The status of English as a global language is deeply divisive and hotly contested. The Local Politics of Global English analyzes linguistic globalization in five countries that differ greatly in both their degree of global integration and their use of English. By drawing on the work of language scholars and the growing field of globalization studies, the author provides a revealing portrait of how politicians, activists, scholars and policy-makers in the United States, France, India, South Africa, and Nepal are debating the questions that plague local controversies over global English. Concepts of hegemony and resistance, elites and subalterns, and liberalization and democratization are incorporated into case studies that provide insight into the politics of linguistic globalization from above and from below. Of interest to students of politics and culture, as well as teachers and learners of language, The Local Politics of Global English is a detailed examination of a timely and controversial topic.

"Sonntag's effort to exemplify complicated issues of global English and local politics is very valuable and timely. . . . This book offers a wonderful resource to anyone who wants to grasp a broad idea of the controversy over global English at the level of local politics and it will be especially useful to students in undergraduate course in political science, global studies and linguistics." - Journal Of Sociolinguistics