English as Capital vs. Language as Cultural: An Autoethnography of an Iranian Writer

Abstract

Scholarship on linguistic imperialism has explained the dominance resulting from structural and cultural inequalities that put English language and culture above any other (Phillipson, 1992). We can enrich the macro-level scholarship on this subject by listening to the voices and complex experiences of individuals who are affected by these histories of linguistic imperialism. To present more nuanced and situated experiences, I narrate and analyze my own English writing journey as an Iranian writer who learned English in Iran and is now a PhD student in Composition and Rhetoric in the U.S., to trace the relationship between the ideologies of English as capital and language as cultural. My autoethnography shows that the spread of English is not inherently good or bad, but how it impacts its users depends on the way it gets appraised against other languages. I consider culturally sustaining pedagogy as an affirmative possibility, but also, my case shows that culturally sustaining pedagogies can be complicated in contexts where there are conflicting cultural values. I hope my multilayered experience in various contexts will induce productive questions that will lead to a more capacious view of language and more effective and inclusive writing pedagogies.