"Speak English": A Comment on English Language Instruction in an Era of Neo-Nationalism

Abstract

Previous research on neo-nationalism has largely focused on the political arena, analyzing voters, parties, and policies. The scholarship featured in this special issue moves beyond the analysis of neo-nationalism in contemporary politics to show how the ideology is enacted at the micro level. The stage for these dynamic interactions is educational settings related to the teaching of English. In this article, we comment on this new research that illustrates the variety of ways English language instruction can either advance or combat neo-nationalism. Despite the diversity of roles that English plays across different geographic and national-level contexts, this corpus of work makes evident the importance of language in maintaining national group boundaries. Inspired by this knowledge, we use data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) to explore how attitudes about speaking the national language are related to neo-nationalist stances cross-nationally. Our findings, which echo the micro-level evidence presented in the special issue, show that national languages are inextricably linked to the maintenance of national group boundaries and associated with neo-nationalist concerns about the erosion of national culture, economy, and political institutions due to perceived foreign threats.