Global Englishes

The global spread of English—a process set into motion and currently being influenced by colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, neoliberalism, popular culture, and technological advancements, to name a few social structures and phenomena—presents scholars with a range of exciting opportunities to conduct interdisciplinary research on language and communication. For example, the global spread of English has led to a number of linguistic varieties that complicate what is traditionally understood to be a speaker of English. Although linguistic varieties are a key empirical issue within this body of work, this publication establishes that the study of global Englishes requires a much more interdisciplinary approach. Put differently, the study of global Englishes extends beyond the investigation of language varieties and includes a number of different linguistic and social issues, as the references cited in this article demonstrate. This publication offers an overview of some of these issues, and establishes how scholars have approached the global spread of English in their research. The current publication defines a linguistic issue as a social, communicative, or cultural matter that interfaces with language and, more specifically, global Englishes. That is to say, linguistic issues are bound to a number of sociological and cultural phenomena, which shed light on how English spreads, and is contested and reimagined. For example, the global spread of English is largely based on a history of colonialism and imperialism, and these historical developments have formed, and currently shape, how individuals construct their language ideologies. Moving beyond the linguistic-varieties discussion in global Englishes allows researchers to better understand the significance of politics and power in shaping communicative practices, linguistic hierarchies, attitudes and perceptions, and ideological commitments.