BA (Modern Languages; Leeds, UK)
M Ed (TESL; McGill University, Montreal, Canada)
PhD (OISE/University of Toronto, Canada)

Professor
Academic area: Language and Literacy

Telephone: +61 2 9514 3067
Email: Alastair.Pennycook@uts.edu.au
Room: CB10.5.587
Campus: City - CB10 Building

I have been involved in language education as a teacher of English for many years in Germany, Japan, China, Canada and Hong Kong, and have published widely in areas of language in education. My best known work is on the global spread of English, colonialism and language policy, critical applied linguistics, critical approaches to TESOL, plagiarism, and popular culture and identity. I am a member of the Changing Practices Research Cluster.

Teaching Areas:

I teach mainly in the postgraduate courses in the area of TESOL and Applied Linguistics. I coordinate and teach the subjects Gobal Englishes and Language and Power in the Masters programs, and am also involved in various research seminars. I supervise doctoral students on topics such as intertextuality, first language use in second language classrooms, language and development, language maintenance, critical discourse analysis, language learning and identity, critical second language education and language policy.

Research Areas:

Research and scholarly interests:

A major recent research focus has been on popular culture (especially hip-hop), identity and language. An ARC-funded project has just been completed, leading to the publication of a new book, Global Englishes and transcultural flows.Other work based on this project will also be appearing in a special issue of the Journal of Language, Identity and Education (edited with Samy Alim) due out in 2007, and an edited book (with Awad Ibrahim and Samy Alim), due out in 2008.

A second ARC-funded project: Local Noise: Indigenizing Hip-hop in Australasia (with Tony Mitchell) focuses particularly on the ways in which hip-hop becomes localised in different contexts as well as the ways it gets used educationally.

Our new Local Noise: http://localnoise.net.au/ web site is well worth checking out.

Another new book Disinventing and reconstituting languages edited with Sinfree Makoni, focuses on alternative ways of of understanding language. This book argues that a critique of common linguistic and metalinguistic suppositions is not only a conceptual but also a sociopolitical necessity.

I have also been working with Vaidehi Ramanathan around questions of history, time, place and difference in relation to Britain and India. See our joint paper:
Talking across time: Postcolonial challenges to language, history and difference. Journal of Contemporary Thought, 2007, 25-53 (pdf)

Other research has focused on areas such as:

Implications of the global spread of English - see in particular The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language, London: Longman, 1994.

Colonialism, language policy, and English language teaching - see English and the Discourses of Colonialism (Routledge, 1998). Review. This work focuses particularly on colonial and postcolonial politics in relationship to language policy and current ideologies of English language teaching.

Critical applied linguistics. This is an attempt to pull together the different strands of critical work around applied linguistics. Critical applied linguistics: A critical introduction was published by Lawrence Erlbaum in 2001. Read this overview of the notion of critical applied linguistics (PDF).

There have been a number of requests for the Ways into Texts framework for critical discourse analysis. This is now available as a pdf file here.

Critical approaches to TESOL. Related to the interet in critical applied linguistics is a focus on critical educational practices. In 1999 Alastair edited a special edition of TESOL Quarterly (volume 33/3) on Critical Approaches to TESOL.

Plagiarism and intertextuality; research in this area has tried to understand how and why people from different backgrounds borrow texts in different ways (see, for example, Pennycook, 1996)

Other activities:

Vaidehi Ramanathan, Bonny Norton and I are editing a new book series with Multilingual Matters on Critical Language and Literacy Studies. To submit a proposal to this series, please look at the series description and contact the publisher.

I have been an active member of the AILA Language Policy Research Network and was one of the founding members at its launch in Limerick, Ireland in 2006.

http://www.lpren.org/

I serve on a number of international journal and book series editorial boards, including:

• Applied Linguistics
• Language and Education
• Language, Identity and Education
• Critical Inquiry in Language Studies
• Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
• Revista Brasileira de Linguistica Aplicada
• Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics
• Educational Linguistics
• Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices

On Impulse:

I hold an AYF Coastal Skipper Certificate and can often be found behind the helm of the UTS Union yacht, Impulse. To book an afternoon on Impulse, call the Union Sports Office on 9514 1889

I also hold a PADI Master Diver Certificate and am involved in marine ecology and reef preservation projects such as
Saving Philippines Reefs (SPR) http://www.coast.ph/projects/spr.htm
as part of the Coastal Conservation and Education Foundation

Right - Moorish idol: Zanclus cornutus Philippines. Photo A Pennycook

Publications:

Selected Publications, 1996-2008

2008

Critical applied linguistics and language education. In S May & N. Hornberger (Eds) Kluwer Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Volume 1: Language Policy and Political Issues In Education. New York: Kluwer, 169-182

2007:

Alim, S & A Pennycook Glocal linguistic flows: Hip Hop Culture(s), identities, and the politics of language education. Journal of Language, Identity and Education 6(2)

Language, localization and the real: hip-hop and the global spread of authenticity. Journal of Language, Identity and Education 6(2)

Global Englishes and transcultural flows. London: Routledge

(Ed) (with Sinfree Makoni) Disinventing and reconstituting languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters

(with Sinfree Makoni) Disinventing and Reconstituting Languages In Makoni S & A Pennycook (Eds Disinventing and Reconstituting Languages. Clevedon, Multilingual Matters, 1-41.

The myth of English as an International Language. In Makoni S & A Pennycook (Eds Disinventing and Reconstituting Languages. Clevedon, Multilingual Matters, 90-115.

ELT and colonialism. In J. Cummins, and C. Davison (Eds) Kluwer International Handbook of Education. English Language Teaching. Norwell MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

2006:

Uma lingüîstica aplicada transgressiva. In L P Moita Lopes (Org) Por uma lingüîstica aplicada indisciplinar. Sao Paulo: Parabola pp 67-84

Postmodernism and language policy. In T. Ricento (Ed) An introduction to language policy: Theory and Method Oxford: Blackwell

Critical applied linguistics. The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics Elsevier

2005:

 (with Sinfree Makoni) Disinventing and (re)constituting languages. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 2(2) 137-156.

 (with Sinfree Makoni) The Modern Mission: The language effects of Christianity. Journal of Language Identity and Education,  4(2) 137-155

Teaching with the flow: Fixity and fluidity in  education. Asia Pacific Journal of Education 25  (1) 29-44.

2004:

Language policy and the ecological turn. Language Policy. 3 213-239

(with R. Chandrasoma and C Thomson) Beyond plagiarism: Transgressive and nontransgressive intertextuality. Journal of Language, Identity and Education 3(3) 171-193

The Myth of English as an International Language. English in Australia 139 & Literacy Learning: The Middle Years 12(1) 26-32

Performativity and language studies. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies: An International Journal. 1/1, 1-19

Critical applied linguistics. In A. Davies & C. Elder, (Eds), Handbook of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell, 784-807

Critical moments in a TESOL praxicum. In B. Norton and K. Toohey (Eds) Critical pedagogies and language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

2003:

Beyond homogeny and heterogeny: English as a global and worldly language. In C. Mair (Ed) The Cultural Politics of English. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 3-17

Global noise and global Englishes. Cultural Studies Review 9/2 192-200

(with Sophie Coutand-Marin) Teaching English as a Missionary Language (TEML). Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. 24/3, 337-353. And see http://www.tesolislamia.org/viewpoint.html

Global Englishes, Rip Slyme and performativity. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7(4) 513-533

Lingüística aplicada pós-ocidental. Maria José Coracini e Ernesto S Bertoldo (Orgs) O Desejo da Teoria e A Contingência da Prâtica: Discursos sobre e na Sala de Aula. Campinas: Mercado de Letras, pp 21-60.

2002:

Ruptures, Departures and Appropriations: Postcolonial challenges to language development. In C Villareal, L R Tope and P Jurilla (Eds), Ruptures and Departures: Language and Culture in Southeast Asia, Diliman: University of the Philippines, pp.212-241.

(with Ros Appleby, Kath Copley and Sisamone Sithirajvongsa): Language in development constrained: Three contexts. TESOL Quarterly, 36 (3) 323-346.

Turning English inside out. Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics 28(2) 25-43

Mother tongues, literacy and colonial governmentality. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 154, 11-28

Language and linguistics/Discourse and disciplinarity. In Colin Barron, Nigel Bruce & David Nunan (Eds) Knowledge and Discourse: Towards an ecology of language London: Longman. http://ec.hku.hk/kd2/kd2books.asp

Language policy and docile bodies: Hong Kong and governmentality. In J. Tollefson (Ed) Language Policies in Education: Critical Issues. Mahwah, NJ. Lawrence Erlbaum

2001:

Critical Applied Linguistics: A Critical Introduction. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum

Lessons from colonial language policies. In R. D. Gonzalez (Ed), Language ideologies: Critical perspectives on the Official English Movement. Urbana, Ill: National Council of Teachers of English.

Towards a postcultural curriculum: English, globalization and hybridity: In W. Renandaya & N. Sunga (Eds). Language Curriculum and Instruction in Multicultural Societies. Singapore: SEAMEO RELC Anthology Series 42.

Rethinking the tools and the trade of English language teaching. In Zafar Syed and David Heuring (Eds) Tools of the Trade: Teaching EFL in the Gulf Military language Institute, Abu Dhabi.

2000:

Language, ideology and hindsight: Lessons from colonial language policies. In T. Ricento and T. Wiley (Eds) Ideology, Politics, and Language Policies: Focus on English, Amsterdam: John Benjamins

English, politics, ideology: From colonial celebration to postcolonial performativity In T. Ricento and T. Wiley (Eds) Ideology, Politics, and Language Policies: Focus on English, Amsterdam: John Benjamins

The social politics and the cultural politics of language classrooms. In J.K. Hall and W. Eggington (Eds) The sociopolitics of English language teaching. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters

Disinventing standard English. Review article. English Language and Linguistics, 4(1), 115-124.

1999:

Pedagogical implications of different frameworks for understanding the global spread of English. In C Gnutzmann (Ed.) Teaching and learning English as a global language. Native and non-native perspectives. Tübingen: Stauffenberg

Introduction: Critical approaches to TESOL. TESOL Quarterly 33(3), 329-348

(Editor of Critical Approaches to TESOL: Special Edition of TESOL Quarterly)

The contexts of critical reading and writing: The worldliness of Singaporean English, in P. Chew and A. Kramer-Dahl (Eds) Reading Singapore:Textual Practices in Singapore culture. Singapore: Times Academic Press.

1998:

English and the Discourses of Colonialism. London: Routledge

The right to language: Towards a situated ethics of language possibilities. Language Sciences, 20(1), 73-87.

Sustainable literacies? Literacy and numeracy studies, 8(2), 97-106.

Hong Kong and the cultural constructs of colonialism. In Barry Asker (Ed) (1998) Teaching language and culture: Building Hong Kong on education. Hong Kong: Addison Wesley Longman, 131-151.

1997:

Critical applied linguistics and education. In Ruth Wodak and David Corson (Eds), Encyclopedia of Language and Education Volume 1: Language Policy and Political Issues in Education, Dordrecht: Kluwer, pp23-31.

Cultural alternatives and learner autonomy. In P. Benson and P. Voller (Eds), Autonomy and independence in language learning. London: Longman, pp.35-53.

Vulgar pragmatism, critical pragmatism, and EAP. English for Specific Purposes, 16(4), 253-269. (Winner of the Horowitz prize for the best article in English for Specific Purposes, in 1997.)

1996:

English, Universities and Struggles over Culture and Knowledge. In Ruth Hayhoe and Julia Pan (Eds) East West Dialogue in Knowledge and Higher Education New York: M.E.Sharpe, pp.64-80.

Language policy as cultural politics: The double-edged sword of language education in colonial Malaya and Hong Kong. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 17, 2, 133-152

Borrowing others’ words: Text, ownership, memory and plagiarism. TESOL Quarterly, 30(2), 201-230. Reprinted in Vivian Zamel and Ruth Spack (Eds) Negotiating academic literacies. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum (1998)