Global Englishes: A Resource Book for Students (third edition) - Introducing Global Englishes

The primacy of English as an international language is intrinsically connected to the globalization of world trade and culture, which reached its maturity at the turn of the century. The complex changes brought about by this social, political, and economic process have lent a fresh perspective to the nature of English, and has given considerable momentum to research in the field of English studies, particularly as regards the persistent exonormative model of standard English, as opposed to non-standard variations of native-speakers’ English, to stabilized varieties of English in postcolonial countries, and to the emergent variable forms of ‘glocal’ Englishes in the so-called Expanding Circle, i.e. what is commonly referred to as English as a Lingua Franca, or ELF. These are the main threads woven into the fabric of the current academic debate, which have been pulled out by the authors of two recent books that are the object of this comparative review. Both works were designed for university students, scholars, researchers, and language teachers to provide an overview of the main issues relating to the polycentric development of English today, which poses interesting implications about the future of this language and the creation of a new paradigm for English language teaching. The aim of this review is to examine the differences between these two volumes and point out some of their main strengths and weaknesses.