High School students’ representations of the English Language and global citizenship

Abstract

Currently, the English language has occupied a prominent position among foreign languages due to its role as the lingua franca of international contacts, in various domains on a global scale. Its link with the globalization process has been acknowledged in educational documents dealing with language policies and impacted the way learners position themselves in relation to it. Discourses or representations about this language and its possible impacts have been the subject of critical studies. Based on the Critical Discourse Analysis (ACD) framework, this article analyzes the representations/discourses of 75 high school students in the Londrina region, Paraná, on English language and global citizenship. From responses on an application form to an interdisciplinary “immersion” program conducted on a university campus, the representational meanings were analyzed. The analyzes indicated the predominance of celebratory discourses, through positive adjectives, as universal, fundamental, essential, facilitating, practical, efficient. As for the concept of global citizenship in its articulation with the English language and expressed through its purposes, the cultural/ communicational, and economic dimensions were predominant. To a lesser extent, the applicants identified perspectives that give English the role of promoting solidarity and creating bonds among people from different places.