World Englishes: A Critical Analysis

Mario Saraceni is a Lecturer in the School of Languages and Area Studies, at the University of Portsmouth, UK.

This book provides an accessible yet comprehensive critical perspective on the English language(s), power, and inequality. The progression of the arguments is clear and cohesive, effectively guiding the reader to arriving at a critical questioning of basic assumptions about the English language and its use around the world – and thereby providing thought-provoking pathways for advancing and re-revolutionising the WE paradigm. Through this original and challenging volume, the author adeptly achieves his aim of bringing subversion back to the heart of WE research.

• Preface1. Introduction 1.1 What this book is (and isn’t) about 1.2 Why another “World Englishes” book? 1.2.1 Expanding the scope of World Englishes 1.2.2 A slight impasse 1.2.3 New challenges 1.2.4 Old challenges1.3 Understanding language 1.3.1 language as system 1.3.2 Language as social practice Part I: History2. Old Englishes2.1 Introduction 2.2 Mainstream narrative 2.2.1 Metaphorical representations of language 2.2.2 The arrival of English in 449 AD 2.2.3 From closely related to one language 2.2.4 The story of ‘Old English’ . 2.3 Ideological motivations in the history of English 2.3.1 language and nationhood 2.4 Untidying History 2.4.1 The ‘birth’ of the English language? 2.4.2 The ‘Anglo-Saxons’? 2.4.3 Anglo-Saxon England? 2.4.4 A purely Germanic language? 2.5 Varieties of ‘Old English’? 2.6 Conclusion 3. New Englishes 3.1 Introduction .3.2 The story of the ‘spread’ of English 3.2.1 English everywhere 3.2.2 Two types of colonization 3.2.3 The ‘Three Circles of English’ 3.2.4 Criticism of the Three Circles model 3.2.5 Schneider’s Dynamic Model 3.2.6 Melchers and Shaw’s classification 3.3 Beyond the ‘spread’ metaphor 3.4 The ‘prehistory’ of World Englishes 3.4.1 American English sets the scene 3.4.2 Seeds of World Englishes in postcolonial writing 3.5 Conclusion: language and politics Part II: Languages4. Understanding World Englishes 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The egalitarian matrix of World Englishes 4.3 Limitations in the paradigm 4.3.1 Equality in diversity? 4.3.2 How different are Englishes allowed to be? 4.3.3 What about the Expanding Circle? 4.4 The ‘spot the difference’ approach4.4.1 ‘Errors’ or ‘features’? 4.4.2 British and American English as yardsticks4.4.3 ‘In full communion with its ancestral home’ 4.4.4 The norms of English .4.4.5 The power of codification 4.4.6 Varieties of language and varieties of race 4.4.7 The linguist gaze and dominant discourses 4.5 Spotting differences in English as a lingua franca 4.5.1 ELF vs. ENL4.6 Conclusion 5 Untidying Englishes 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Cutting the umbilical cord with the ancestral home 5.3 Dealing with English and other languages 5.3.1 Borrowing words? 5.3.2 Language across borders 5.3.3 English and non-English 5.3.4 Switching languages? 5.4 Delving deeper into language hybridity 5.4.1 World Englishes and super-diversity 5.4.2 Geography or language? 5.4.3 ELF across borders 5.5 Conclusion: from World Englishes to Language Worlds Part III: Ideology6. Linguistic imperialism and resistance 6.1 Introduction 6.2 An unequal world6.2.1 Where do the numbers come from? 6.3 Language and empire 6.3.1 American imperialism6.4 Linguistic imperialism 6.4.1 Macaulay’s ‘minute’6.5 Responses to linguistic imperialism 6.5.1 The ‘agency’ response 6.5.2 The ‘linguistic determinism’ response 6.5.3 The ‘appropriation’ response 6.6 Conclusion Part IV: Pedagogy7. Teaching World Englishes7.1 Introduction 7.2 Which English? 7.3 (Non-)native speakers? 7.3.1 Separate categories? 7.3.2 Myths and discrimination7.4 The paradigm struggles to shift 7.4.1 Acronyms and the (super-)diversity of language education7.5 Conclusion: teaching world Englishes? References Index