Rethinking globalization, English and multilingualism in Thailand: a report on a five-year ethnography

The starting point of this paper is to the development of a relatively panoramic account of English and multilingualism in Thailand, illuminating the relationships among powers (trends), individuals and groups and their multilingual practices. Most previous studies draw upon arguments from the tra...

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Main Author:	Lee, Hugo Yu-Hsiu
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2019
Online Access:	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13973/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13973/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13973/1/27279-98538-1-PB.pdf

id	ukm-13973
recordtype	eprints
spelling	ukm-139732020-01-23T01:17:15Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13973/ Rethinking globalization, English and multilingualism in Thailand: a report on a five-year ethnography Lee, Hugo Yu-Hsiu The starting point of this paper is to the development of a relatively panoramic account of English and multilingualism in Thailand, illuminating the relationships among powers (trends), individuals and groups and their multilingual practices. Most previous studies draw upon arguments from the traditional monocentric model of nation-state multilingualism. Surprisingly, little is known about the polycentric forces influencing multilingual distributions. Methodologically, large-scale data sets are gathered through literature, documents, questionnaires, interviews and observing actual language behaviors. The ethnographic data gathered are analyzed through content analysis conventions. Challenging Smalley’s nationalist model, the central thesis of this paper is to present an alternative path, a polycentric model, to better understand Thailand’s multilingualism. There is a lack of adequate evidence within and across Thailand to show the existence of a universal and coherent hierarchy connecting different layers of language users. As such, this paper argues that Smalley’s universal hierarchy/dominance model has to compete with alternative models termed a ‘multiarchy’ or ‘multiarchies’ (a portmanteau of “multiple hierarchies”) where parallel language hierarchies co-exist with the orthodox one. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2019 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13973/1/27279-98538-1-PB.pdf Lee, Hugo Yu-Hsiu (2019) Rethinking globalization, English and multilingualism in Thailand: a report on a five-year ethnography. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 25 (1). pp. 69-84. ISSN 0128-5157 http://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1178
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building	UKM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	The starting point of this paper is to the development of a relatively panoramic account of English and multilingualism in Thailand, illuminating the relationships among powers (trends), individuals and groups and their multilingual practices. Most previous studies draw upon arguments from the traditional monocentric model of nation-state multilingualism. Surprisingly, little is known about the polycentric forces influencing multilingual distributions. Methodologically, large-scale data sets are gathered through literature, documents, questionnaires, interviews and observing actual language behaviors. The ethnographic data gathered are analyzed through content analysis conventions. Challenging Smalley’s nationalist model, the central thesis of this paper is to present an alternative path, a polycentric model, to better understand Thailand’s multilingualism. There is a lack of adequate evidence within and across Thailand to show the existence of a universal and coherent hierarchy connecting different layers of language users. As such, this paper argues that Smalley’s universal hierarchy/dominance model has to compete with alternative models termed a ‘multiarchy’ or ‘multiarchies’ (a portmanteau of “multiple hierarchies”) where parallel language hierarchies co-exist with the orthodox one.
format	Article
author	Lee, Hugo Yu-Hsiu
spellingShingle	Lee, Hugo Yu-Hsiu Rethinking globalization, English and multilingualism in Thailand: a report on a five-year ethnography
author_facet	Lee, Hugo Yu-Hsiu
author_sort	Lee, Hugo Yu-Hsiu
title	Rethinking globalization, English and multilingualism in Thailand: a report on a five-year ethnography
title_short	Rethinking globalization, English and multilingualism in Thailand: a report on a five-year ethnography
title_full	Rethinking globalization, English and multilingualism in Thailand: a report on a five-year ethnography
title_fullStr	Rethinking globalization, English and multilingualism in Thailand: a report on a five-year ethnography
title_full_unstemmed	Rethinking globalization, English and multilingualism in Thailand: a report on a five-year ethnography
title_sort	rethinking globalization, english and multilingualism in thailand: a report on a five-year ethnography
publisher	Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate	2019
url	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13973/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13973/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13973/1/27279-98538-1-PB.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T20:06:03Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T20:06:03Z
_version_	1777407165189849088

Rethinking globalization, English and multilingualism in Thailand: a report on a five-year ethnography

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