Publications

Publication details [#55764]

Buripakdi, Adcharawan. 2012. The marginalized positions of Thai professional writers on the global hegemony of English. The marginalized positions of Thai professional writers on the global hegemony of English. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 22 (1) : 41–60.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Language as a subject
Place, Publisher
John Benjamins
Journal DOI
10.1075/japc

Annotation

This qualitative study investigated the positions of the Thai professional writers towards Thai English. Data was collected from in-depth interviews of 20 Thai bilingual writers. The findings revealed that most of the writers had different ways to distant themselves from Thai English. The majority of the participants expressed a marginalized view toward their English. Their attitudes were greatly influenced by the hegemonic Standard English. Evidently, Thai perceptions of the English language conformed to a colonial, hierarchical standpoint which privileged the types of English spoken and written within the U.S. and Great Britain and denigrated spoken and written Thai English. The study not only reflected the reality of World Englishes but also addressed political aspect of language use related with identity, power, and hierarchical discourse. It clearly indicated the political nature of teaching English and called for a reconsideration of teaching practices in countries where English is not the native language.