Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

what th anthropologist Wad Davis
Dspit
English is oftn th gloal lingua franca—a
says,
languag twn spakrs of diffrnt
shard
languags. English is also th mdium
nativ
intrnational duation, positioning it as a
of
in whih knowldg is transfrrd
languag
aquird gloally. Many studnts rading
and
ook and studying this sujt do not us
this
as a first or vn sond languag.
English
what that mans for th way thy ar
Considr
dos it man to know a languag “wll”?
What
is th aritr of “wll-spokn” or “wll-
Who
languag? It is important to onsidr
writtn”
rol of duation in dfining propr
th
Th standard forms of languag taught
languag.
shools, for xampl, ar idalizd. Through
in
Tanu, author of Growing up in Transit:
Danau
Politics of Belonging at an International
The
was orn in Canada to a Chins-
School,
fathr and a Japans mothr. Sh
Indonsian
intrnational shools in multipl
attndd
for most of hr arly lif and
ountris
Sh idntifis as a “Third Cultur
duation.
(TCK)—a transnational youth raisd
Kid”
th ultur of hr parnts. In hr ook
outsid
turns to issus of languag, knowldg
Tanu
politis y offring insights from hr
and
work at Th Intrnational Shool (TIS) in
fild
many TCKs of non-English spaking
For
thir xprin of English-mdium
familis,
shools rsml that of
intrnational
immigrants in English-
sond-gnration
ountris. Th dominant ultur of
spaking
shools has signifiant impat
intrnational
th intrultural dynamis that our on
on
as wll as in th hom.
ampus
dsris how fluny in English oms
Tanu
with ing intrnational, and marks
onflatd
status of osmopolitan ultural apital.
th
affts studnts’ slf-prption, as wll
This
taught, oftn ntangld with th intrsts of
is
ultur and rligion. On what
nation-uilding,
an som popl laim that thir varity of
asis
is inhrntly ttr than anothr? As
languag
usrs of a languag, to what xtnt
individual
and should w rsist and hallng linguisti
an
may instans whn a partiular
Thr
varity is not mor propr in som
languag
sns, ut mor appropriat to th
asolut
In knowing a languag, on also
situation.
how to us it in diffrnt forms—words,
knows
and rgistrs—dpnding on th
phrass
in shool, with los frinds, in a jo
ontxt:
with family, and so on. This is od-
intrviw,
a phnomnon many of our radrs
swithing,
intrnational shools will rogniz as ing a
in
story is insparal from th prosss of
This
and gloalization, whih undrpin
olonialism
hirarhis. “Th primay of
soioultural
is insparal from th history of th
English
II. Perspectives
II. Perspectives
onvntions?
transfrring or aquiring knowldg.
shools and govrnmnts, on partiular form
part of thir daily livs.
Box 4.2: English language and the politics of belonging at international schools
Jakarta, Indonsia.
as thir rlationships with family mmrs.
97