World Englishes Research Research Articles

A bibliometric analysis of World Englishes based on WOS database

ABSTRACT World Englishes (WEs) was introduced to highlight the diverse and multi-polarized development of English. Many studies attempted to establish models or theories of WEs to generalize the global use of English. However, few studies reviewed the development of WEs from the bibliometric perspective, showing its current research status. The present study employed VOSviewer and CitNetExplorer to analyze 644 and 564 articles respectively, which were downloaded from Web of Science from 2013 to 2023. Both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were utilized. The data revealed the top ten sources, organizations, countries and research hot topics in WEs. Additionally, attitude differences toward various English varieties and the transition from the WEs paradigm to English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) in the 21st century were examined. The findings were conducive to providing an overview of the present WEs research and contributing a bibliometric viewpoint on it, shedding light on future research directions.

Linguistic variation, Philippine English and mental health issues

AbstractThis article is a study of how Filipinos talk about their depression and recovery in Philippine English, as compared to how users from other Englishes talk about their experiences with the same illness. As such, this is an attempt at examining what contextual factors give rise to variations in Englishes. World Englishes research has posited that different geographical and cultural contexts engender ‘new’ Englishes; hence, different Englishes are named via country or culture and are considered to be distinct from each other. This article is concerned with the issue of how contexts of use, such as depression, can lead to systemic changes in the English that different individuals use. This study extends research on how particular discursive features may characterize one variety of English as compared to another by examing how ideational and interpersonal meanings relate to construe a ‘world’ of depression in Philippine English and Inner Circle Englishes.

Transliterated multilingualism/globalisation: English disguised in non‐Latin linguistic landscapes as new type of world Englishes?

AbstractEnglish has, for historical reasons, risen to global prominence as the unchallenged lingua franca internationally. World Englishes (WE) has, as a result, established itself as a visible line of research, exploring localised/indigenised varieties of English from around the world (e.g. India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Nigeria). However, most of the discussions so far concern English written in the Latin script as people would normally expect. Against a backdrop of globalisation and the juggernaut of English, this article points to an increasingly salient phenomenon that English especially in superdiverse and/or (post)colonial societies (e.g. India and Pakistan) may disguise in seemingly inscrutable and ‘mysterious’ local scripts (e.g. Perso‐Arabic script and Devanagari script) and even ‘pass off’ as local languages in these countries’ linguistic landscapes through phonetic transliteration. This emerging trend begs the question whether these should be understood as new varieties of local languages or new kinds of world Englishes disguised in non‐Roman scripts. This phenomenon is theorised in this paper conceptually. To illustrate our point, examples of authentic signs taken from the linguistic landscapes relating to South Asia and South Asian communities are discussed. As English is increasingly glocalised and becomes part of other less dominant languages, this article calls on researchers in World Englishes (WE) and (socio)linguistics in general to look beyond English written in the Latin script in a conventional/traditional sense and to expand the scope and remit of WE research to explore how English, as a dominant code, becomes indigenised using local scripts and morphs into and even ‘passes off’ as ‘local’ surreptitiously. This fundamentally calls for the crucial need for researchers from diverse and multilingual backgrounds to work together to better understand English and other non‐dominant languages’ role in the 21st century.

Introduction: Englishes of the Caribbean

AbstractThe English‐official Caribbean provides an insightful context for investigations of norm developmental processes, world Englishes theorizing, and mapping Englishes in multivarietal communities. While there has been an upsurge of linguistic research on the region, especially on emerging standardized varieties, little systematic empirical research exists on smaller Caribbean islands, select domain‐specific patterns of production and perception in larger territories, and regional issues of standardization. This special issue addresses current research gaps and provides a well‐rounded picture of language production and perception research in the anglophone Caribbean. The issue consists of articles with a variety of different methodological approaches, including corpus‐linguistic, sociolinguistic, acoustic phonetic, ethnographic, and language attitudinal investigations. It covers a wide range of smaller (Bequia, Dominica, Grenada, and St. Kitts) and larger territories (the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, and Trinidad). While the articles scrutinize the anglophone Caribbean, several of the issues raised have relevance for world Englishes research more generally.

(Socio)linguistic indices of the codification of Nigerian English

AbstractAlthough many studies in world Englishes research have examined the sociocultural and political factors that shape the development of varieties of English in non‐native contexts, there has been limited work on the range of codificatory instruments that engender the standardisation of these ‘new’ Englishes, especially in specific reference to Nigerian English (NE). Examining the extent of the codification of new Englishes is particularly critical in terms of their institutionalisation and eventual acceptance, both locally and internationally. In light of this, this article draws evidence from existing research and institutional efforts and policies to show where NE lies in the process of codification. The analysis indicates that, while there is an avalanche of evidence of (socio)linguistic indices showing that NE is being radically codified, the range of codificatory instruments (e.g., dictionaries, style manuals, grammars, pedagogies, language policies) remain limited.

N-isFocalizers as Semi-fixed Constructions: Modeling Variation across World Englishes

N-is constructions combine a variable article and a shell noun such as thing, fact, or problem with copula be. As discourse markers at the left periphery, they focalize information that follows. Using data from a large online newspaper corpus, this study is the first to investigate the variable syntactic integration (bare versus that-clause) of focalizers across a broad range of World Englishes. Variability in syntactic integration reflects the relative recent emergence of this discourse marker. It is also relevant for World Englishes research because it is at the level of semi-idiomatic constructions that nativization in post-colonial varieties is likely to occur. Corpus data show that syntactic integration in N-is focalizers is predicted most strongly by linguistic variables, with regional variety being a much weaker predictor. While no clear-cut regional or variety-type patterns emerge from the data, qualitative analysis reveals some low-frequency patterns as candidates for structural nativization.

A Bibliometric Review of World Englishes (2010-2020)

This study conducts a bibliometric review of World Englishes (WE) from 2010 to 2020 using CiteSpace. Based on the articles in the four leading journals of WE retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) database, several findings have been found. First, the number of articles has been gradually increasing from 2010 to 2020, with its citation frequency increasing enormously. Second, the landmark articles in WE research mainly focus on two aspects: the reconceptualization of theoretical frameworks, and the study of English varieties, with an emphasis on English in China. Third, WE research over the past decade includes four major areas: the study of Asian Englishes; language ideology, perceptions, and attitudes toward WE; WE in social media and popular culture; and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF).

Impacts of World Englishes on local standardized language proficiency testing in the Expanding Circle

The world Englishes (WEs) paradigm describes the spread of English in three concentric circles (Kachru, 1985) – the Inner Circle (e.g., the USA, UK, and Australia), the Outer Circle (e.g. India, Philippines, and Singapore), and the Expanding Circle (e.g. China, Indonesia, and Thailand). With Englishization and nativization outside the Inner Circle and the changing demographics of English users (e.g. non-native speakers [NNSs] considerably outnumber the native speakers [NSs] in the Inner Circle [Crystal, 1995; Graddol, 1999], the WEs research strongly advocates to recognize the NNS varieties. Until today, the WEs paradigm has not only posed challenges to, but also encouraged changes in, the language testing (LT) profession that has been traditionally relying on the Inner Circle standard (e.g., Kachru, 1985; Lowenberg, 2002; Davies, Hamp–Lyons & Kemp, 2003; Hu, 2012; Brown, 2014).

The sounds of Japanese English: Monophthong vowels and rhythmic patterning

ABSTRACT This article offers finer-grained acoustic analyses of two aspects of the linguistic sound system of Japanese English (JpE): monophthongal vowels and rhythmic patterning. At the segmental level, though past research has examined the vocalic inventory of JpE, these studies have tended to focus on vowel quality differences in the acoustic space. Our study approaches the acoustic investigation of monophthongal vowels in JpE by examining not just vowel quality, but also vowel duration. At the level of prosody, we conduct a quantitative analysis of the rhythm of JpE using the pairwise variability index. Results suggest that monophthongal vowels in JpE do not exhibit a homogeneous pattern of ‘conflation’ in terms of vowel quality or duration, and that JpE tends towards a stress-timed patterning of speech rhythm. Hence, the empirical data argue for the need of a ‘pluricentric’ paradigm to undergird world Englishes research, rather than a ‘monolithic’, Inner Circle norm-centric framework.

World Englishes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

AbstractThis special issue highlights the importance of world Englishes research in the Arabic‐speaking and non‐Arabic Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Scrutiny of the world Englishes (WE) research literature suggests that the MENA region is largely understudied and undertheorized, and that there is a lacuna in research with reference to this topic. The use of English in this geopolitical region is diverse, and the spread of English has emerged not merely as a response to political and economic advancements, but also as the need for scientific progress and development, and the need in higher education in the region. As the role of English has been increasingly important in recent decades, official language policies have been based on both economic and political considerations, while various ideologies have also impacted the spread of English in the domain of education.

English in Turkey

AbstractIt has been repeatedly noted in the literature that most world Englishes research focuses on Outer Circle countries, while studies on Expanding Circle countries, especially those in South America, Europe, and the Middle East, have been few and far between. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to provide a sociolinguistic profile of English in Turkey, thereby contributing to the growing literature on Expanding Circle countries. In this sociolinguistic profile, following a brief description of the country, I present the users and uses of English in the Turkish context, as well as discuss the attitudes of Turkish language learners towards English.

Cultural conceptualizations of business negotiations in the Expanding Circle

AbstractFollowing recents calls for the inclusion of conceptual aspects into world Englishes research, I report in this article on conceptualizations of business negotiations by Brazilian and German business people. I conducted semi‐structured interviews in English with nine participants from each country. Subsequently, I analyzed conceptualizations of respect, success, and conflict in business negotiations by looking at ‘conceptual scripts’ underlying interviewees’ answers. Results point to differences in how the Brazilian and the German interviewees conceptualize business negotiations.

Empirical perspectives on two potential epicenters: The genitive alternation in Asian Englishes

AbstractThe present study seeks to contribute to two sparsely examined areas of World Englishes research by (i) quantitatively evaluating two potential linguistic epicenters in Asia (Indian and Singapore English) while (ii) investigating the English genitive alternation in a cross-varietal perspective. In a corpus-based bottom-up approach, we evaluate 4,200 interchangeable genitive cases of written English from Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, the Philippines, Singapore and Sri Lanka, as represented in the International Corpus of English. We use a new method called MuPDARF, a multifactorial deviation analysis based on random forest classifications, to evaluate to what extent and with which factors the Asian varieties differ from British English in their genitive choices. Results show conspicuous differences between British English and the Asian varieties and validate the potential epicenter status of Indian English for South Asia, but not unanimously that of Singapore English for Southeast Asia.

Language contact and world Englishes

ABSTRACTLanguage contact has continued to play a role in world Englishes research, but its potential for analyzing Englishes and for mapping their diversity has not yet been applied in a comprehensive manner. This introduction to the special issue addresses different facets of the connection between language contact and world Englishes. The seven articles of the special issue are briefly outlined, showing the relevance of taking a contact linguistic approach to understanding world Englishes both from a theoretical and an empirical point of view.

한국, 중국, 일본의 세계영어 연구 경향 분석 -World Englishes 및 English Today 게재논문을 중심으로-

한국, 중국, 일본의 세계영어 연구 경향 분석 -World Englishes 및 English Today 게재논문을 중심으로-

World Englishes in international proficiency tests

ABSTRACTThe demographic dominance of ‘non‐native’ speakers of English and the growing recognition of world Englishes (WE) call for critical examinations of varieties of English underpinning international proficiency tests. Expectedly, there has been an ongoing debate between those who argue for British and American norms and those who argue for all English norms including WE in international tests. While this welcome debate may develop awareness of WE issues among stakeholders, there has been little research on test‐takers and their perspectives on the relevance of WE to high‐stakes tests. This paper reports on data from an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) study to explore two questions: (1) How do IELTS test‐takers perceive the relevance of WE to the test and why? (2) What are the implications of their perceptions for WE research? Analyses of quantitative and qualitative data show test‐takers’ mixed views and attitudes: While the majority of them supported WE in an abstract, ideological sense, they were against the inclusion of WE in the test for reasons related to maintaining standards, fairness, equality and test‐taker interests. A critical discussion of the findings is undertaken to draw out implications for WE and WE researchers in the context of the dominance of English tests and their hegemonic discourses.

Diachronic Approaches to Modality in World Englishes

The collection of articles presented in this special issue of the Journal of English Linguistics is the first of its kind as a thematically and methodologically coherent set of contributions dealing with the diachronic dimension of the grammar of postcolonial varieties of English. To date, the bulk of descriptive World Englishes research has consisted of synchronic comparisons of the lexico-grammar of the parent variety and Postcolonial Englishes, often accounting for the present-day differences in contactlinguistic and language-acquisitional terms, or with reference to certain “universals of New Englishes” or “angloversals” (Mair 2003). Barring a number of forerunners (e.g., Fritz 2007; Dollinger 2008; Hundt & Szmrecsanyi 2012; Rossouw & van Rooy 2012), the grammars of contemporary postcolonial varieties have not been considered from a historical linguistic perspective, as stages in their own evolution. Indeed, such a research focus remains unmentioned in Bolton’s (2005) survey article on World Englishes research. Nor is historical linguistics mentioned by Schneider (2003:236) as one of the linguistic subdisciplines that the study of “world-wide Englishes” builds on, in spite of the fact that it “should . . . be most obvious” that “the sociolinguistic and linguistic scenarios in which New Englishes have evolved lend themselves to an investigation of . . . language variation and change” (Schneider 2003:238). While the historical investigation of any sociocultural phenomenon is hardly in need of further justification, the arrival on the scene of World Englishes scholarship of Schneider’s (2003) own “dynamic model” of the emergence of New Englishes has made the need for historical linguistic investigation of such varieties all the more pressing. As a hypothesis of a “diachronic process” (Schneider 2003:235), the model very much remains in need of empirical underpinning, in particular with relation to

Norms and varieties of English and TESOL teacher agency

The growing recognition of the plurality of English underling the World Englishes (WE) paradigm has problematised the conventional second language acquisition (SLA) views of errors. If English use in emerging English-speaking contexts is to be judged by local norms, as argued by WE scholars, applying exocentric norms in these contexts can be inappropriate. On the other hand, despite the significant growth of WE, varieties of new Englishes have yet to develop widely acceptable endocentric norms. These developments have raised a critical question: How can TESOL teachers distinguish between errors in the SLA sense and varietal features in the WE sense? Framed around language management theory (LMT) and teacher agency, this paper investigates how a group of global TESOL practitioners in an Australian university evaluated usages of English as a second language, what criteria they used and what implications their judgments and decision-making processes have for TESOL pedagogy and WE research.

World Englishes and Higher Education

This paper explores the relationship between World Englishes and Higher Education by focusing on the meaning making resources used by “users” of different varieties/dialects of World Englishes. The results of the study indicate that if we focus on the “uses” of language in particular contexts, we find patterns of similarities that are shared by speakers of diverse varieties of World Englishes. These findings support the broader literature on genres that show that language patterns on use—that is, patterns in language relate to specific contexts of use. In such contexts, the identity of the user seems to be less important than the purpose or use of the text. It is this “use” dimension of World Englishes that is explored in this paper using SFL as an informing linguistic theory. The paper shows that such studies can lead to interesting new ways of looking at variation across Englishes and that they can contribute greatly to our ability to use World Englishes research in our work on education, linguistics, and socio-economic development.

Research methods and intelligibility studies

ABSTRACT: This paper first briefly reviews the concept of intelligibility as it has been employed in both English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and world Englishes (WE) research. It then examines the findings of the Lingua Franca Core (LFC), a list of phonological features that empirical research has shown to be important for safeguarding mutual intelligibility between non‐native speakers of English. The main point of the paper is to analyse these findings and demonstrate that many of them can be explained if three perspectives (linguistic, psycholinguistic and historical‐variationist) are taken. This demonstration aims to increase the explanatory power of the concept of intelligibility by providing some theoretical background. An implication for ELF research is that at the phonological level, internationally intelligible speakers have a large number of features in common, regardless of whether they are non‐native speakers or native speakers. An implication for WE research is that taking a variety‐based, rather than a features‐based, view of phonological variation and its connection with intelligibility is likely to be unhelpful, as intelligibility depends to some extent on the phonological features of individual speakers, rather than on the varieties per se.