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English as a global language

Language consumption and mobility

By July 4, 2011May 28th, 201912 Comments3 min read15,072 views

In the past thirty years, Iran’s population has exploded from about 40 million to more than 72 million. Such rapid growth has resulted in the vast majority of the population now being under 30 years old with a median age of 26.4. One of Iran’s achievements during the same period is the expansion of its educational system so that it has been able to cater to the educational needs of its expanding, young and ambitious population. Yet, brain-drain is one of Iran’s most widely recognized problems, although the government is doing all in its capacity to stem the tide of those who have decided to leave the country right after their graduation. Leaving the country, either permanently or for the sake of furthering one’s education, continues to be a very popular route. Besides universities in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, the ones in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Russia, China, and Malaysia are popular destinations for Iranians.

In this context, where so many people want to leave the country, the private, commercial foreign language sector has been expanding rapidly. Iran in general and my home town, Isfahan, in particular have undergone an unprecedented boom in foreign language learning and teaching. Accordingly, commercial language schools have mushroomed. It has been reported that, besides hundreds of unregistered ones, a whopping 3700 registered language schools are operating across the country.

The phenomenal market growth in commercial language teaching has also increased competition among language institutes and advertising materials for such institutes are a ubiquitous sight. Ranging from broadcast ads, via billboards, to all kinds of brochures and flyers, advertising materials are all designed to persuade even more members of the target group, i.e. Iranian youths, to engage in foreign language learning. In this way, language learning is no longer about education but about consumption and languages become nothing more than consumer commodities.

This typical flyer presents a case in point. I found this flier in Isfahan’s New Jolfa district, one of Isfahan’s hippest areas frequented by “modern” Iranian youths. The New Jolfa area is a gathering spot for fashionable Iranians to hang out. Consequently, it is also an ideal spot for promoting language schools.

In this flyer, the commodification of language learning is inscribed in the very grammar of the advertising text. For instance, ‘courses’ (دوره ها) and ‘classroom teaching’ (کلاس ها) are animated as participants and thus displace human agents such as ‘teachers’ or ‘students.’ That means that the ‘products’ themselves are ascribed roles and attributes that are in educational contexts normally associated with teachers. Modalities such as disappointment, failure, or risk do not even appear; all that is expressed is that ‘customers’ will receive a predictable, stable outcome. As the flyer has it, success is “100 percent guaranteed” (۱۰۰% تضمینی)!

Language learning thus becomes a product consisting of discrete units, which are separately accessible, and can be bought and sold as distinct goods in the range of commodities available in the market. In such commodified educational discourse, it is the duration of the course that takes on a symbolic significance; one can learn, say, Spanish in 90 days     (اسپانیایی ۹۰ روز)!

Apparently, the market is too competitive and the time is too short to check for typos. Infelicities such as “TOFLE” (i.e. TOEFL), “discution” (i.e. discussion), and “crusive” (i.e. cursive) are by no means limited to the flyer under scrutiny.

Last but not least, the use of flags in such a typical flyer perfectly fits its international and future-oriented purposes. These flags seem to have been intended to foster the link between language learning and mobility and hence to increase the marketing hype surrounding foreign language learning. The more language schools are hyped up, the more difficult it is to resist the urge to “buy” the advertised “products.”

Vahid Parvaresh

Author Vahid Parvaresh

Vahid Parvaresh is an assistant professor of English at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of the University of Isfahan, Iran. He holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Isfahan and an MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Tehran. His research interests are in discourse analysis and cross-cultural pragmatics.

More posts by Vahid Parvaresh

Join the discussion 12 Comments

  • Ruriko says:

    Dear Dr.Parvaresh

    This is actually the first time to post my comment on this language blog.
    I am very interested in the commodification of languages right now as I am writing my thesis on the consumption of English in Japan.
    It is great to see that other Asian country such as Iran, also has same kind of phenomenon.
    Is the phenomenon Language-as-a-commodity only seen in the language school targetting at younger and motivated youth? How about for children or even housewives or elderly people?

    Regards,

    Ruriko

  • Golnaz says:

    Dear Dr.Parvaresh ,

    As always a real though provoking blog .These are indeed facts ,But it’s the mater that those so -called language learning schools have learnt how to attract and which generation to attract .The case is maybe in the ” New Julfa destrict ” people are more involved for having a vacation out of Iran and to further the education ,This is what I heard from a lg Institute owner who told me that exactly the time I changed my location from Bozorgmehr to Nazar ,My institute started to what I call ” the greatest growth ” .

    Best

  • khan says:

    Hi Vahid,

    Socially situated textual analysis. Very interesting.

    Khan

  • Dariush Izadi says:

    Dear Vahid, a thought provoking blog!
    As you might have noticed, the use of nominalization could be another striking point of this flyer. Interestingly, none of these actions is presented here as a Process, except for the first clause. In other words, in terms of Functional Grammar, turning an event into a noun offers opportunities to point out, describe, classify and specify further and further. The one that is very distinct in this flyer.

  • Banafsheh says:

    Dear Dr.Parvaresh,

    Your post is mind-capturing.You made some interesting points in your post.Congratulations!
    Nowdays we face with a lot of such fliers all around Isfahan and other cities in Iran.
    Unfortunately, they do not check the correctness of words in their advertisements .
    In this vein we can say ” ذات نایافته از هستی بخش کی تواند که شود هستی بخش “.
    By the way, thanks for your post.

  • Sedigheh Najibi says:

    “although the government is doing all in its capacity to stem the tide of those who have decided to leave the country right after their graduation”!!!!!Really?!

    • George Sahakian says:

      “although the government is doing all in its capacity to stem the tide of those who have decided to leave the country right after their graduation”!!!

      • Vahid says:

        Dear George and Sedigheh,

        Thanks for your feedback! As you know, the argument underlying “the present post” doesn’t really change even if one argues that the government is “not” doing all in its capacity to stem the tide of immigration.

        best

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