World Englishes

Overview

The notion of a single correct English is a misconception that is perpetuated today. English is not owned by western countries. There are varieties of English called World Englishes that are spoken around the world and throughout many American regions. Anyone on a university campus can speak a variety of Englishes from faculty to students to staff workers. As a campus, our community is multilingual and multicultural, and it's important to recognize that we have a wide range of World Englishes represented on campus.

We all need to recognize that criticizing or rejecting a variety of Englishes does not support a learning community or learners' identities. We need to develop knowledge and techniques to recognize the diversity of Englishes and focus on communicating with people in our communities. We must not expect speakers to change their variety of English for us but to practice listening to the large variety of Englishes spoken around the globe. The globe has more speakers of other Englishes than speakers of American or British English.

This page will provide some starting resources about World Englishes and encourage acceptance of all varieties of the English language.

Varieties of Englishes

The circle model of World Englishes is not exhaustive of all the Englishes in the world but represents a portion of the variety of Englishes in the world. Notice the extensive variety!

Examples of Some Varieties of Englishes (being spoken):

Englishes are Based Off Their Environments, Cultures, and Contextual Factors:

McArthur, Tom, & McArthur, Tom. (2002). The Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford University Press.

Purdue OWL: World Englishes

TED Talk by Heather Hansen:

2 Billion Speakers of a Variety of Englishes

2 Billion Voices: How to speak bad English perfectlyThere are 2.4 Billion English speakers in the world, and 2 Billion of them learned the language in a classroom. Many say they speak “bad English,” but when 5 times more people speak “bad English” than “good,” how do we decide which language is best? In this talk, global communication specialist Heather Hansen takes a look at the other side of English, where 2 Billion voices have created a flexible, adaptable and accommodating space for global English communication. What can we learn from the 2 Billion voices when we really listen?

International Dialect of English Archive (IDEA)

The International Dialect of English Archive (or IDEA for short) is an archive of 1600 audio samples of varieties of Englishes spoken in about 120 countries. Each audio recording also has a transcript of the words spoken. The archive is not exhaustive of all Englishes spoken in the world, but it is the first of its kind that collected many primary sources of speakers. The archive also has a test your comprehension tool (under the SPECIAL COLLECTIONS tab) where users can listen to a variety of Englishes and then compare what they heard to a transcript of the audio.