By Urbashi Raha
Recently, I met a senior executive from a multinational company—an experienced professional in her 50s. There are only two foreign employees in her office. Yet, in a workplace with a majority of Korean staff, in the heart of Korea, the primary language of official communication is English to accommodate these two individuals. While many international companies today emphasize values like equality, diversity, and inclusion, situations like this raise questions: Does this truly reflect inclusivity or diversity? In another lesson, I met an Indonesian student who needs to take the IELTS test to continue studying at a university in his own country. These narratives are not isolated; they raise broader systematic and institutional issues.
As I meet learners from different parts of the world, the landscape may change, but the core issue remains the same. Many students from the Global South—countries such as Indonesia, Mexico, UAE to name a few—face pressures to learn English. They are often required to take language proficiency tests to pursue further education or career advancement, in their own countries. Despite years of job-related experience, proficiency in English frequently takes precedence in the professional domain. This phenomenon reflects, the hidden influence of economic and institutional policies driven by powerful English-speaking countries, creating a demand for English as a global lingua franca. While tests like IELTS or TOEFL aim to measure language ability, it's important to recognize their role in the broader economic structures, where the drive for profit can sometimes overshadow considerations of fairness and accessibility.
Language-based Discrimination
Language-based discrimination has become so widespread that it often goes unquestioned, with many simply accepting the requirements imposed by English-speaking nations. If English proficiency is a requirement for jobs in the Global South/North, why shouldn’t job seekers from the Global North be expected to learn the local language when working abroad? It’s easy to imagine the resistance this might face, given the privileges afforded by the dominance of English, as the Global South might become less accessible.
As an English language educator, should I overlook the biased narratives and pretend nothing is amiss or should I challenge them? Should I ignore when my students feel judged or disappointed if they struggle to understand a native English speaker, or should I instead act as a guide, helping them feel confident in their own identities?
Learning a foreign language is a complex process. Moreover, teaching English is not just about language skills—it involves navigating its history as a colonial language. It carries values and ideologies from its colonial past—often presented as superior to those of colonized peoples. While many nations have achieved political independence, the remnants of colonial influence persist. Has the Global South truly achieved full independence if it continues to operate under the economic and cultural influences of the Global North? Under the new Raj of neocolonisation, the powerful developed nations indirectly exert control over developing countries. Teaching English, is therefore linked to the past and contemporary power dynamics. Amid these varied internal and external forces, learners often experience conflicting emotions as they grapple with their own national, cultural and linguistic identities while trying to master a language of power (Block, 2007).
Inclusive Teaching Practices
As educators, we need to be aware of these powerful dominant forces influencing language learning and be mindful of the potential risk of assimilating learners into the dominant language and cultural practices through the teaching materials. It is not uncommon for learners from marginalised communities to gravitate towards Western cultural practices as they begin using English. This highlights the need for teachers to approach their work with cultural sensitivity. Inclusive teaching practice can help learners develop a positive view of their identities. Approaches like translanguaging, multilingualism, and/ or polylanguaging can be effective in acknowledging learners' diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
Diversifying the curriculum to include local perspectives and anti-racist content can help create a more inclusive and supportive learning environment. Engaging with students’ local and national identities and being mindful not to prioritize English expressions (such as idioms or phrasal verbs) that have little relevance in their daily lives can make the learning experience more meaningful.
Recognizing students as complex individuals, rather than focusing solely on their need to learn English for the purposes of employment, allows us to engage with them holistically. Learners are complex individuals with rich identities; appreciating this helps foster a safe and inclusive classroom.
The Corporate Sector
Reflecting on my experience in the hospitality industry, working for international hotel chains, I often wished the company had made a genuine effort to understand and value the local language and culture. If businesses are truly committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), encouraging foreign employees to learn the local language of the host country would be a step towards authentic inclusivity. Instead of expecting employees to conform to a foreign work culture, companies could foster a more inclusive environment by acknowledging local cultural practices.
I attended numerous training sessions led by trainers from BANA countries, where the perspectives shared were primarily shaped by dominant work style and cultural narratives. Incorporating cultural sensitivity training led by facilitators from diverse backgrounds could offer a more nuanced and inclusive viewpoints. It is also important to consider, while English proficiency may be encouraged for effective business communication, making standardized language tests mandatory can be exclusionary. Accepting the use of non-standard English, as long as it does not hinder mutual understanding, can create a more inclusive environment and better facilitate communication (Firth, 2009).
Beyond English as a Lingua Franca
It is worth remembering that English is not the world’s only lingua franca. Many languages have historically emerged through trade and cultural exchanges. For instance, Swahili developed from interactions between African communities and Arab traders and now serves as a common language across several African countries, illustrating how diverse linguistic histories can shape meaningful cross-cultural communication.The basic purpose of a language is to communicate a message between two speakers.
The widespread belief is that knowledge of English empowers minority communities. Yet, I question whether this is true empowerment if it comes at the cost of losing one’s own language. I feel the weight of this loss when I struggle to read the beautiful words of Rabindranath Tagore in my native language, Bengali. Is this the price we must pay for global communication, or is there a way to value our own linguistic heritage while engaging with the wider world?
BIO: Urbashi Raha is an English teacher with over 11 years of experience teaching English in diverse contexts. She recently completed her MEd, specializing in Teaching English as an Additional Language, from Simon Fraser University. Her research interests focus on decolonizing education, eco-justice curricula, and land-based pedagogy rooted in Indigenous epistemologies. She examines how colonial ideologies are reproduced in language education and explores the potential for both language and teacher education to address sustainability issues by challenging Western colonialism, anthropocentrism, and neoliberalism in the field of ELT. She advocates for a curriculum grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing.
References and Recommended Readings
Block, D. (2007). The Rise of Identity in SLA Research, Post Firth and Wagner (1997). The Modern Language Journal (Boulder, Colo.), 91(1), 863–876. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2007.00674.x
Firth, A. (2009). Doing not being a foreign language learner: English as a lingua franca in the workplace and (some) implications for SLA. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, IRAL, 47(1), 127.
Garcia, O., Johnson, S. and Seltzer, K. (2017). The translanguaging classroom. Leveraging student bilingualism for learning. Philadelphia, PA : Caslon.
Sung-Yul Park, J. (2021). Language and Subjectivity in Neoliberalism. In In Pursuit of English. Oxford University Press, Incorporated. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190855734.003.0002