Cosmopolitanism and neutrality: appropriating English as a local language of communication in Malaysia

Abstract

In its appropriation within the localized workplaces of 'post colonial' sites, something has happened to English, the lingua franca of international trade and commerce, as the forces of globalization push towards cross and intercultural communication. This paper shows how an indigenous variant of English which operates as functional model of interaction for localized business communication in Malaysia as Malaysian English contrasts with the lucrative global co modification of English for business communication. The forms and features of Malaysian English in localized contexts not only demonstrate the evolution of English as a local language, with its implications for normativity and intelligibility in serving localised language and communication needs, but also the seemingly inextinguisable global relevance of English past post colonialism. The relationship between this localised variety and English as a global language is shown to be analogous to that between hybridity or heterogeneity and uniformity or homogeneity, influential forces that affect global economies and cultures and patterns of consumption. Given both modernity and westernisation, local cosmopolitanisms and neutrality are discussed as two affects of the appropriation of English in Malaysia.