Kachruvian Research Articles

Towards a model of world Englishes and multilingual variation

AbstractDrawing on research on multilingualism in South Africa and India, this paper attempts to integrate world Englishes studies and variationist sociolinguistics; in other words, to fill in a missing dialogue between Braj Kachru and William Labov. The classic studies of variationism have been undertaken in large western centres in which the hegemony of one language is largely accepted. In the postcolonial world elsewhere, language functions and statuses are apportioned differently. This paper therefore probes the extent to which mainstream variationism is applicable outside the western milieu that it has so powerfully illuminated. This paper will outline how P languages (carrying overt prestige and power) interact with S languages (for solidarity and community interaction) within multilingual repertoires in post‐colonial contexts. The paper also explores the extent to which S and P codes interact under contact and switching in ‘third space’ moments that best capture the post‐colonial habitus among educated bilingual speakers.

Language varieties and labor mobilities

Abstract While language is clearly an important aspect of (labor) migration, there have not been many contemplations and interrogations, although truly compelling and necessary, on language varieties and their place and position in labor migration and transnational work in the contemporary world, and hence why we intend to do so in this article. In our paradigmatic analysis of language varieties in the context of labor mobilities, we shall take the case of the varieties of English arising from the global spread of the language worldwide as our focal point. The world Englishes paradigm thus greatly informs and substantiates our discussion so we shall first give the principles of this paradigm shift in linguistics begun by Braj Kachru. We subsequently connect world Englishes theorizing to labor migration practices. We shall argue that language is not only integral to the work being done by migrants, but is actually the work in itself. A consequence of this is that there are language varieties and Englishes which fit the work to be done more than others, and, therefore, these varieties and Englishes are becoming commodified as well in labor migration. We shall also take a look at the structural ramifications of labor migration on Englishes, how these new varieties are restructured further as they move from one place to another along with labor migrants. As it will become apparent, our discussion covers the situation of labor migrants in precarity more than the hyper-mobile elites often privileged in migratory contexts. Ultimately, we shall synthesize issues relating to language varieties in the context of transnational work and propose strategies in dealing not only with multilingual but also language-varietal diversity in (labor) migrations and mobilities.

English as Lingua Franca or World Englishes?

One of the key ways to realizing linguistic justice, as alluded to by Phillipe van Parijs (2011), is to welcome the use of English as a global lingua franca. Linguistic justice is defined as the condition in which the languages of linguistic groups are accorded official recognition, and the speakers do not suffer from social, economic, and dignity inequality on the basis of their language. However, the acceptance of English as an international language, as pointed out by many scholars, including Van Parijs himself, can also lead to potentially unjust linguistic situations. There are, in particular, three issues that come with the use of English as a global language, and they are (1) inequality in communication; (2) unfair resource allocation; and (3) lack of speaker dignity. This paper will provide a review of how political philosophers have talked about these problems, and the normative solutions to achieving linguistic justice. The aim of this article is to provide a linguistic perspective to the issue of linguistic justice. The author endeavors to do so by looking at linguistic justice through the lens of two dominant paradigms in the field of English linguistics: the World Englishes (WE) paradigm, pioneered by Braj Kachru; and the English as Lingua Franca (ELF) paradigm, a relatively more recent alternative developed by Jennifer Jenkins. The tenets of how each paradigm views speakers of English around the world are compared and a solution to the problem of linguistic justice is offered by thinking about “Englishes” instead of a single monolithic linguistic entity “English”. In doing so, efforts are made to highlight how linguistic justice can be achieved in the world of Englishes.

World Englishes Representation in English Textbooks of Indonesian Elementary Schools

This study aimed at investigating the representation of World Englishes (WE) in English textbooks used in elementary schools in Indonesia. Two English books for a sixth-graders were used as the data sources. This study used qualitative approach and document analysis as the method to gather the data. The collected data were then analyzed based on Braj Kachru's theory of World Englishes comprising inner, outer, and expanding circles. The analyzed data were eventually validated by the experts in the field of applied linguistics. The findings show that the inner circle and expanding circle representations are found in these two books. The representation of both circles was reflected from pictures and reading texts. Meanwhile, the outer circle did not acquire ample depiction in both books. In conclusion, the effort of introducing WE to elementary school students has been presented in the text books that were dominated by expanding circles based on the research in this study case.

From Divided to Diasporic: Re-envisioning Italian American Texts through Transformative Translingual Practices

From Divided to Diasporic: Re-envisioning Italian American Texts through Transformative Translingual Practices

Labels and Realities: The Relevance of Terms like ESL and EFL in a Linguistically Complex World

For a long time, ELT (‘English language teaching’) scholars and practitioners have used terms like ‘ESL’ (‘English as a second language’) and ‘EFL’ (‘English as a foreign language’) unquestioningly to describe the English used by people outside the so-called ENL (‘English as a native language’) circle. For example, ELT practitioners may conveniently refer to students from places like China, Vietnam and Thailand as EFL students. Interestingly, we find counterparts of such terms in ‘World Englishes’ studies; Braj Kachru’s ‘Inner Circle English’, ‘Outer Circle English’ and ‘Expanding Circle English’ essentially refer to ENL ESL and EFL respectively. Despite the popularity of such terms in scholarly circles, the problems associated with their use have not often been explored in depth. Nevertheless, some authors have described such problems. For example, commenting on the distinction between ESL and EFL, Nayar (1997, p. 10) states, “a great deal of referential fuzziness within the two and denotative overlap between the two are making the terminological distinctions unclear, impractical, and ineffective or, worse still, in some cases inauspicious and irrelevant.” This special issue aims to further examine the use and relevance of these terms.

The poetics and politics of Englishes in late modernity

AbstractThis paper argues that the ‘liberation linguistics’ perspective that Professor Kachru championed achieved two important aims: (i) it explored the creative manipulation of multilinguals’ repertoire in the late‐modern contexts of mobility and complexity; and (ii) it brought into focus the sociolinguistic inequalities engendered by a politics of conformity. Braj Kachru's teaching consistently highlighted the heterogeneity and multifunctionality of language, together with the meaning potential of variation, and his work continues to provide inspiration for the ongoing development of the field, and the ‘gloriously impure’ alchemy of English that he has bequeathed to us all.

Braj B. Kachru's scholarly publications: A bibliography

AbstractAlthough best known for his work on world Englishes, Braj Kachru was a truly original thinker, whose academic writings included influential publications on English linguistics, Indian languages, but much else besides, including applied linguistics, bilingualism and multilingualism, code‐mixing and switching, cross‐cultural communication, language policy, linguistic variation, literary creativity, sociolinguistics, and the politics of language. Braj B. Kachru was a renaissance scholar of immense stature, whose work brought together Indian and English linguistics with the cultural perspectives of both Asia and the West, and inspired scholars worldwide to adopt fresh perspectives on so many language issues.

Braj Kachru's vision of world Englishes

Braj Kachru's vision of world Englishes

The functional and pragmatic contexts of world Englishes

AbstractDrawing on the concepts of the ‘context of situation’ of J. R. Firth and the Hallidayan meaning of ‘linguistic performance’, the early works of Braj Kachru presented a sociologically oriented linguistic model to the study of Indian English. Giving Indianness ‘functional relevance and formal “manifestation”’, Kachru laid the foundation for contextualizing world Englishes within a sociolinguistic framework. This paper revisits the early cultural wars of language, and Kachru's efforts to explain language variation in the multilingual, multicultural contexts of English around the world within the scope of ‘pragmatism and linguistic realism’ (Kachru, 1986, p. 32). This paper examines the research, studies and insights of scholars who have contributed to furthering the functional and pragmatic contexts in which world Englishes are used.

Braj Kachru, Jurgen Habermas, and the pragmatics of communication

World EnglishesVolume 38, Issue 1-2 p. 329-329 TRIBUTE Braj Kachru, Jurgen Habermas, and the pragmatics of communication Wimal Dissanayake, Corresponding Author Wimal Dissanayake dissanayakewimal@yahoo.com Academy for Creative Media, University of Hawai'i, Hawai'i Correspondence Wimal Dissanayake, Academy for Creative Media, University of Hawai'i, 2800 Woodlawn, Suite 165, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. Email: dissanayakewimal@yahoo.comSearch for more papers by this author Wimal Dissanayake, Corresponding Author Wimal Dissanayake dissanayakewimal@yahoo.com Academy for Creative Media, University of Hawai'i, Hawai'i Correspondence Wimal Dissanayake, Academy for Creative Media, University of Hawai'i, 2800 Woodlawn, Suite 165, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. Email: dissanayakewimal@yahoo.comSearch for more papers by this author First published: 09 July 2019 https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12383Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume38, Issue1-2Special Issue: HONORING THE LIFE AND WORK OF BRAJ B. KACHRUMarch-June 2019Pages 329-329 RelatedInformation

Professor Braj B. Kachru and intelligibility

AbstractProfessor Braj Kachru instituted the school of world Englishes in his forthright examinations of the bases of the criteria that could reasonably be argued to constitute ‘good English’ and to define ‘an English speaker’. One specific stream of those investigations is that of intelligibility in terms of the features which English users need to take into account when they are making sense of others’ productions and composing their own.

A Fourth Circle of English

AbstractThis paper identifies a Fourth Circle of English, fueled by technology and outsourcing, and exemplified by the Indian speech community known as ‘youngistan.’ A variety of data are examined, including YouTube and other online advertisements, social media posts and exchanges, texts, as well as secondary data. To ensure a comprehensive and empirical account, the data are analyzed using applicable frameworks of critical discourse analysis, including Braj Kachru's world Englishes model premised on the notions of context‐specific, geographic interpretations through the tripartite constructs acceptability, comprehensibility, and intelligibility. In the case of the interactive exchanges examined, conversational analysis was employed, as well. In addition to the researchers’ assessment, the interpretations of undergraduate students in a Business Writing Course taught by the professor at Morgan State University, a historically black college and university (HBCU) are shared. The paper ends by discussing the implications of the types of language contact phenomena observed, before outlining directions for future research.

World Englishes in English language teaching: Kachru's six fallacies and the TEIL paradigm

AbstractIn recent years, there has been increased interest among English language teaching (ELT) professionals in world Englishes (WE) studies. This article examines the influence of Braj Kachru's work and WE studies in general on ELT. After a brief historical overview of the disciplinary relationship between WE and ELT, it discusses the current place of WE in ELT and presents the framework of Teaching English as an International Language (TEIL), an innovative paradigm in ELT that heavily draws from WE. The article ends with insights into future, speculating how WE will continue to be resourceful to ELT.

Professor Braj Kachru: In memory

Professor Braj Kachru: In memory

Towards a Kachru Institute

AbstractIn September 1984, Braj Kachru suggested that an institutional archive for research on the English language across cultures should be set up. In Kachru's view, this project would include six strands of activity, including empirical sociolinguistic studies, pedagogical studies, resource materials, special registers, functional domains and formal studies. Over the succeeding decades, however, no such institute came into existence. This current paper therefore seeks to revive the plan to create such an institute, which, of course, should be appropriately named as ‘The Kachru Institute’.

Braj B. Kachru and Asian Englishes

AbstractThis article discusses the range and scope of Braj Kachru's interests in Indian English and Asian Englishes, which were crucial to the development of world Englishes as a whole. The article begins with a discussion of the WE paradigm shift and then proceeds to highlight Kachru's contribution to Asian Englishes before moving on to provide an account of the contemporary dynamics of Asian Englishes from a sociolinguistic perspective. In this context, it is important to note that the field of ‘Asian Englishes’ owes much of its origins and development to the pioneer intellectual work of Braj Kachru from the 1960s onwards.

Kachru's redeeming myth of world Englishes

AbstractMichael Halliday once stated that all theories employ metaphors in order to express their essence, which might be restated as ‘every theory is a myth for what it is theorizing’. In his early work, Braj Kachru set out to creatively and critically ‘de‐mythologize’ the English canon, and in its stead introduced the new metaphor of the ‘Three Circles’, and the innovative, and redeeming, myth of ‘world Englishes’, changing the history of English studies in the process.

Professor Braj Kachru: A personal appreciation

Professor Braj Kachru: A personal appreciation

A Comparative study on English language teaching to young learners around the world

Usage of the English language as Lingua Franca has caused an increasing demand on the English Language Teaching (ELT) inearly childhood and according to Braj Kachru’s Three Circles Model of World Englishes as the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle the approaches to the Young Learners dramatically differs. Besides the features of English as a global language and the nature of early language learning, this paper also focuses on the comparison of the three different examples from the Three Circles Model of World Englishes. They are compared in terms of techniques that are used and the approaches to the Young Learners. The examples taken are from the official websites of the three countries from the Inner Circle, Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle; respectively, New Zealand’s Ministry of Education, Indian Ministry of Human Resource Development, and the Turkish Board of Education and Instruction. Keywords: Young Learners, The World Englishes, Lingua Franca, Braj Kachru, English Language Teaching (ELT).