World Englishes

English is one of the most spoken and rapidly changing languages in the world. The global spread of English and the process of globalisation have led to the development of ‘world Englishes’. In this unit, we explore world Englishes in the current transmedia world, and the implications of world Englishes for intercultural communication. The unit consists of three components, including: modelling and framing world Englishes, English across time and space, and applied world Englishes.

We focus on linguistic features of a number of English varieties, and explore a range of issues, such as identity and intelligibility, transcultural creativity, and the future of world Englishes.