Overview

Ruanni Tupas presents rich insights into the inequalities of Englishes and the ways in which these inequalities shape and impact English and multilingual speakers from around the world. This edited volume gives a critical take on world Englishes, while showcasing for readers the various inequalities in treatment towards the people who speak English differently, as well as the injustice in that treatment. Research methodologies are explored, providing a glimpse into how data are collected and lending a more thorough look into each study and its conclusions. Chapters address the geopolitics of knowledge production in the teaching, learning and use of English, with strong representations from the peripheries of sociolinguistic studies of English. English is constructed as a language which enables socioeconomic mobility which is one factor that increases the importance of research into this issue, and this book enables researchers to widen their methods of research and apply them to their area of study. A valuable text for academic researchers, as well as postgraduate and advanced undergraduate students, to better understand the linguistic, sociopolitical and epistemic inequality in English communication. It also provides readers with alternative perspectives on lingua-cultural pluralism to unpack social inequalities and hierarchies that exist today.

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9781032410234

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Reviews

Investigating Unequal Englishes sheds light on the dominance of Anglocentrism and monolingual biases and ideologies, and hegemonic language policies and practices favouring the English language across the world. It highlights the questionable and hierarchical status, role, function, and use of Standard English and the perpetual linguistic inequalities and injustices faced by speakers of different varieties of Englishes. The edited volume rightly argues that only the critical and metalinguistic awareness of policy-makers, ELT administrators, teachers, students, and community members can make them sensitive to individual and collective marginalisation and disempowerment based on languages. Hence, the volume is a must-read for academics, researchers, and language practitioners, intending to initiate the process of decolonisation at grassroots levels, work for the de-eliticisation of English, and promote and nurture linguistic and epistemic equity in the world. Shaila Sultana, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Investigating Unequal Englishes sheds light on the dominance of Anglocentrism and monolingual biases and ideologies, and hegemonic language policies and practices favouring the English language across the world. It highlights the questionable and hierarchical status, role, function, and use of Standard English and the perpetual linguistic inequalities and injustices faced by speakers of different varieties of Englishes. The edited volume rightly argues that only the critical and metalinguistic awareness of policy-makers, ELT administrators, teachers, students, and community members can make them sensitive to individual and collective marginalisation and disempowerment based on languages. Hence, the volume is a must-read for academics, researchers, and language practitioners, intending to initiate the process of decolonisation at grassroots levels, work for the de-eliticisation of English, and promote and nurture linguistic and epistemic equity in the world. Shaila Sultana, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh Joined by experts from around the world, Ruanni Tupas, the renowned scholar responsible for the concept of “Unequal Englishes,” explores the realities of hierarchical power structures among varieties of English in various contexts. This is a highly significant volume which investigates one of the most fundamental aspects of language in society, and thus should be read not only by researchers of World Englishes and critical applied linguistics but also by everyone involved in language education. Nobuyuki Hino, Otemon Gakuin University and Osaka University, Japan

Investigating Unequal Englishes sheds light on the dominance of Anglocentrism and monolingual biases and ideologies, and hegemonic language policies and practices favouring the English language across the world. It highlights the questionable and hierarchical status, role, function, and use of Standard English and the perpetual linguistic inequalities and injustices faced by speakers of different varieties of Englishes. The edited volume rightly argues that only the critical and metalinguistic awareness of policy-makers, ELT administrators, teachers, students, and community members can make them sensitive to individual and collective marginalisation and disempowerment based on languages. Hence, the volume is a must-read for academics, researchers, and language practitioners, intending to initiate the process of decolonisation at grassroots levels, work for the de-eliticisation of English, and promote and nurture linguistic and epistemic equity in the world. Shaila Sultana, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh Joined by experts from around the world, Ruanni Tupas, the renowned scholar responsible for the concept of “Unequal Englishes,” explores the realities of hierarchical power structures among varieties of English in various contexts. This is a highly significant volume which investigates one of the most fundamental aspects of language in society, and thus should be read not only by researchers of World Englishes and critical applied linguistics but also by everyone involved in language education. Nobuyuki Hino, Otemon Gakuin University and Osaka University, Japan There are undoubtedly benefits to the global spread of English, most obviously in the facilitation of communication across different cultural contexts or increased access to varied opportunities. However, are such benefits evenly distributed? As Tupas and colleagues show, it is no longer possible to treat the inherent and emergent inequalities in Englishes as a problem facing only a minority of speakers and communities. It is indeed a globally pervasive problem, but this volume helps us to identify its underlying causes while imagining potential ways forward. Jerry Won Lee University of California, Irvine, USA Delving deeper into the lens of Unequal Englishes with new contexts and encompassing methodologies, this volume is essential reading for researchers of the growing social inequalities in the pluralization and localization of Global Englishes. A key text for new generations of critical applied/sociolinguists. Virginia Zavala, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Peru

Author Information

Ruanni Tupas is Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics in Education at the Institute of Education, University College London, UK. He has published extensively on TESOL, bi/multilingual education and World Englishes.

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