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When English Becomes the Global Language of Education We Risk Losing Other, Better, Ways of Learning

posted by martyb on Tuesday August 11 2020, @04:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the intelligence!=wisdom dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

The Conversation:

The love of all things English begins at a young age in non-English-speaking countries, promoted by pop culture, Hollywood movies, fast-food brands, sports events and TV shows.

Later, with English skills and international education qualifications from high school, the path is laid to prestigious international universities in the English-speaking world and employment opportunities at home and abroad.

But those opportunities aren't distributed equally across socioeconomic groups. Global education in English is largely reserved for middle-class students.

This is creating a divide between those inside the global English proficiency ecosystem and those relegated to parts of the education system where such opportunities don't exist.

[...] It's unfortunate so many schools view an English-speaking model as the gold standard and overlook their own local or regional wisdoms. We need to remember that encouraging young people to join a privileged English-speaking élite educated in foreign universities is only one of many possible educational options.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2020, @03:15PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2020, @03:15PM (#1034946)

    English replaced French because Germany, France and England fought each other into the ground in WW2, while the US was unscathed.

  • (Score: 2, Disagree) by Freeman on Tuesday August 11 2020, @07:18PM

    by Freeman (732) on Tuesday August 11 2020, @07:18PM (#1035103) Journal

    I wouldn't say unscathed, Pearl Harbor did happen, but that was a fairly strategic strike at a military target. Not like carpet bombing taking out vast swathes of our historical buildings and cultural heritage.

    All things considered, things would have turned out far worse for most of Europe (except, maybe Germany), if the USA hadn't gotten involved when it did. Germany had quite the steamroller going for a good portion of the war.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2020, @08:27PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2020, @08:27PM (#1035136)

    German was the language of science until the 2 world wars made German lingua nofuckinwayqua.