Critical Cultural Linguistics (CCL)
Challenging the cultural (re)production of Otherness
Cultural Linguistics analyses the relation between language and
cultural conceptualizations, studying how linguistic interactions influence
the development of cultural conceptualizations, and, at the same time, how
language structure and use draw on and reflect cultural conceptualizations
(Palmer 1996; Sharifian and Palmer 2007; Sharifian 2011, 2017). Yet, if cultural
conceptualizations are encoded and embodied in language, they are by no
means neutral or accidental. Therefore, I would add a critical perspective
to Cultural Linguistics by speaking of ‘Critical Cultural Linguistics’ to
sustain the non-neutrality of the conceptualizations that define our
experiences, and to foreground how cultural conceptualizations are shaped by
contexts, conditions, power relations, unequal access to cultural and
natural resources, as well as by socio-cultural and historical factors
(Giorgis 2017).
I will examine the potential of the Critical Cultural Linguistics
paradigm from an interdisciplinary perspective, analysing some examples of
how language conceptualizes and (re)produces Otherness and the much too
short step between the cultural conceptualization of the Other and the
cultural conceptualization of the Enemy. After having examined cases from
Literature, the Media, and studies on Critical Linguistics, I will argue
that a critical approach to foreign languages and foreign language education
can problematize the conceptualization of Otherness. To ground such an
argument, I will draw on my experience as a practitioner describing a
classroom activity which uses the foreignness that foreign languages
foreground to reflect on pre-given assumptions on languages and cultures –
one’s own included. The outcome of this activity put into evidence in which
way Critical Cultural Linguistics can become a very promising field for both
critical (foreign) language education and critical intercultural
communication.
Article outline
- 1.The context/s: Who is the Other?
- 2.The framework: Cultural Linguistics and Critical Cultural
Linguistics
- 3.The role of language in the cultural conceptualization of the Other as the enemy
- 4.The role of foreign languages and foreign language education in
problematizing and challenging the cultural conceptualization of
Otherness
- 4.1An activity conducted in
class
- 4.2The advantages of a foreign language
- 5.The critical mandate of foreign language education
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Acknowledgements
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Notes
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References