Where English Is Headed in South America: A Speculative Glimpse

Abstract

This chapter aims to survey the slow but steady incursion of the English language into the daily lives of the millions of people that inhabit the 12 sovereign countries and three major territories that make up South America. The language is bound up with the geopolitics in which the continent is embroiled in much the same way as it is true to say of the continents of Africa and Asia, as indeed of every nook and cranny of this world.

The precise role of English is still difficult to pin down, but as I have argued elsewhere it makes a lot of sense to characterize it as ambivalent (Rajagopalan K. World Engl 22(2):91–101, 2003; Rajagopalan K. Curr Issues Lang Plan 9(2):179–192, 2008). To say the least, it presents a strange admixture of adoration and suspicion—a factor that must be taken into account when undertaking any major policies designed to teach the language or promote it in other ways (Rajagopalan K. Colonial hangover and the new, ‘hybrid’ Englishes.’ In: Agnihotri R, Rajagopalan K (eds) (2015) On the challenge of teaching English in Latin America with special emphasis on Brazil. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137345196_6, 2012). The chapter may reach a conclusion that in the near future, English in South America, will cede its current status to some other language or cluster of languages based on some extrinsic factors.