Global Englishes (GE) is a field of study and an ideology that: 

• acknowledges English as the most commonly used language in global communication

• recognizes that, actually, there is not one “English” that is used globally but many different Englishes

• emphasizes that all Englishes are equally legitimate for global use.

A GE approach to teaching and learning Englishes emphasizes helping English learners focus on being effective users of Englishes in global interactions, rather than worrying about accuracy based on a “native speaker” standard.

GE aims to bring together the extensive scholarly work that has been done in three other fields -- World Englishes (WE), English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), and English as an International Language (EIL) -- along with ideas from the field of translanguaging and the recent “multilingual turn” in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) scholarship.  Additionally GE adds some new ideas to the mix, and encourages educators to implement GE in their classes, curricula, and English education policies.

The purposes of this website are:

• to provide an overview of GE concepts, and how those concepts contrast with an ideology focusing on native speakerism (the dominant ideology of English Language Teaching, or ELT)

• to clarify what it means to be an “effective GE user”

• to introduce what is involved in teaching with a GE focus, as well as issues related to GE-focused assessment

• to discuss paths forward for GE-influenced English education

• most importantly, to provide GE materials that teachers can link to or download for use in their English classes. (We also welcome additional materials that incorporate GE. If you have activities, video clips, or other materials to share, please submit them to us!)

* Throughout this website we use “Englishes” when the word is a noun, to emphasize a focus on multiple varieties. We use “English” when the word is an adjective to avoid awkwardness or confusion. 

-----------------------------

The ideas presented in this section came from and were influenced by the following sources: Galloway & Rose (2015), Matsuda (2012), McKay & Brown (2016), Rose & Galloway (2019), Rose et al (2020, and Selvi, Galloway, & Rose (2024). If you are interested in reading more, you can find them on our References & Links page.