Entanglements

This book explores the ways in which language is understood in diverse contexts, and how linguistic theories – and the idea of language as an object – fail to represent a reality that is inherently multi- and trans-. The chapters tease out the way that an understanding of language as a social practice, and the central role of the speaker(s) and their repertoire, allows for a more nuanced interpretation of language in contexts ranging from English as an international ‘neutral’ language in research and teaching, to the importance of life trajectories and multilingualism in the development of theoretical perspectives. The book offers a glimpse of a decolonial linguistics that recognizes the importance of entanglement – between languages, between the North and South and between the personal and the theoretical.

Sinfree Makoni is Director of African Studies, Liberal Arts Professor of African Studies and Applied Linguistics, The Pennsylvania State University, USA.

Unyierie Idem is a Professor in the Academic ESL Department, Holyoke Community College, USA.

Edwin Appah Dartey is a PhD candidate in the Department of Applied Linguistics and the African Studies Program at Pennsylvania State University, USA. His research interests include language policy and planning, multilingualism and southern epistemologies. Edwin's recent works have appeared in the Journal of English for Specific Purposes, Current Issues in Language Planning and the International Journal of Multilingualism. 

Bassey E. Antia is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. His teaching and/or research interests span multilingualism (in higher education), language policy, terminology and decolonial approaches to sociolinguistics. He is co-editor with Sinfree Makoni of Southernizing Sociolinguistics: Colonialism, Racism and Patriarchy in Language in the Global South (Routledge, 2023).