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Key Words language spread, language contact, language variation, language change, English language studies
* Abstract This essay is an overview of the theoretical, methodological, pedagogical, ideological, and power-related issues of world Englishes: varieties of English used in diverse sociolinguistic contexts. The scholars in this field have critically examined theoretical and methodological frameworks of language use based on western, essentially monolingual and monocultural, frameworks of linguistic science and replaced them with frameworks that are faithful to multilingualism and language variation. This conceptual shift affords a "pluricentric" view of English, which represents diverse sociolinguistic histories, multicultural identities, multiple norms of use and acquisition, and distinct contexts of function. The implications of this shift for learning and teaching world Englishes are critically reviewed in the final sections of this essay.
INTRODUCTION
This article focuses on major current theoretical and methodological issues related to what has been characterized as "World Englishes." In the past three decades, the study of the formal and functional implications of the global spread of English, especially in terms of its range of functions and the degree of penetration in Western and, especially, non-Western societies, has received considerable attention among scholars of English language, linguistics, and literature; creative writers; language pedagogues; and literary critics. It is in this context that the late Henry Kahane remarked: "English is the great laboratory of today's sociolinguist" (1986, p. 495). There is now a growing consensus among scholars that there is not one English language anymore: rather there are many (McArthur 1998), most of which are disengaged from the language's early Judeo-Christian tradition. The different English languages, studied within the conceptual framework of world Englishes, represent diverse linguistic, cultural, and ideological voices.
The field of study of world Englishes-varieties of English used in diverse sociolinguistic contexts-represents a paradigm shift in research, teaching, and application of sociolinguistic realities to the forms and functions of English. It rejects the dichotomy of US (native speakers) vs THEM (nonnative speakers) and emphasizes instead WE-ness (McArthur 1993, 1998, Kachru 1992a). Referring to the logo acronym of the journal World Englishes (1984), WE, McArthur (1993, p. 334) interpreted the field most succinctly when he observed "there is a club of equals here." The pluralization, Englishes, symbolizes the formal and functional variations, the divergent...