Negotiating hegemonies in language policy: ideological synergies in media recontextualizations of audit culture

ABSTRACT

One of the products of globalization in sociolinguistics is the emergence of transnational regimes in language policy, in which power is exercised across boundaries of traditional nation states. This paper engages with audit culture, a transnational policy mechanism which involves the continuous evaluation of nation states’ performance through the use of purportedly neutral, typically quantitative instruments. As achieving broader visibility in public discourse is a key part of how such evaluations enforce language policy regimes, the paper presents an analysis of how an audit instrument, the Education First English Proficiency Index, was recontextualized in media discourse in Thailand over a 6-year period. The findings highlight an apparent discontinuity, as much of the neoliberal rhetoric in the audit instrument was not taken up in Thai media. Rather, the recontextualization was selective, with elements of the audit texts being integrated into an already established language policy regime in Thailand, built on nationalism and developmentalism. These findings point to the need to consider how language policy mechanisms like audit culture can facilitate synergies between hegemonic ideologies, particularly when they are recontextualized across different scales.

KEYWORDS:

• Audit culture
• neoliberalism
• nationalism
• English
• media discourse

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The reference to C1+ in the policy is likely an error, since CEFR does not describe this level. The ‘plus levels’ are intended to represent half-way points between levels of proficiency (i.e. B1+ is an intermediate level between B1 and B2) but have not been described at the upper end of the scale (at C1 and C2). For more information, see North (2014).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kristof Savski

Kristof Savski is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Prince of Songkla University in Hat Yai, Thailand, and previously studied and taught part-time at Lancaster University, UK. His recent research has explored connections between sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, critical discourse studies and language policy, with regard to, for instance, the globalization of language standards and transnational migration of teachers of English.