamic, Odrow-Coates argues that language choices are not necessarily individually driven but are instead institutionally driven.

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Anna Odrowaz-Coates dives deeply into English language acquisition in Portugal and Poland. With unique empirical datafrom questionnaires to qualitative interviews and auto-ethnographic observationsthe author reaches different scales and perspectives on the issue. She refuses dualistic or simplistic answers, acknowledging both the empowering and the disempowering aspects of English language acquisition. Moving from Fairclough to Foucault, Althusser, and Bourdieu, all of them enriched by postcolonial framings and feminist approaches, Anna Odrowaz-Coates contributes to the socio-educational inequality perspective, relating language to issues of power and soft power. -- Viviane Resende, University of Braslia

Author Bio

Anna Odrow-Coates is associate professor at the Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw and chairholder of the UNESCO/Janusz Korczak Chair in Social Pedagogy.