Coming to terms with English in Denmark: Discursive constructions of a language contact situation

Jacob Martin Thøgersen

Coming to terms with English in Denmark: Discursive constructions of a language contact situation

Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper presents an investigation of Danes' attitudes towards English through qualitative interviews. Denmark, like most other countries in the so-called Western world, is under significant linguistic and cultural influence from (American) English. In this paper, I analyse how Danes come to terms with that. Most striking is the great uniformity in the discourses through which English is constructed on the one hand as the default language of the world, on the other as a sign of modernity. An important by-product of the investigation is that it reveals how attitudes are constructed in situ during the conversation between interviewer and interviewee. The paper thus takes a stance in the ongoing debate concerning the validity of ‘standardized’ vs. ‘conversational’ interviewing.

Original language	English
Journal	International Journal of Applied Linguistics
Volume	20
Issue number	3
Pages (from-to)	291-326
ISSN	0802-6106
Publication status	Published - Nov 2010

Access to Document

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1473-4192.2009.00249.x/abstract

Cite this

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title = "Coming to terms with English in Denmark: Discursive constructions of a language contact situation",

abstract = "This paper presents an investigation of Danes' attitudes towards English through qualitative interviews. Denmark, like most other countries in the so-called Western world, is under significant linguistic and cultural influence from (American) English. In this paper, I analyse how Danes come to terms with that. Most striking is the great uniformity in the discourses through which English is constructed on the one hand as the default language of the world, on the other as a sign of modernity. An important by-product of the investigation is that it reveals how attitudes are constructed in situ during the conversation between interviewer and interviewee. The paper thus takes a stance in the ongoing debate concerning the validity of {\textquoteleft}standardized{\textquoteright} vs. {\textquoteleft}conversational{\textquoteright} interviewing.",

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N2 - This paper presents an investigation of Danes' attitudes towards English through qualitative interviews. Denmark, like most other countries in the so-called Western world, is under significant linguistic and cultural influence from (American) English. In this paper, I analyse how Danes come to terms with that. Most striking is the great uniformity in the discourses through which English is constructed on the one hand as the default language of the world, on the other as a sign of modernity. An important by-product of the investigation is that it reveals how attitudes are constructed in situ during the conversation between interviewer and interviewee. The paper thus takes a stance in the ongoing debate concerning the validity of ‘standardized’ vs. ‘conversational’ interviewing.

AB - This paper presents an investigation of Danes' attitudes towards English through qualitative interviews. Denmark, like most other countries in the so-called Western world, is under significant linguistic and cultural influence from (American) English. In this paper, I analyse how Danes come to terms with that. Most striking is the great uniformity in the discourses through which English is constructed on the one hand as the default language of the world, on the other as a sign of modernity. An important by-product of the investigation is that it reveals how attitudes are constructed in situ during the conversation between interviewer and interviewee. The paper thus takes a stance in the ongoing debate concerning the validity of ‘standardized’ vs. ‘conversational’ interviewing.

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