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World Englishes in 2000 and beyond
Author(s) -
Yano Yasukata
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/1467-971x.00204
Subject(s) - world englishes , english as a lingua franca , linguistics , varieties of english , variety (cybernetics) , lingua franca , intelligibility (philosophy) , standard english , sociology , english language , computer science , artificial intelligence , philosophy , epistemology
Spreading at the present rate, English will further increase its importance as the global lingua franca in this century. At the same time, the rapid and extensive localization and nativization will accelerate the ramification of English into varieties in the ESL (English as a Second Language) regions. Our challenge then will be how to maintain common standards and mutual intelligibility among those varieties of English. The users of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) who are relatively free from the localization of English might be able to contribute to create, maintain, and develop the globalized standards of Englishes. Such Englishes would be characterized as simple, plain, and regular in their linguistic forms and socioculturally neutral in their interactional strategies. They would accommodate any variety of English as far as it is comprehensible to the educated users of any variety, native or not.