ABSTRACT
Taking a critical, transformationalist view of contemporary globalisation, this chapter examines ways in which linguistic practices and ideologies are shaped by – and contribute to – dynamic social conditions in our globalising world. The first section summarises different approaches to understanding globalisation and argues that the language of globalisation is central to both the ideological framing and the enactment of globalising processes. The second section considers the globalisation of language, focusing on factors that position a language as a ‘world language’, while also noting the prevalence of ‘differential multilingualism’. The third section explores linguistic practices and ideologies situated in specific ‘glocalised’ contexts. Overall, the chapter highlights that a critical sociolinguistics of globalisation illuminates the need for refined conceptualisations of language, linguistic practices and communicative competencies, and concludes by suggesting ways in which these reconceptualisations might fruitfully inform social-justice-orientated positions of alter-globalisation.
