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In the Introduction to the volume, the editors introduce the overall topic, i.e., newly emerging realities and current debates in World Englishes theorising. They discuss why a unified approach towards postcolonial and non-postcolonial Englishes is inevitable to fully capture the current linguistic realities behind the spread and entrenchment of English worldwide. Subsequently, they provide a concise summary of the EIF Model (Buschfeld and Kautzsch) in comparison to Schneider’s (2003, 2007) Dynamic Model, and offer a brief description of the outline of the book by chapter.

This chapter highlights the novelty of the approach of investigating English at the grassroots in World Englishes research, as opposed to the traditional view of associating English with access to higher education and high status in a society. The notion of "grassroots" is defined, and historical patterns of the spread of English in different types of communities are outlined. A distinction is drawn between a wider notion of "English at the grassroots", heterogeneous language forms produced by non-elitist speakers, and the narrower concept of "grassroots Englishes" proper, typically associated with acquisition through natural interaction, driven by a strong instrumental motivation to obtain better jobs, characteristic social settings in the service industry and in tourism, and typical structural patterns, often perceived as reduced. The paper briefly surveys earlier work on related topics, research gaps, and the contributions offered by the papers in this volume.

The chapter offers a conceptual overview, discussing the notion of ‘grassroots Englishes’ along with other related phenomena pertaining to the spread of the English language worldwide (‘learner English’, ‘English as a second language’, ‘English as a foreign language’, ‘English as a lingua franca’…). It provides data samples for illustration but argues that traditional clear-cut distinctions between such concepts do not fully depict linguistic realities. Furthermore, it broadens the focus to include the notion of ‘grassroots multilingualism’ and it is argued that ‘grassroots Englishes’ should be pictured as an important part within a higher-level framework of global, multilingual practices. Concluding, it is suggested that different Englishes should better be pictured as nodes in a complex system of Englishes and, in turn, as parts of a complex system of languages and multilingual practices, in which certain categorical differences can be identified but which, more importantly, overlap and interact in their emergence, existence, and uses.

This chapter discusses the incorporation of World Englishes into a History of the English Language (HEL) course, addressing questions about how to grapple with the geographical and geopolitical planes along which World Englishes have grown. Other questions considered here include diachronic formation, cultural contexts, relationships with other languages, and effects of globalization on forms of English that are both related to and yet quite distinct from the model of Standard English that frequently orients the HEL course. Two possible strategies for incorporating World Englishes into an HEL course are suggested. One strategy consists of focused lectures on the external history, social and cultural influences, linguistic features, and so on, of just one or two World English varieties, which can be combined with a second strategy that involves handing the research and even some of the teaching over to the students.

This paper investigates the representation of grassroots English in a recent (2012), successful Bollywood movie, English Vinglish. The plot focusses upon Shashi, a young Indian mother who speaks hardly any English, a fact which is hugely embarrassing to herself and her family. During a stay in New York City she secretly takes beginners' English lessons with other international, instrumentally motivated learners. After a section which outlines some background, the paper's first main part analyzes language attitudes and ideologies held by the characters in this movie, presenting a short Critical Discourse Analysis of scenes from the movie, meant to disclose hidden linguistic value judgements. The second part adopts a linguistically descriptive perspective, presenting an analysis and interpretation of the basic syntactic patterns employed by Shashi and her classmates. These reduced but communicatively sufficient structures are characteristic of early adult learners' usage, and are shown to reflect internal development and to be similar to what has recently been termed "grassroots spread" of English. They are shown to display structural similarities with pidgins, patterns found in early language acquisition, and widespread nonstandard structures found in World Englishes.

This chapter discusses metalinguistic discourse produced by asylum seekers from English-speaking West Africa in Germany, with a focus on the role of English in participants’ communicative environment and the values and affordances ascribed to different varieties of English. The chapter argues that, in this specific context, a) English loses much of its communicative range but retains important identity-related functions, and b) the values associated with different varieties of English reflect global relationships in the World system of Englishes. African varieties are linked to in-group functions and receive differential evaluation, with Nigerian English being constructed as more standard-distant than Ghanaian English, whereas the English of German interlocutors is associated with the prestige varieties American and British English. Particularly surprising is the frequent equation of Gambian English with Jamaican ways of speech, a pattern accounted for not in terms of linguistic similarity but of the global circulation of reggae and dancehall culture. The chapter thus contributes to the sociolinguistics of globalization and the study of language, mobility, and migration.

This chapter will address the teaching of “post-colonial Englishes,” focusing on the sociopolitical and cultural conditions that enabled changes in English as it was used during, and after, the colonial encounter. To capture the complexity of linguistic hybridities associated with plural identities, our disciplinary discourses of the global use and acquisition of English must (i) liberate the field of World Englishes from the orthodoxies of the past and instead connect it to a more general theory of the sociolinguistics of globalization, and, especially (ii) bring into focus local forms shaped by the local logics of practice. This chapter discusses specific examples of the practice of creativity in grammar, discourse, and sociolinguistic use of World English varieties.

In this chapter, debates revolving around the global spread of English, linguistic imperialism, World Englishes and the theories of postcolonial performativity are introduced. Is English a cultural imperialistic tool of the West, or is English being increasingly hybridized and used for their own daily purposes by many Southeast Asian people? How is language policy and planning (LPP) related to the creation of social and educational (in) equalities? The chapter discusses these issues and concludes with the proposal that Southeast Asian postcolonial societies need to develop their own LPP frameworks.

This chapter describes assignments used to teach the History of the English Language (HEL) and its contemporary counterpart the English Language in the World. In both of these courses, linguistic concepts can be linked to literary analysis, which helps students learn how to analyze code-switching and/or style-shifting in the context of a literary argument. For discovering and interpreting issues about the status and use of English around the world, students have a number of options. For example, after reading specific articles about slang generally and analyzing examples chosen in class, some students choose to write a final essay on slang or jargon used within online newspapers or films that represent different World Englishes (e.g., in Nigerian “Nollywood” films). Thus, World Englishes become realer for students rather than exotic abstractions or curious variants of English or American English.

This chapter addresses how the history of English as a linguistic topic has been taught in one South African university. The author focuses on the traditional Old–Middle–Modern English trichotomy as well as colonial and postcolonial synchronic varieties. Subsequent to a curricular shift from historical to applied linguistics in English departments, students taking History of the English Language (HEL) come to the course with little or no background in Old and Middle English. The author offers practical examples of how he accommodated this change in student preparation. Additionally, he addresses how the postcolonial era and globalisation have “revitalised the story of English.” Pidgins, Creoles, and World Englishes problematise the earlier genealogy of the Standard Language, making a linear history less easy to uphold. The author’s discussion of his complementary “Pidgins, Creoles, and New Englishes” course includes helpful pointers to instructors teaching these varieties within a HEL course.

The chapter assesses the role of the English Language Teaching Department—its structure, management, profitability, and publications—and its impact on the Press as a whole. The extraordinary growth of Oxford’s ELT programme resulted in part from a global shift towards English-language learning in old markets and a rapid growth of new markets around the world to which OUP had good access through its branches and established international trade. New ELT courses were developed or adapted for use in Africa, Central and East Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and, most successfully, in Europe. Successful series titles included Crescent English Course, Access to English, Streamline, and Headway. Despite intense competition and some unprofitable partnerships, OUP became the world’s leading ELT publisher through developing reliable titles for children and adults and placing a strong emphasis on market strategy.