Standard English and the Politics of Language [Hardcover]

The status of 'Standard English' has featured in linguistic, educational and cultural debates over decades. This second edition of Tony Crowley's wide-ranging historical analysis and lucid account of the complex and sometimes polarised arguments driving the debate brings us up to date, and ranges from the 1830s to Conservative education policies in the 1990s and on to the implications of the National Curriculum for English language teaching in schools. Students and researchers in literacy, the history of English language, cultural theory, and English language education will find this treatment comprehensive, carefully researched and lively reading.Preface Acknowledgement Introduction A History of 'The History of the Language' Archbishop Trench's Theory of Language: The Tractatus Theologico-Politicus The Standard Language: The Literary Language The Standard Language: The Language of the Literate Theorising the Standard: Jones and Wyld Language Against Modernity Continuities: Past and Present Conclusion: Further Confusion: Kingman, Cox, The National Curriculum and After Notes Bibliography of Works Consulted Index

Review of previous edition:

'...a great work of demythologisation, which puts the concept of standard English in its proper historical perspective...a book which every teacher of English in the country should read.' Professor Roy Harris, University of Oxford

Review of this edition:

'Crowley demythologizes 'standard English' as a marker of uniformity, neutrality, and the one language of truth...One strength of these core chapters is that Crowley positions opposing views/theories in interesting ways in an attempt to offer some balance in prespective...By the end...[he] has successfully woven an historical tapestry of parallel, yet interesting discourses to reveal that every time the question of language surfaces...it means that a series of problems are coming to the fore.' - Marina Engelking, LanguaglsŠ