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Part of
Applied Linguistics in the Middle East and North Africa: Current practices and future directions
Edited by Atta Gebril
[AILA Applied Linguistics Series 15] 2017
► pp. 61–87

Chapter 4
English between Egyptians

Power and ownership of the English language in Egypt

| The American University in Cairo

This paper focuses on the impact of English on relationships between Egyptians at an English-medium university in Egypt. The researcher specifically attempts to answer three questions regarding these Egyptian undergraduate speakers of English. First, do they intend to project solidarity or power while using English? Second, do they perceive any ownership of the English language? Finally, is there a relationship between their intended linguistic projection and English ownership? Data demonstrates that participants utilize English as a means of projecting solidarity with other English-speaking Egyptians rather than power over those with less-developed skills. Participants perceive that other English-speakers may use English to project power over others. Implications for the English classroom are also discussed.

Keywords: World Englishes, English as a lingua franca, language ownership, linguistic identity, Egypt, language attitudes
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Literature review
    • Global English and Egypt
    • Ownership of English outside the inner circle
    • Attitudes toward English and its speakers
  • Research methods and data analysis
  • Results
    • Attitudes toward English
    • English and relationships
    • Language ownership and linguistic identity
  • Discussion
  • Implications
    • Managing linguistic projection in and out of the classroom
    • Language flexibility in the classroom
    • Awareness of student “Linguaculture”
  • Limitations
  • Conclusions
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 18 July 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.15.04lew
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