World Englishes

Pluralizaron of English

The contemporary study of the spread of English began in the 1960s to early 1970s and focused on the differences between the nonnative English varieties (e.g., Malaysian English) and “standard English,” referring to British norms for the most part or to American norms. These norms were also regarded as a “common core” of the English language, from which any deviations were considered erroneous.

A shift in this paradigm is documented by two conferences that took place in 1978. One of them was held at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai'i, and the second one at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. At the end of the Hawai'i conference, a statement was endorsed among participants from 20 countries in which the distinction was made between countries that used English primarily for international communication and those that used it for intranational purposes, providing a broader perspective than the one established by the terms English as a foreign language[Page 909](EFL) or English as a second language (ESL). The conference at Urbana-Champaign continued conversations begun in the Hawai'i conference. The participants, coming from a variety of disciplinary, linguistic and cultural backgrounds, used cross-cultural perspectives to understand language variation, bi- and multi-lingualism, and the use of English around the world.

Kachru played a key role in both conferences. Having conducted research on normative varieties of English in South Asia, he developed a sociolinguistic profile model on the spread, patterns of acquisition, and functional allocation of English in different countries. This model is depicted in three concentric circles: (1) the Inner Circle, which represents the countries in which mother tongue varieties of English are based (United States, England, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand); (2) the Outer Circle, referring to countries in which English has been institutionalized through their colonial heritage from England or the United States (e.g., India, Nigeria, Malaysia, and the Philippines); and (3) the Expanding Circle, which refers to the rest of the countries in which English does not have an official status and its use is restricted to certain domains, such as tourism, commerce, or international transactions (e.g., China, Israel, Japan, and Egypt).

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