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Producing the disciplined English-speaking subjects

Language policing, development ideology, and English medium of instruction policy

Bibliographic Data

ID2908129
AuthorsPrem Phyak (0000-0001-7032-1027, Chinese University of Hong Kong, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume53
Issue2
Pages321-343
Publication date2024-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage in Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-4045 • E-ISSN: 1469-8013
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0047404523000052
OpenAlexW4323663066
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited44

This article analyzes how English medium of instruction (EMI) policy is implemented by disciplining teachers' and students' language behaviors in school spaces. I adopt Foucault's (1977) 'discipline' to examine how schools exercise disciplinary power to create an English-only environment in multilingual classroom contexts. The data is drawn from an ethnographic study of EMI policies in two Nepali schools. The findings of the study show that schools exercise their disciplinary power through both panoptic and post-panoptic surveillance strategies to police their students' and teachers' language practices and punish them for speaking the languages other than English. Such disciplinary power is reinforced by neoliberal development ideology that legitimizes linguistic and symbolic capitals of English. While enforcing EMI policies, schools craft students' identity as disciplined English-speaking subjects who are perceived to contribute to development ideology. The article discusses some major impacts that sociolinguists can make on transforming unequal EMI language policies and practices. (Discipline, English medium of instruction (EMI), language policing

Discipline · Ethnography · Ideology · Language policy · Linguistics · Pedagogy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Law · Multilingual Education and Policy · Second Language Learning and Teaching

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Unique citing works14
Citations per year7
Citation span2024 - 2026 (3)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 13
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