Dear Ruriko,
Thank you so much for your comment.
I’m sure Prof. Piller’s references will help you and others who are interested in “the consumption of English” very much.
Interestingly, in the city where I live those brochures/flyers that target children can be found but they usually use a different kind of discourse.

Dear Dr Pillar

Thank you so much for the references.
It was very unexpected to have a comment from you.
I love your wok so it was a great honor!
Actually, I’ve seen all the references that you suggested here.
Especially, “The Dark side of TESOL” is really interesting and gave me a good insight.
I’m working on my thesis, which mainly focuses on one English language testing for Children in Japan. I’ll try to make sense the use of this test within the context of the consumption of English.
Hopefully, I can post a little article or something similar somewhere!

Cheers,

Ruriko

Hi Ruriko,
I’m sure you’ve seen these two papers here one Language-on-the-Move:
Piller, I., & Takahashi, K. (2006). A passion for English: desire and the language market. In A. Pavlenko (Ed.), Bilingual minds: Emotional experience, expression, and representation (pp. 59-83). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Piller, I., Takahashi, K., & Watanabe, Y. (2010). The Dark Side of TESOL: The hidden costs of the consumption of English. Cross-Cultural Studies, 20, 183-201.
Additionally, there are two relevant papers in the most recent issue of the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism:
Kubota, R. (2011). Learning a foreign language as leisure and consumption: enjoyment, desire, and the business of eikaiwa. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 14(4), 473 – 488.
Park, J. S.-Y. (2011). The promise of English: linguistic capital and the neoliberal worker in the South Korean job market. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 14(4), 443-455.
And one more reference, which provides the broader background:
Heller, M. (2010). The Commodification of Language. Annual Review of Anthropology, 39, 101-114.
Good luck with your research! We’d love to hear more about it!

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

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

Socially situated textual analysis. Very interesting.

Khan

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

Thank you, Banafsheh, for providing us with a beautiful line of Jami! Those readers who are keen to know more about Jami please have a look the following page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jami

“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”!!!

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.