Linguistic Imperialism

‘What is original about his treatise is that it provides the first systematic examination of the enormous significance of language to most neo-colonial enterprises. It should be recommended to anyone convinced of the ‘superiority’ of the English language or of the necessity of its universal dissemination.’

– New Internationalist (21/09/1995)

‘This is an important, groundbreaking study of the political background and impact of the spread of English. Congratulations are due to Phillipson for having taken on this task … Phillipson has tackled a topic of major proportion and his work shows his wide reading of a large number of interesting sources … He has drawn attention dramatically to important issues that have so far been mainly ignored and that cry out for continued investigation, and his book should be required reading for all concerned with the development and implementation of language policy.’

– Journal of Pragmatics (12/02/1996)

Robert Phillipson is an Emeritus Professor at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark and was awarded the UNESCO Linguapax Prize in 2010. He has published extensively on language learning, linguistic imperialism, linguistic human rights, multilingual education and language policy.

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