Global English, Remedial English: Caste, Class, Nation

This book explores the rhetoric and functions of a "global" English by analyzing the teaching and learning of remedial English coaching schemefor students belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes in Indian universities and technology institutes. Examining the remedial pedagogies and policies in relation to caste, class, and language rights debates, the study offers a complex understanding of the role and functions of English in a globalizing world. Looking at the ways English figures into public debates and is (re)figured in formal and informal settings, Pandey argues that English used in these institutions is produced through tensions over caste identity and its relations to local realities and translocal forces. This volume lays bare how fluency in English shapes the representation of the learners, as well as their access to academia and the language of the new economy in a traditionally non-Anglophone society. It helps bring together two traditions of scholarly inquiry that are typically kept apart: the field of world Englishes (which is gaining ground in sociolinguistics, English Language Teaching, applied linguistics, cultural studies, education, and writing studies), and remedial education in basic English and writing. This project not only demonstrates how English is refashioned today for a number of different purposes, but also challenges received wisdom regarding the complex politics of the use of postcolonial English.