Abstract
In scholarly discussions about the English language in the world, the traditional view of language as a bound, unified, and fixed system has been replaced by a pluralist understanding of language as diverse, fluid, and multifaceted. This is observed in such inquiries as world Englishes (Kachru et al. 2006), English as a lingua franca (Jenkins 2000; Seidlhofer 2011), English as an international language (McKay & Bokhorst-Heng 2008), and interactions across Englishes (Meierkord 2012). Furthermore, research focused on local practices of English use has demonstrated hybrid and agentive appropriation of language in selecting, mixing, stylizing, truncating, and bending linguistic codes and expectations (e.g. Blommaert 2010; Canagarajah 2011; Pennycook 2007, 2012; Rampton 2006). Despite some significant conceptual differences, these scholarly trends have pluralized our understandings about the forms and uses of English, its speakers, and the contexts in which English is used, destabilizing the normative idea of who owns English and which English is legitimate. Not only have they pluralized English and English speakers, they have also dislocated existing linguistic boundaries and related categories, conceptualizing linguistic practices as dynamic performativity. Applied to pedagogy, the pluralist perspectives have called into question the perceived superiority of mainstream American or British English and its native speakers that constitutes traditional linguistic conventions.
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Kubota, R. (2015). Inequalities of Englishes, English Speakers, and Languages: A Critical Perspective on Pluralist Approaches to English. In: Tupas, R. (eds) Unequal Englishes. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137461223_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137461223_2
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