3. Globalization and multilingualism

Though the main story of globalization in Applied Linguistics is the spread of global English and the loss of indigenous languages, this paper emphasizes the less commonly known view that globalization supports multilingualism. I argue that despite the onslaught of globalization in India, there is language maintenance and not language shift. In keeping with the contentions of Dor (2004), Soh (2005), and Bhatia and Richie (2004), the entrenchment of Hindi is explored in detail. Using a grounded process of data analysis, 200 photos and artefacts depicting the linguistic ecology of Delhi are qualitatively analyzed. Though in the monoliterate text the spread of English is palpable, all other biliterate text types are illustrations of the entrenched nature of Hindi.