Much has been written about the linguistics, pragmatics and politics of the pluralization of English under conditions of colonization and globalization. By and large, however, the focus of the work on World Englishes has understandably been on "Englishes" rather than the "world". This paper explores the theoretical potential of…

"Changing English" is a new feature in "ELT Journal" which aims to illustrate the diversity of English in the world today and to ask whether, and how, ELT practitioners might accommodate such variation. Focusing on a particular language issue in each article, the series will explore how English varies between places and spaces,…

The decolonization of knowledge is increasingly high on the agenda of applied and sociolinguistics. This article contributes to this agenda by examining how peripheral multilingual scholars confront their linguistic and epistemic exclusion from global knowledge production. Based on the product of such a challenge -- a Chinese-centric special issue…

Prompted by a recurrent question from students, this paper examines perspectives from world Englishes and postcolonial studies in relation to one another. Focusing on two critical thinkers, Braj B. Kachru and Edward W. Said, each section highlights relevant themes and ideas from selected works of each scholar and discusses points of convergence…

This paper offers a taxonomy of the names used within world Englishes studies to refer to the object of investigation at the heart of the discipline. With the emergence of English as a global language, and with the concomitant increase in scholarship that critically studies this emergence, there has been a proliferation of names used to refer to…

One of the objectives of English as Lingua Franca (ELF) researchers is an account of the unique features of English that they have found in the speech of European users of English. These features, it is argued, describe a variety of English which they label "English as Lingua Franca". The choice of this particular term is problematic…

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…

This paper argues that the "world Englishes paradigm" and English as a lingua franca (ELF) research, despite important differences, have much in common. Both share the pluricentric assumption that "English" belongs to all those who use it, and both are concerned with the sociolinguistic, socio-psychological, and applied linguistic implications of…

In 2008, the need for intra-European communication has long exceeded the limits set by language barriers. As a result, English acts extensively as a lingua franca among Europeans with different mother tongues, particularly so in the professional domains of education, business, international relations and scientific research. Yet, despite its…

This paper is a general study of one of varieties of English--China English and its influence on English Language Teaching (ELT) for English majors. The status of English as an International language breaks the situation in which British English or American English is the sole standard. English becomes World Englishes, taking on a plural form,…

The introduction and spread of "Ms" as the courtesy address title for women is a cornerstone of feminist linguistic planning for English. Its introduction aimed to eradicate the discriminatory inequity in the address system that exposed women through their (non)marital relationship with men. The understanding, use and impact of the courtesy title…

This book traces the development of speech from a time when the spiritual roots of words were still experienced, down to the present day when words are in danger of being little else than 'bits' of information. The book illustrates the origins of everyday words and names and traces the use of words through history. It shows how certain sounds…

A description of field research which attributes the declining use of Breton to the conflict of status roles when primary socialization is in Breton and secondary socialization is in French. The growing impact of French civilization leads to increasing primary socialization in French. Notes, a questionnaire and references are included. (AMH)

This paper presents certain innovations in the "matched-guise" technique of dialect study, which is used to determine people's immediate evaluative responses to tape-recorded speakers of various accents, dialects and languages. (CHK)

Traces the history of sociolinguistic studies in West Germany from the early nineteenth century with Humboldt and reports on the state and purposes of sociolinguistic studies in present-day Federal Republic of Germany. Available from Liber Laeromedel, Box 1205, S-22105 Lund, Sweden (Text is in German.) (TL)