Cultures, Contexts, And World Englishes

This volume aims to familiarize readers with the varieties of world Englishes used across cultures and to create awareness of some of the linguistic and socially relevant contexts and functions that have given rise to them. It emphasizes that effective communication among users of different Englishes requires awareness of the varieties in use and their cultural, social, and ideational functions. Cultures, Contexts and World Englishes:

• demonstrates the rich results of integrating theory, methodology and application
• features critical and detailed discussion of the sociolinguistics of English in the globalized world
• gives equal emphasis to grammar and pragmatics of variation and to uses of Englishes in spoken and written modes in major English-using regions of the world.

Each chapter includes suggestions for further reading and challenging discussion questions and appropriate research projects designed to enhance the usefulness of this volume in courses such as world Englishes, English in the Global Context, Sociolinguistics, Critical Applied Linguistics, Language Contact and Convergence, Ethnography of Communication, and Crosscultural Communication.

Yamuna Kachru is Professor Emerita of Linguistics at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the USA. She has taught in India, the UK and the USA and has been invited as a speaker in Asia, Europe, and North America. Her research areas include structure of Hindi and other South Asian languages, and communication across languages and cultures using world Englishes. She was honored by the President of India for her contribution to Hindi linguistics with an award in 2006. Professor Kachru has authored and edited many scholarly papers and books on topics related to world Englishes.

Larry E. Smith is President of Christopher, Smith & Associates (CSA) LLC whose mission is to equip, empower, and inspire leaders for the twenty-first century. His experience includes over two decades as a researcher and administrator at Hawaii’s East-West Center and a decade as Executive Director of the International Association for World Englishes (IAWE). He is co-founding editor (with Braj B. Kachru) of the professional journal World Englishes: Journal of English as an International and Intra-national Language and has authored, edited, and co-edited a number of volumes on the topic