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Article published In: Theory in Applied Linguistics Research: Critical approaches to production, performance and participation
Edited by Theresa Lillis
[AILA Review 28] 2015
► pp. 127–150

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The politics of English, language and uptake

The case of international academic journal article reviews

 | The Open University, UK
 | University of Rochester, US
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 14 September 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/aila.28.06lil
Drawing on 95 text histories from a longitudinal project on writing for publication in 4 national contexts, this article analyses the language ideologies enacted in referees’ and editors’ comments on articles submitted for publication in English-medium ‘international’ journals. It considers how orientations to ‘English’, ‘language’ and ‘language work’ are enacted in practices of reviewer uptake and the consequences of such practices for knowledge production, evaluation and circulation. In exploring evaluation practices, the article problematizes three foundational categories in applied linguistics: (1) The treating of English as a single stable semiotic resource over which the ‘native’ speaker is attributed a privileged evaluative position; (2) The overriding transparency approach to language and communication; (3) The focus on production as distinct from uptake.
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