11 Pakistani English

TARIQ RAHMAN

Introduction
The English language in Pakistan presents us with a major paradox. On the one
hand, it helps some young Pakistanis climb up the social ladder, but, on the other,
and simultaneously, the lack of English prevents others from doing so or, at least,
proves to be a major impediment in their path. Most people, even in urban areas,
know only a few words of English and cannot understand or hold a sustained
conversation in the language. However, in elite society, people speak English
naturally and spontaneously as a matter of habit. It is also the language in which
the state apparatus functions at the highest levels, as the orders of the government
and the judgments of the higher judiciary are usually given through the medium
of English. Similarly, the officer corps of the armed forces functions in English,
and in the nation’s newspapers, non‐governmental organizations (NGOs), and
universities, English is the main language of employment. In short, English is the
most important elite language and the language of power in contemporary
Pakistan. The scholarly literature in English in the nation has typically focused on
four major topics: (i) the historical dimension, (ii) the descriptive dimension, (iii)
Pakistani English as a variety, and (iv) English in education.1 This chapter sets out
to provide an overview of English in Pakistan and Pakistani English through
discussion of the multilingual context, the history of the language within the
country, the status, functions, and features of English, literature in English, and
current debates concerning the relationship between English and the other
languages of Pakistan.

The Handbook of Asian Englishes, First Edition. Edited by Kingsley Bolton,

Werner Botha, and Andy Kirkpatrick.
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2020 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
280 English in Outer Circle Asian Societies

The multilingual context of Pakistan

Pakistan is a multilingual country. Its national language, Urdu, is the mother
tongue of about only 8% of the population, although it is very widely used in the
urban areas of the country. Apart from Urdu and English, the country has five
major languages: Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Siraiki, and Balochi. There are 55 other
languages, some of them on the verge of extinction (Lewis et al., 2013). At the time
of writing, the 2017 census results have yet to be published, although the English‐
language daily Dawn (May 28, 2018) gave “leaked” information about the present
state of languages in Pakistan. This information is summarized in Table 11.1 below,
where the figures from the 1998 census have been included to facilitate comparison.
These numbers alone, however, do not tell us a great deal about the sociolinguistic
realities of the country, since they are contingent upon the role of these languages in
public and private domains. Their use in the domains of power and solidarity, to be
explained later, has helped determine the language ideologies of the country (Woolard
& Schieffelin, 1994). These ideologies, though not monolingual, assign English the
top rank for all formal transactions and for social prestige, while Urdu follows in
prestige for country‐wide interaction, whereas one’s mother tongue follows for in‐
group solidarity, informal interaction and, for non‐Punjabis, ethnic identity assertion.
In education, there is a consensus that English is the most highly privileged language,
at least in part because it is also the language of state and corporate power.

The history of English in Pakistan

During the colonial period, knowledge of the English language provided a mea-
sure of “cultural capital” which facilitated entry into the higher domains of British
rule (Bourdieu, 1991). Modernizing reformers like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan

Table 11.1 Pakistan population by language.

Language 1998 (% of total) 2017 (% of total) 2017 (in millions)

Punjabi 44.15 38.78 80.5

Pashto 15.42 18.24 37.9
Sindhi 14.1 14.57 30.3
Seraiki (Siraiki) 10.53 12.19 25.3
Urdu 7.57 7.08 14.7
Balochi 3.57 3.02 6.3
Hindko – 2.24 4.7
Brohi (Brahvi) – 1.24 2.6
Kashmiri – 0.17 0.4
Others 4.66 2.47 5.1
Total 100 100 207.65

Source: Census (2001, p. 107); Kiani (2017).

 Pakistani English 281

(1817–1898) and Abdul Latif (1828–1893) tried to persuade Indian Muslims to

overcome their prejudices against English (Khan, 1872; Latif, 1861), although this
prejudice was strongly entrenched among ordinary Muslims (Rahman, 2002). At
the same time, the policy of teaching English to Indians was contested among the
British officials themselves, with the Orientalists wanting to teach the Hindu and
Muslim heritage languages – Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian – while the Anglicists
were in favor of promoting English in elite education. The latter group succeeded
in pushing through their policy, and, eventually, English became the medium of
instruction in elite schools, higher education, and the upper echelons of the civil
service, the judiciary, and the armed forces (Sharp, 1920; Rahman, 1996a). However,
at the lower levels of society, vernacular languages were used, and in the areas of
present‐day Uttar Pradesh (UP) and the Pakistani Punjab, it was Urdu that domi-
nated (Rahman, 2011). This fact is relevant for us to understand the English–Urdu
controversy which continues to engage people in Pakistan today.
These policies were replicated in the areas which comprise present‐day Pakistan
once they came under British control. The Sindh was conquered in 1843, and the
Punjab, which comprised the present‐day Khyber Pakhtunkwa (KP) province, in
1849. The story of how English came to dominate elite domains of power, elite
education, and higher education is given in detail in Rahman (2002). Briefly, there
were schools for the socialization of the landed gentry and aristocracy, the chiefs’
colleges, of which Aitchison College in Lahore is an example. These were run
along the lines of the aristocratic model of Eton and Harrow public schools in
England, and catered for a small Indian elite. The lower‐middle and middle classes
were educated in vernacular‐medium (Sindhi in Sindh, and Urdu in the Punjab,
KP, and British Balochistan) schools where English was a subject but it was not
taught as well as in the elite schools. In short, when West Pakistan emerged on the
map of the world in 1947 it had a language policy which did not favor the masses.
Its main features were that most children were not educated by the state at all,
some were educated in Islamic seminaries (madrasas), government schools taught
thorough the vernacular languages (Urdu and Sindhi), while the elite attended
English‐medium schools and learned excellent English there.

The current status and functions of English in Pakistan

Pakistan continued the policies inherited from the British Raj, although there have
been numerous statements concerning language policy in various documents,
including the different versions of the constitution, statements by governmental
authorities in the legislative assembly debates, and, above all, various documents
relating to education policy which have been issued by almost every government.
Language policies as documented in the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan are as follows:

a. The National language of Pakistan is Urdu, and arrangements shall be made for its
being used for official and other purposes within fifteen years from the commenc-
ing day.
b. Subject to clause (a) the English language may be used for official purposes until
arrangements are made for its replacement by Urdu.
282 English in Outer Circle Asian Societies

c. Without prejudice to the status of the National language, a Provincial Assembly

may by law prescribe measures for the teaching, promotion and use of a provincial
language in addition to the national language. (Constitution, 1973, Article 251)

In this context, two things need to be noted. First, Urdu is the national language,
despite being the mother tongue of a minority, and, second, that English has
remained a de facto official language even after the 15 years stipulated in the
constitution of 1973. The Supreme Court of Pakistan, however, ruled on September
8, 2015, that within three months, the government should give the English lan-
guage official status (Court, 2015). The implementation of that order remains to
occur, and the debates about this issue will be discussed later. In the domain of
education, the policy of the government has been stated as follows:

English shall be employed as the medium of instruction for sciences and mathematics
from class IV onwards.
(Government of Pakistan, 2009, p. 20)

However, this policy has been amended by provincial governments from time to
time. For instance, the Punjab government changed the medium of instruction in its
schools from Urdu to English in 2008. However, the British Council, which carried
out an evaluation of these schools, came to the conclusion that even the teachers
were not competent in English (PEELI, 2013), and the experiment was ended. Elite
schools do, however, use English as a medium of instruction from Class 1 onward.
At the upper level, however, English is much in evidence. Thus the ministries,
both federal and provincial, communicate at the level of the civil and military offi-
cers in English. The parliament makes laws in English though the debates in the
legislative assemblies take place mostly in Urdu. The officer corps of the armed
forces functions in English. Most universities teach and examine most subjects in
English, though they do allow social science and humanities (languages, Islamic
studies) to be taught and examined in Urdu (or Sindhi in Sindh) along with
English. As for the bureaucracy and the army, entry into their respective services
is dependent on knowledge of written and spoken English. The army in Pakistan
produces a number of publications to disseminate its information among its offi-
cers. These are official publications discussing policies, and these professional
journals, strategy papers, and tactical booklets are all in English. These have been
analyzed by Christine Fair, an American scholar, who has found them useful for
providing insights into the worldview of the army as an institution (Fair, 2014). It
must also be mentioned that the autobiographies of retired senior military officers,
like those of politicians and bureaucrats, are almost always in English. The officers
also speak English spontaneously with each other, although they often code‐switch
between English, Urdu, and other Pakistani languages. On all official occasions,
on training courses, and on formal occasions, English is used as the default lan-
guage of communication in such domains.
However, at the lower level in all these institutions – government, judiciary, and
the military – Urdu is used, except in Sindh where Sindhi is also used in the rural
areas. Thus, a police station in the Punjab or the KP provinces will write down the
 Pakistani English 283

report of a crime and carry out investigations in Urdu (not in Punjabi or Pashto).
The lower courts will also function in Urdu. However, the officers of the police will
submit their reports to higher officials in English, and if the case goes to the high
or supreme courts, they too will function in English, and the Pakistan Legal
Judgment (PLD) will give the judges’ verdicts in English. In the armed forces, the
non‐commissioned ranks are taught in Urdu. But some English technical terms are
used in military discourse. Examples include platoon /pεlt ̣ǝn/, artillery /ārt ̣ilri/,
rifle /rӕfǝl/, pistol /pɪst ̠ǝol/, fire /fӕr/, reconnaissance /rekki/, rendezvous /arvi/,
where the pronunciation of these words is heavily influenced by the phonological
rules of Punjabi and Pashto. Some orders for soldiers are still written in romanized
Urdu, that is, Urdu written in the Roman script. During the British period, this
script was used for a great deal of writing, including in newspapers and the armed
forces, but now it is used far less and the Urdu script is used instead, even for army
orders meant for soldiers. Suffice it to say that English is a marker of class and
power in Pakistan. English indexes (or points to) high status, modernization,
power, and urbanity. Such “orders of indexicality” (Blommaert, 2010) assist in
creating a world apart from the world of the marginalized and the less powerful,
at least in urban settings, which operates in the spoken vernaculars (Punjabi,
Siraiki, Pashto, and Balochi).

The features of Pakistani English

There is no such thing as a single variety of Pakistani English just as there is no
single variety of Indian English. Both are convenient labels for several South
Asian varieties of English. In Pakistan the languages of borrowing are Punjabi,
shared with the Indian Punjab; Urdu, shared in the form of spoken Hindi with
India; Sindhi, again shared with migrants from Sindh to India, and Pashto, which,
however, is shared with Afghanistan not India. However, the term “Pakistani
English” has become conventional since it was first used by Robert J. Baumgardner,
an American sociolinguist who visited Pakistan in the mid‐1980s and analyzed
the English vocabulary of Pakistani newspapers (1987). Later, I myself described
the phonetic and phonological, morphological and syntactic, and lexical features
of Pakistani English (Rahman, 1990). More recently, the Pakistani sociolinguists
Mahboob and Ahmar published a study which suggested that some features are
in a state of flux and others differ from person to person or from situation to
situation (Mahboob & Ahmar, 2004).

Phonological features
Like other non‐native varieties, Pakistani English too has subvarieties. Those who
are highly exposed to English do not deviate from educated native speakers in their
writing. However, they do use the retroflex /t/ and /d/ when they speak the
language. They also do not aspirate the plosives /t/, /p/, and /k/ in the beginning
of stressed syllables. Moreover, they use the vowels /o/ and /e/ for the English
diphthongs /ou/ and /ei/. People educated in vernacular‐educated schools, and
284 English in Outer Circle Asian Societies

therefore less exposed to spoken English, tend to use a rhotic pronunciation and
use the clear /l/ rather than the velarized (dark) /l/ in final position. They also
tend to use the vowel /a/ instead of a rounded back vowel. Thus the vowels /ɒ/
and /ɔ/ are replaced by /a/, pronouncing cot as /kat/ not /kɔt/ (Rahman, 1991a).
At the bottom of the hierarchy are those who have very little formal exposure to
English so they use what Indian linguists have called “Butler English” (Hosali,
2005). Their pronunciation of English is least intelligible to native speakers. These
subvarieties are also called the acrolect, mesolect, and basilect varieties (Rahman,
1991a, pp. 84–88).

Lexis
Because of a shared history, Pakistani English and Indian English have common
words and phrases which have been in use for a long time, as testified, among other
sources, by Hobson‐Jobson (Yule & Burnell, 1866). The differences between Pakistani
English and Indian English are partly caused by borrowings from Arabic, the
influence of indigenous cultures, and Pakistan’s separate development since 1947
(Rahman, 1991b; Mahboob, 2009). To take the Islamic component first, Mahboob
concludes in his article on the Islamic features of Pakistani English that “the English
language in Pakistan represents Islamic values and embodies South Asian Islamic
sensitivities” (2009, p. 188). As for the Pakistani experience, the word drone, used as
a verb such as ‘to drone,’ ‘droning,’ ‘droned,’ entered the lexicon only a few years
ago. These usages refer to the United States’ use of drones to fire missiles on per-
ceived terrorist targets in parts of Pakistan. Thus the verb now means ‘to destroy,’
‘to kill,’ ‘to annihilate’ and is used for anything from human beings to plans and
ideas. Words not given in earlier publications on the lexical features of Pakistani
English (Rahman, 1991b) have been collected in the present author’s chapter on the
“Development of English in Pakistan” (Rahman, 2015) and are not being repeated
here. The similarities between Indian English and Pakistani English have been
noted earlier, so they are not being repeated in any detail. It may be noted in passing
that a contemporary corpora‐based study of Indian English suggests that words
like hifi (‘posh, fancy’), pandit (‘expert’), Mughal (‘powerful person’), meet (‘meeting’),
shift (‘move’), loot (‘rob’), and release (‘be screened’) are commonly used in both
Indian English and Pakistani English (Sedlatschek, 2009, pp. 108–116).

Grammatical features
Grammatical features are given in detail in Rahman (1990, pp. 41–62). Here, only
the main ones – found in newspapers and writings of students and others who use
English for their professional duties – are summed up.

Omission of the definite article

The following sentence, taken from newspapers, illustrates this [the omission is
indicated by ∅].

(1) He said that ∅ Education Ministry is reorganizing ∅ English syllabus.

 Pakistani English 285

The progressive aspect

The use of the progressive aspect with habitual and completed action and certain
stative verbs.
(2) I am doing it all the time.
(3) Where are you coming from?

Differences in complementation with certain verbs and adjectives

(4) The government has not succeeded to reduce the problems of the people.
(5) Students eligible for entering the contest.

The use of auxiliaries ‘would’ and ‘could’ for ‘will’ and ‘can’
(6) English would gain still firmer roots in every department.
(7) The decline in educational standards could be traced … to misguided
policies.

Differences in the use of prepositions (compared with Inner

Circle varieties)
(8) The meeting dispensed formalities. (Omission of preposition)
(9) The government strived to combat against poverty. (Addition of
preposition)
(10) What is the time in your watch? (Choice of preposition)

Differences in count/mass‐noun distinctions

(11) The use of plural forms such as aircrafts, equipments, toasts, etc.

Omission of a reflexive pronoun with the words ‘enjoy’ and ‘exert’

(12) They exerted when they went to the gym, and enjoyed.

Discourse features
Verbal politeness in English follows similar patterns in North India as well as
Pakistan. The following forms of address are commonly observed:

(13) Sir Akram is our teacher.

Here, ‘Sir’ is not a title as the person referred to is not a knight of the realm. It is
being used for respect since in Pakistani English and Indian English, ‘Mister’ is not
considered polite enough.

(14) Madam Shazia is our boss in the bank.

286 English in Outer Circle Asian Societies

With ‘Madam’ and ‘Miss,’ the latter is often used for young women or those in
subordinate or less powerful jobs (school teachers, clerks in banks, and so on).

Cultural aspects of the use of English

During British rule in India, English became a marker of modernity, Western edu-
cation, urbanization, and a degree of Anglicization. It penetrated deeply into the
cultural landscape of the cities, towns, and even the villages of the country, so that
today, the linguistic landscape of Pakistan society has been altered and shaped by
the presence of the English language, and its use on advertising billboards and in
place names, street names, and public signage for both information and symbolic
functions. In Pakistan, English serves the first (information) function at airports,
railway stations, hospitals, and universities, but mostly it serves the second
(symbolic) function in other locations. Thus, if a hairdressing salon calls itself a
“barber shop” or a “hairdresser salon” in the Roman or the Perso‐Arabic alphabet,
it is signaling that it is an elite, modern, and urban institution catering for educated,
English‐using people, and not just a rural naikidukan (nai ‘barber’; dukan ‘shop’). In
this case, caste functioning as class also comes into play because the menial profes-
sions, such jobs as nai (‘barber’), mochi (‘cobbler’), teli (‘the man who presses seeds
to obtain oil’), mirasi (‘singer, musician’), and dhobi (‘washerman’), are considered
inferior and are lumped together in the category of kammi (‘manual laborers’) and
are traditionally the employment of the lower orders in the village social system
(Rahman, 2012). The Urdu word for ‘shop’ (dukan) also has a low status, so it is not
used in upscale localities where the English equivalent is prevalent. Certain Urdu
words are either obsolete or have changed their meaning and are habitually
replaced with English ones. For instance the words maktab and madrasa could be
used for ‘school’ and ‘college’ but both refer to traditional institutions for Islamic
learning, so they are not used for secular educational institutions.
All institutions created by the British, such as the civil service and the armed
forces, continue to use English terms for their routine functioning, so that the terms
used for ranks and official positions are in English (Captain, Major, General, Wing
Commander, Commodore, Admiral in the armed forces; Commissioner, Deputy
Secretary, Secretary in the civil service; and Assistant Professor, Professor, Principal,
Dean, and Vice Chancellor in the education sector). Thus when they are advertised
in the cities, no matter which script is used for them, English becomes part of the
cityscape. Mostly, as mentioned above, the use of English is symbolic of a modern
identity since it is this language which is indexed to efficiency, a forward‐looking
outlook, and modernization. Thus, the use of the English language evokes the
cultural capital of modernity and the superior services offered in Western coun-
tries. The use of English as a class marker is not confined to small entrepreneurs
using it to advertise their businesses or offices. It reinforces the caste/class divi-
sions which have existed in South Asia for centuries.
The novelist Nasir Ahmad Farooqi describes the Anglicized elite of Pakistan in
the 1950s in his writing. Typically, they study English literature, or at least the
 Pakistani English 287

Romantic poets, abbreviate their names to sound like English names, drink in
clubs, and read The Times and the English press. It is a section of society where “[y]
oung men go to Oxford, and return to work for the Government or British com-
panies” (Farooqi, 1968, p. 9). Their tastes are English and they think it no disgrace
not to be able to write their mother tongue better than English. Indeed, if that
mother tongue is Punjabi, it is often considered not respectable enough to be used
on any formal occasion and, in some cases, even at home. As the Nur Khan report
on education put it, there was “almost a caste‐like distinction between those who
feel at ease in expressing themselves in English and those who do not” (Government
of Pakistan, 1969, p. 14). This “ease” was a matter of style, mannerisms, and a
worldview. As commonly observed, the English school students talked in English,
very often in slang borrowed from comic books, informally with each other. Even
their very body language was different from that of others. One cultural manifes-
tation of this Anglicization or Westernization was that this elite enjoyed cultural
products in both British and American English. These were mostly English films
and television programs and music, but some people also produced literature in
English. Let us now turn to this cultural phenomenon.

Literature in English
English has been used for literary purposes ever since Sheikh Dean Mahomet
[Shaikh Deen Mohammad] (1759–1851) wrote his books entitled Travels (1794) and
Shampooing (1826). According to Michael Fisher’s excellent biography of this fasci-
nating man, “Dean Mahomet mastered the classically polished literary forces of
the day, complete with poetic interjections and allusions” (Fisher, 2004, p. 208).
Before the partition, a number of Indian Muslims such as Ahmed Ali and Mumtaz
Shahnawaz had written novels on themes relating to Muslim identity and polities
in an era of rapid political change. The riots of the partition were reflected in liter-
ature in all languages, including English. Bapsi Sidhwa, the famous novelist from
Pakistan, wrote her Ice‐candy‐man (1988) on this painful but perennial theme. The
other themes were the conflict between tradition and modernity, which is expressed
both in the choice of the appropriate idiom (Pakistani English vs. British standard-
ized English) and in the theme (indigenous values vs. Westernized values). As for
the individual writers or the major works in each genre – poetry, novel, short story,
prose, and drama – my own study, A history of Pakistani literature in English (1991c),
covers the period up to 1988. Soon after the publication of this history, new
Pakistani authors started producing work which gained recognition. Some of this
was compiled in an anthology by Muneeza Shamsie under the title of A dragonfly
in the sun (1997), which contains poetry and short stories, with a few extracts from
novels, up to 1996. Later, she brought out another anthology, Leaving home (2001),
which brings together prose and short stories up to 2000 in one place.
By the early 2000s, Pakistani fiction in English had come of age, although there
is only one study of such recent writing, that is, the book entitled Where worlds
collide by David Waterman (2015). Waterman focuses on novels by the
following authors: Mohsin Hamid, Kamila Shamsie, Nadeem Aslam, H. M. Naqvi,
288 English in Outer Circle Asian Societies

Mohammad Hanif, Uzma Aslam Khan, and Sorayya Khan. According to Waterman,
much of this fiction tackles four major themes. The first of these is the degradation
of the human condition in Pakistan because of social changes, while the second is
the Islamization project of General Zia ul Haq (1924–1988), who was military ruler
of Pakistan from 1977 until his death in 1988, and its political and social conse-
quences. The third is the theme of the increased crime in large cities such as
Karachi, while the fourth theme is the political and personal consequences of 9/11
both on the lives of Pakistanis in the West, and on Pakistan society itself. Politics
either intrudes as a major theme or serves as background in all these novels. In the
first category are: Mohsin Hamid’s Moth smoke (2000), which is a study in the deg-
radation and failure of a young man suffering from inequality in Pakistan; Ali
Sethi’s The wish maker (2009), which deals with the troubled life of another young
man; and Broken verses (2005) by Kamila Shamsie, which deals with the private life
of a young girl, Aasmani, whose social activist mother disappears. Novels in the
second category include Uzma Aslam Khan’s The geometry of god (2007) and
Mohammad Hanif’s A case of exploding mangoes (2009). The third theme, relating to
increasing crime in Karachi, is explored in Kamila Shamsie’s novels such as In the
city by the sea (1998) and Kartography (2002); Uzma Aslam Khan’s Trespassing (2003);
and Mohammad Hanif’s novel, Our lady of Alice Bhatti (2011). The fourth theme,
concerning issues related to 9/11, is explored through Hamid’s second novel The
reluctant fundamentalist (2007); H. M. Naqvi’s Home boy (2009); and Kamila
Shamsie’s Burnt shadows (2009). Much of this fiction is sombre, stylistically innova-
tive, and crucially concerned with disillusionment at a personal and political level,
arguably reflecting the downward slide of Pakistani society toward pessimism
and violence.

Current debates, language policies, educational

developments
The major debate with reference to English since the founding of the nation has
been about the medium of instruction in education (Rahman, 1997a). While pro-
moters of Urdu for nationalistic or religious reasons, like Syed Abdullah (1976),
wanted Urdu to replace English in all official domains including education, the
powerful bureaucracy, military, and the urban middle class did not (Rahman,
1997b). The latter prevailed and education became a thriving business, and nowa-
days, the richest and most powerful patrons of English are the capitalist owners of
chains of schools in the cities of Pakistan (Beaconhouse, City School, Grammar
School Systems) (Rahman, 2004). In addition to these elite schools, there are a large
number of so‐called English‐medium schools working in the cities of Pakistan
which cater for the lower‐middle and upper‐working classes. These institutions
do not charge as high fees as their elite counterparts, but they do charge some fees,
while the government schools are either free of charge or cost very little. Manan
et al. carried out research on these schools in Quetta, the capital of the Balochistan
province of Pakistan, and came to the conclusion that English is restricted to a set
 Pakistani English 289

repertoire of classroom instructions. The authors suggest that “teaching English

solely in the Urdu language, ultimately leaves little potential for communicative
competence and meaningful learning of the English language and contents”
(Manan et al., 2017, p. 748). And yet, the English‐medium schools, no matter how
incompetent they may be, are popular because they promise to teach English,
which is considered to have such valuable cultural capital that low‐income parents
invest in it to benefit their children for life.
Bela Jamil, Country Coordinator of ASER (Annual State of Education Report) in
Pakistan, points out that private providers are increasing their share of schooling
as the state withdraws its investment. In some areas, like Sindh, private schools
have increased their enrolment from 10% to 17% of the school population (Jamil,
2014). This has been mostly because the children’s parents have been attracted by
the nomenclature “English‐medium,” with which most of these private providers
advertise themselves. However, the reality is that, among the lower classes, chil-
dren, whether in public or private schools, do not learn to understand, read, write,
or speak English with any degree of proficiency. A small minority from the urban
elite is, however, very proficient in the language since they attend expensive
English‐medium schools. About this situation, the ASER Report 2014 notes that
those who attend such schools “are no more than 3–5 % of enrolled children in the
country,” but that “[t]hese children do get a decent quality of education,” and “do
quite well in standardized O/A level examinations” (Bari, 2015, p. 12).
But this kind of elite education is outside the reach of most citizens, since the
minimum wage is Rs 12 000, while the average fees of such schools are Rs 15 000
per month (Bari, 2015, p. 12). Family income is probably the most significant factor
in the child’s access to English. First, the highest enrolment level (85%) is in the
richest quartile, while the lowest (59%) is in the lowest quartile. The highest enrol-
ment of girls (83%) is also in the richest quartile. The children of this most wealthy
quartile attend elite English‐medium schools (53%), while the poorest percentile
sends children to government vernacular‐medium (Urdu and Sindhi) schools
(Saeed & Zia, 2014, pp. 18–19). In short, English remains a scarce good which is
much in demand but, like all scarce goods, access to it is dependent upon the
power and wealth of one’s family. This is how it has always been since English‐
medium schools were established in British India during the nineteenth century.
The most recent debate, and one which is still going on in Pakistan (The News
(Encore), 2015), is about the future status of English in Pakistan. It was triggered
by an earlier court judgment but was given fresh impetus when the Chief Justice
of Pakistan, Jawwad S. Khawaja, ordered on September 8, 2015, that within a
period of three months Urdu would be made the official language of Pakistan. The
short order is 12 pages long and much of it repeats well‐known facts and argu-
ments. The arguments are summed up as follows: using a colonial language
degrades our language and our people who feel that they are being addressed by
foreign rulers; it maintains the sense of superiority which the elite has; it increases
the gulf between the ruler and the ruled; it creates and maintains an elite system of
education which does not give equal access to everybody as far as employment is
concerned. At the end, the order mentions a letter by the Cabinet Division (dated
290 English in Outer Circle Asian Societies

July 6, 2015), which says that all policies of the institutions working under the fed-
eral governments should be translated into Urdu; all forms should be in Urdu in
addition to English; Urdu sign boards should be erected outside all public institu-
tions (hospitals, schools, and police stations); passport and other offices should
issue all forms in Urdu in addition to English; all websites of state institutions
should be in Urdu; road signs should be in Urdu; all public events of government
and semi‐government institutions should be in Urdu; the president, prime min-
ister, and government representatives should give speeches in Urdu; the national
language authority should be given crucial importance to carry out the above
policy. A three‐month deadline was given with a certain bureaucratic peremptori-
ness. The Supreme Court reproduced the above orders adding that the laws too
should be translated in Urdu; the federal and provincial governments should coor-
dinate with each other about the script to be used; Urdu should be used for com-
petitive examinations; judgments should be given in Urdu, and so on. The court
also repeated the three‐month deadline which the Cabinet Division letter gave.
However, to date (November 2018) no major change has taken place as the judg-
ment of the court is still to be implemented. The elite institutions of Pakistan – the
higher bureaucracy, the high command of the armed forces, universities, elite
English‐medium schools, and the corporate sector – are all against it and so nobody
is keen to implement it.

Future prospects for English and other

languages in Pakistan
If the Supreme Court’s orders are implemented, it will not bring about a linguistic
revolution in the country. Most of the reforms being ordered by the court, involving
officials making speeches in Urdu, documentation being produced in the lan-
guage, and road signs written in it, would be done at lower levels of society. The
crucial issue, which the court does not address, is that English is a well‐guarded
elite preserve. The armed forces, in fact, are the biggest owners and patrons of
English‐medium schools. Their cadet colleges, public schools, and army schools as
well as their six universities are tremendous investments. Then there are the chains
of elite schools in the cities which educate the children of the urban elite. These are
not mentioned in the orders of the court but, in all likelihood, they will keep up
their function of teaching English to an elite to differentiate it sartorially (trousers,
jeans, English‐style suits, neckties, and so on), culturally, and linguistically from
the non‐elite. Thus, while government switches over to Urdu, the corporate sector,
NGOs, banks, and elite educational institutions will keep functioning in English.
The class divide, expressed through language, will remain, and the court’s concern
with the growing class gap will not be addressed.
For a long time, those who have studied Pakistan’s language and education
policies have concluded that they are biased against the ordinary people of the
country and create a linguistic and educational apartheid. Thus, while they
have advocated the teaching of English in as efficient a manner as possible as a
 Pakistani English 291

subject, they have also insisted that the medium of instruction should be Urdu
or the indigenous languages of Pakistan (Rahman, 1996b, 1997a, 2002, 2004).
Later this policy was argued passionately by Zubeida Mustafa, who said the
insistence on English had hindered real understanding for children (2011). In
recent years, the British Council, which had earlier focused only on the effective
teaching of English (1986), has supported the teaching of the local languages
and Urdu in schools in its reports (Coleman, 2010; Coleman & Capstick, 2012).
Channa, who studied the perceptions of university lecturers toward English as
a medium of instruction for science subjects, suggested that almost half of his
sample was dissatisfied with the use of English as a medium of instruction
(Channa, 2012). Recent scholarship too has called for greater use of Urdu in
education (Ashraf et al., 2014) and has asserted that, despite the “English‐lan-
guage fever,” as Manan et al. describe it, students in low‐fee schools do not
really learn English (Manan et al., 2017). I myself have argued that the elite
schools, being patronized by very powerful lobbies, will not give up English as
a medium of instruction unless they are forced by an act of parliament to do so.
As parliament passes bills by a majority of votes, it may not be possible to get
such a consensus of parliamentarians that will implement the ruling of the
court. However, if the ruling were to be implemented, since the owners of these
schools would continue to own them, they would not lose their property.
Moreover, their schools would retain their facilities and prestige as well as
better teachers, so they would not lose their elite students either. Indeed, par-
ents would choose them since, even if Urdu were the medium of instruction,
they would teach English very well and they could use supplementary material
for all subjects in English. Thus, there may be more resistance to this change
from elite parents than from owners of schools. This resistance will be based
mostly on snobbery and class interest.
I do, however, have one reservation which should be expressed here. For
political reasons, Urdu has been deliberately linked to nationalism, religion, and
war in Pakistan, even though, in literature, it has also been linked to love (Rahman,
2011) and the progressive ideas of the 1930s left‐leaning literary movement in
Urdu called the taraqqi pasand adab (‘progressive movement’) (Malik, 1967;
Mahmud, 1996). The politics of the period were responsible for this link but there
is no reason why this link cannot be broken. While Urdu texts as taught in schools
may create hatred for minorities and for India, and possibly strengthen an anti‐
India mindset (Aziz, 1993; Rahman, 2002, pp. 509–516; Nayyar & Salim, 2004), this
is not an argument not to use Urdu as a medium of instruction. It is an argument
to produce peace‐oriented texts, as A. H. Nayyar and Ahmed Salim pointed out in
2004 in their report entitled The subtle subversion (2004). However, even if English
stops functioning as the official language of Pakistan and as the language of
schooling in both the private and the public sector, it will still have a large profile
in the country. First, it will keep functioning as the medium of instruction and
examination in higher education as it is doing at present. It will also remain the
language of research since it is a global language and Pakistan cannot afford to
stop publishing in world‐level publications. It will also remain the language of
292 English in Outer Circle Asian Societies

aviation, diplomacy, and those who study abroad, and it will also be the language
of creativity in addition to other Pakistani languages. In what way is this future
different from the present then? First, if schooling is not in English, the nexus bet-
ween social class and language will be attenuated, though English will remain
informally embedded in the social life of the urban elite for the foreseeable future.
This will mean that the chances of upward educational and social mobility for the
non‐elite, which constitutes the majority of the population, may increase some-
what. In short, there may be somewhat more equity and perhaps a little more
social justice if such a policy is put into practice. However, exposure to English will
keep increasing as a force of globalization, so the linguistic landscape and the
cultural capital of English may not suffer much, even if the policies advocated
above are put into practice.

Conclusion
This chapter sums up the major themes of the present author’s writings on English
since 1990. Scholarship on Pakistani English, including phonetic/phonological,
grammatical, and lexical features, has been updated and summarized. In addition,
I have provided a description of the history of English in Pakistan society, its role
in education, and its use as creative medium in literature, as well as a number of
controversies and debates surrounding English in contemporary society. Because
of its status as a global language, and its use in the private and public domains of
power, it is endowed with cultural capital, and is in much demand in the country.
However, it is also an impediment to upward social mobility and an educational
and social handicap for most of those who are educated, if they are educated
through Urdu or Sindhi. Thus, English is both an outward manifestation of unjust
class divisions in the country and a maintainer of this class divide. There is a
debate about switching from English to Urdu for official uses as the constitution of
Pakistan envisages. However, the present author feels that even such a change will
not make a real change in the distribution of linguistic advantage and power in the
country. English is now the preserve of the corporate sector and the transnational
institutions in the country, and these will continue to function as they are. However,
schooling should be made more just than it is at present, if the state ensures by law
that the medium of instruction should not be English for all. Nonetheless, at the
level of higher education it is likely to remain English, given the quest for modern
education in the nation’s colleges and universities. If all students studying in
schools do not use English as a medium of instruction, they will face the same
academic problems when they go to university. However, it is true that schools in
the major urban centers of the country will be better than those in the periphery,
no matter what language is used as the medium of instruction. Equality will prob-
ably always remain a chimera and a dream, but if the present completely unequal
and unjust language‐in‐education policy is reformed, it may bring some measure
of social justice to the people of Pakistan.
 Pakistani English 293

NOTE

1 On the historical background, see Rahman (1996a, 2002). Descriptive work on English in
Pakistan includes Haque (1983), Mansoor (1983, 2005), Abbas (1993), Mahboob (2002),
Rahman (2007, 2015). Studies focusing on Pakistani English as a variety include
Baumgardner (1987, 1993, 1995), Rahman (1990, 1991a), Baumgardner et al. (1993),
Saleemi (1993), Talaat (1993), Mahboob (2004, 2009), Mahboob and Ahmar (2004).
Scholarship on English in education includes research on English‐medium instruction
(EMI), including Rahman (1997a), Coleman (2010), Mustafa (2011), as well as work on
the teaching of English at various levels of education, including studies by Channa
(2012), Ashraf et al. (2014), and Manan et al. (2017).

REFERENCES

Abbas, S. (1993). The power of English in
Pakistan. World Englishes, 12, 147–159.
Abdullah, S. (1976). Pakistan mein Urdu
kamasla [The problem of Urdu in
Pakistan]. Lahore: Khayaban‐e‐Adab.
Ashraf, H., Hakim, L., & Zulfiqar, I. (2014).
English for academic purposes in
plurilingual Pakistan. In I. Liyanage &
T. Walker (Eds.), English for Academic
Purposes (EAP) in Asia (pp. 33–49).
Boston: Sense.
Aziz, K. K. (1993). The murder of history in
Pakistan. Lahore: Vanguard Press.
Bari, F. (2015). Equity concerns in the
landscape of education. ASER2014,
11–12. Retrieved from http://
aserpakistan.org/document/aser/2014/
notes_aser_2014/Dr_Faisal_Bari.pdf
Baumgardner, R. J. (1987). Utilizing
Pakistani newspaper English to teach
grammar. World Englishes, 6, 241–252.
Baumgardner, R. J. (Ed.). (1993). The English
language in Pakistan. Karachi: Oxford
University Press.
Baumgardner, R. J. (1995). Pakistani
English: Acceptability and the norm.
World Englishes, 14, 261–271.
Baumgardner, R. J., Audrey, E. H., &
Shamim, F. (1993). The Urduization of
English in Pakistan. In R. J. Baumgardner
(Ed.), The English language in Pakistan
(pp. 83–203). Karachi: Oxford University
Press.
Blommaert, J. (2010). The sociolinguistics of
globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic
power. Edited and introduced by John B.
Thompson. Trans. from French by
G. Raymond & M. Adamson. Oxford:
Polity Press.
British Council. (1986). English teaching
profile in Pakistan. London/Islamabad:
The British Council.
Census. (2001). 1998 Census report of
Pakistan. Islamabad: Population Census
Organization, Statistics Division,
Government of Pakistan.
Channa, M. A. (2012). Teachers’ perception
towards English language as medium of
instruction in Pakistan. Interdisciplinary
Journal of Contemporary Research in
Business, 4, 759–764.
Coleman, H. (2010). Teaching and learning in
Pakistan: The role of language in education.
Islamabad: The British Council.
Coleman, H., & Capstick, T. (2012).
Language in education in Pakistan:
Recommendations for policy and practice.
Islamabad: The British Council.
294 English in Outer Circle Asian Societies
Constitution. (1973). Constitution of the
Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973.
Islamabad: Government of Pakistan.
Court. (2015). In the Supreme Court of
Pakistan. Constitution Petition No. 56 of
2003. September 8, 2015.
Fair, C. C. (2014). Fighting to the end: The
Pakistan Army’s way of war. Karachi:
Oxford University Press.
Farooqi, N. (1968). Snakes and ladders: A
novel. Lahore: Watan Publications.
Fisher, M. (2004). Counterflows to colonialism:
Indian travellers and settlers in Britain,
1600–1857. Delhi: Permanent Black.
Government of Pakistan. (1969). Proposals
for a new education policy. Islamabad:
Ministry of Education, Government of
Pakistan.
Government of Pakistan. (2009). National
education policy. Islamabad: Ministry of
Education.
Hamid, M. (2000). Moth smoke. New York:
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
Hamid, M. (2008). The reluctant
fundamentalist. Karachi: Harvest Books.
Hanif, M. (2009). A case of exploding
mangoes. Delhi: Random House.
Hanif, M. (2011). Our lady of Alice Bhatti.
New York: Random House.
Haque, A. R. (1983). The position and
status of English in Pakistan. World
Language English, 2, 6–9. Reprinted in
R. J. Baumgardner (1993), The English
language in Pakistan (pp. 14–15). Karachi:
Oxford University Press.
Hosali, P. (2005). Butler English. English
Today, 21(1), 34–39.
Jamil, B. (2014). Public private crossings:
Who is minding the gap for post primary
transitions – Evidence from ASER 2014.
ASER2015, 8–9. Retrieved from http://
aserpakistan.org/document/aser/2014/
notes_aser_2014/Dr_Faisal_Bari.pdf
Khan, S. A. (1872). Report of the members of
the select committee for the better
diffusion and advancement of learning
among Muhammadans of India. Trans. by
S. A. K. Bahadur & C. S. I. Benares. In
H. Malik (Ed.), Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s
educational philosophy: A documentary record
(pp. 133–195). Islamabad: National
Institute of Historical & Cultural Research.
Khan, U. A. (2003). Trespassing. New York:
HarperCollins.
Khan, U. A. (2009). The geometry of god.
Northampton, MA: Clockroot Books.
Kiani, K. (2017). CCI defers approval of
census results until elections. Dawn
(English daily). Retrieved from https://
www.dawn.com/news/1410447
Latif, A. (1861). A minute on the Hooghly
Mudrrassah. In E. Haque (Ed.), Nawab
Bahadur Abdul Latif: His writings and
related documents (pp. 20–42). Dhaka:
Samudra Prokashani.
Lewis, M. P., Simons, G. F., & Fennig, C. D.
(Eds.). (2013). Ethnologue: Languages of the
world (18th ed.). Dallas: Summer Institute
of Linguistics International. Retrieved
from www.ethnologue.com
Mahboob, A. (2002). “No English, no
future!” Language policy in Pakistan. In
S. G. Obeng & B. Hartford (Eds.), Political
independence with linguistic servitude: The
politics about languages in the developing
world (pp. 15–39). New York: Nova
Science Publishers.
Mahboob, A. (2004). Pakistani English:
Morphology and syntax. In B. Kortmann
(Ed.), A handbook of varieties of English: A
multimedia reference (pp. 1045–1057).
Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Mahboob, A. (2009). English as an Islamic
language: A case study of Pakistani
English. World Englishes, 28, 175–189.
Mahboob, A., & Ahmar, N. H. (2004).
Pakistani English: Phonology. In B.
Kortmann (Ed.), A handbook of varieties of
English: A multimedia reference (pp.
1003–1016). Berlin/New York: Mouton
de Gruyter.
Mahmud, S. (1996). Angare and the
founding of the Progressive Writers
Association. Modern Asian Studies, 30(2),
39–43.
Malik, H. (1967). The Marxist literary
movement in India and Pakistan. The
Journal of Asian Studies, 26(4), 649–664.

Manan, S. A., Dumanig, F. P., & David,
M. K. (2017). The English‐medium
fever in Pakistan: Analyzing policy,
perceptions and practices through
additive bi/multilingual education lens.
International Journal of Bilingual Education
and Bilingualism, 20, 736–752.
Mohammad, S. D. (1794/1997). The travels
of Dean Mahomet: An eighteenth century
journey through India. Edited by M. H.
Fischer. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Mohammad, S. D. (1826). Shampooing; Or
benefits resulting from the use of the Indian
medicated vapour bath. Brighton: Creasy &
Baker.
Mansoor, S. (1983). Punjabi, Urdu, English in
Pakistan: A sociolinguistic study. Lahore:
Vanguard.
Mansoor, S. (2005). Language planning in
higher education: A case study of Pakistan.
Karachi: Oxford University Press.
Mustafa, Z. (2011). Tyranny of language: The
problem and its solution. Karachi: Ushba
Publishing.
Naqvi, H. M. (2009). Home boy. New York:
Crown.
Nayyar, A. H., & Salim, A. (2004). The subtle
subversion: The state of curricula and
textbooks in Pakistan: Urdu, English, Social
studies and Civics. Islamabad: Sustainable
Development Policy Institute, UNESCO.
PEELI (Punjab Education and English
Language Initiative). (2013). Can English
medium education work in Pakistan?
Lessons from Punjab. Islamabad:
The British Council.
Rahman, Taimur. (2012). The class structure
of Pakistan. Karachi: Oxford University
Press.
Rahman, Tariq. (1990). Pakistani English.
Islamabad: National Institute of Pakistan
Studies. Reprinted in 2010.
Rahman, Tariq. (1991a). Pakistani English:
Some phonological and phonetic
features. World Englishes, 10, 83–95.
Rahman, Tariq. (1991b). The use of words
in Pakistani English. English Today,
7(2), 32–38.
Pakistani English 295
Rahman, Tariq. (1991c). A history of Pakistani
literature in English 1945–1988. Reprinted
in 2015. Karachi: Oxford University Press.
Rahman, Tariq. (1996a). British language
policies and imperialism in India.
Language Problems and Language Planning,
20, 91–115.
Rahman, Tariq. (1996b). Language and
politics in Pakistan. Karachi: Oxford
University Press.
Rahman, Tariq. (1997a). The medium of
instruction controversy in Pakistan.
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural
Development, 18, 145–154.
Rahman, Tariq. (1997b).The Urdu–English
controversy in Pakistan. Modern Asian
Studies, 31, 177–207.
Rahman, Tariq. (2002). Language, ideology
and power: Language‐learning among the
Muslims of Pakistan and North India. New
Delhi: Orient Blackswan.
Rahman, Tariq. (2004). Denizens of alien
worlds: A study of education, inequality and
polarization in Pakistan. Karachi: Oxford
University Press.
Rahman, Tariq. (2007). The role of English
in Pakistan with special reference to
tolerance and militancy. In A. B. Tsui &
J. W. Tollefson (Eds.), Language policy, culture,
and identity in Asian contexts (pp. 209–239).
Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Rahman, Tariq. (2011). From Hindi to Urdu:
A social and political history. Karachi:
Oxford University Press; Delhi: Orient
Blackswan.
Rahman, Tariq. (2015). Development of
English in Pakistan. In G. Leitner,
A. Hashim, & H.‐G. Wolf (Eds.),
Communicating with Asia: The future of
English as a global language (pp. 13–27).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Saeed, S., & Zia, H. (2014). Gender &
educational inequality – Addressing the
marginalized. ASER2014, 18–20.
Retrieved from http://aserpakistan.org/
document/aser/2014/notes_aser_2014/
Sahar_Saeed_Huma_Zia.pdf
Saleemi, A. (1993). Native and non‐
native grammars of English.
296 English in Outer Circle Asian Societies
In R. J. Baumgardner (Ed.), The English
language in Pakistan (pp. 33–40). Karachi:
Oxford University Press.
Sedlatschek, A. (2009). Contemporary Indian
English: Variation and change. Amsterdam/
Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Sethi, A. (2009). The wish maker. New York:
Riverhead Books.
Shamsie, K. (1998). In the city by the sea.
London: Granta Publications.
Shamsie, K. (2002). Kartography. London:
Bloomsbury.
Shamsie, K. (2005). Broken verses. Karachi:
Harvest.
Shamsie, K. (2009). Burnt shadows. New
York: Picador.
Shamsie, M. (1997). A dragonfly in the sun:
An anthology of Pakistan writing in English.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Shamsie, M. (2001). Leaving home: Towards a
new millennium. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Sidhwa, B. (1989). Ice‐candy‐man. London/
New York: Penguin.
Sharp, H. (Ed.). (1920). Selections from
educational records Part 1. Calcutta:
Superintendent Government Printing.
Talaat, M. (1993). Lexical variation in
Pakistani English. In R. J. Baumgardner
(Ed.), The English language in Pakistan
(pp. 55–62). Karachi: Oxford University
Press.
The News (Encore). (2015). Articles and
views of different writers about language
issues in Pakistan, September 23, 2015.
Published from Karachi and Rawalpindi
(Pakistan).
Waterman, D. (2015). Where worlds collide:
Pakistani fiction in the new millennium.
Karachi: Oxford University Press.
Woolard, K. A., & Schieffelin, B. B. (1994).
Language ideology. Annual Reviews,
23, 55–82.
Yule, H., & Burnell, A. C. (1866). Hobson‐
Jobson: A glossary of colloquial Anglo‐Indian
words and phrases and of kindred terms,
etymological, historical, geographical, and
discursive. London: J. Murray.
The Handbook of
Asian Englishes
Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics
This outstanding multi‐volume series covers all the major subdisciplines within linguistics today and, when complete, will
offer a comprehensive survey of linguistics as a whole.

The Handbook of Child Language The Handbook of Intercultural Discourse and Communication
Edited by Paul Fletcher & Brian MacWhinney Edited by Christina Bratt Paulston, Scott F. Kiesling, &
The Handbook of Phonological Theory, Second Edition Elizabeth S. Rangel
Edited by John A. Goldsmith, Jason Riggle, & Alan C. L. Yu The Handbook of Historical Sociolinguistics
The Handbook of Sociolinguistics Edited by Juan Manuel Hernandez‐Campoy & Juan Camilo
Edited by Florian Coulmas Conde‐Silvestre
The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences, Second Edition The Handbook of Hispanic Linguistics
Edited by William J. Hardcastle & John Laver Edited by Jose Ignacio Hualde, Antxon Olarrea, &
Erin O’Rourke
The Handbook of Morphology
Edited by Andrew Spencer & Arnold Zwicky The Handbook of Conversation Analysis
Edited by Jack Sidnell & Tanya Stivers
The Handbook of Japanese Linguistics
Edited by Natsuko Tsujimura The Handbook of English for Specific Purposes
Edited by Brian Paltridge & Sue Starfield
The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory
Edited by Mark Baltin & Chris Collins The Handbook of Spanish Second Language Acquisition
Edited by Kimberly L. Geeslin
The Handbook of Language Variation and Change, Second Edition
Edited by J. K. Chambers & Natalie Schilling The Handbook of Chinese Linguistics
Edited by C.‐T. James Huang, Y.‐H. Audrey Li, & Andrew
The Handbook of Historical Linguistics
Simpson
Edited by Brian D. Joseph & Richard D. Janda
The Handbook of Language Emergence
The Handbook of Language, Gender, and Sexuality, Second Edition
Edited by Brian MacWhinney & William O’Grady
Edited by Susan Ehrlich, Miriam Meyerhoff, & Janet Holmes
The Handbook of Korean Linguistics
The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition
Edited by Lucien Brown & Jaehoon Yeon
Edited by Catherine J. Doughty & Michael H. Long
The Handbook of Speech Production
The Handbook of Bilingualism and Multilingualism, Second Edition
Edited by Melissa A. Redford
Edited by Tej K. Bhatia & William C. Ritchie
The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory, Second Edition
The Handbook of Pragmatics
Edited by Shalom Lappin & Chris Fox
Edited by Laurence R. Horn & Gregory Ward
The Handbook of Classroom Discourse and Interaction
The Handbook of Applied Linguistics
Edited by Numa Markee
Edited by Alan Davies & Catherine Elder
The Handbook of Narrative Analysis
The Handbook of Speech Perception
Edited by Anna De Fina & Alexandra Georgakopoulou
Edited by David B. Pisoni & Robert E. Remez
The Handbook of English Pronunciation
The Handbook of the History of English
Edited by Marnie Reed & John M. Levis
Edited by Ans van Kemenade & Bettelou Los
The Handbook of Discourse Analysis, Second Edition
The Handbook of English Linguistics
Edited by Deborah Tannen, Heidi E. Hamilton, &
Edited by Bas Aarts & April McMahon
Deborah Schiffrin
The Handbook of World Englishes
The Handbook of Bilingual and Multilingual Education
Edited by Braj B. Kachru, Yamuna Kachru, & Cecil L. Nelson
Edited by Wayne E. Wright, Sovicheth Boun, & Ofelia Garcia
The Handbook of Educational Linguistics
The Handbook of Portuguese Linguistics
Edited by Bernard Spolsky & Francis M. Hult
Edited by W. Leo Wetzels, Joao Costa, & Sergio Menuzzi
The Handbook of Clinical Linguistics
The Handbook of Translation and Cognition
Edited by Martin J. Ball, Michael R. Perkins, Nicole Muller,
Edited by John W. Schwieter & Aline Ferreira
& Sara Howard
The Handbook of Linguistics, Second Edition
The Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Studies
Edited by Mark Aronoff & Janie Rees‐Miller
Edited by Silvia Kouwenberg & John Victor Singler
The Handbook of Technology and Second Language Teaching
The Handbook of Language Teaching
and Learning
Edited by Michael H. Long & Catherine J. Doughty
Edited by Carol A. Chapelle & Shannon Sauro
The Handbook of Language Contact
The Handbook of Psycholinguistics
Edited by Raymond Hickey
Edited by Eva M. Fernandez & Helen Smith Cairns
The Handbook of Language and Speech Disorders
The Handbook of Dialectology
Edited by Jack S. Damico, Nicole Muller, & Martin J. Ball
Edited by Charles Boberg, John Nerbonne, & Dominic Watt
The Handbook of Computational Linguistics and Natural
The Handbook of Advanced Proficiency in Second
Language Processing
Language Acquisition
Edited by Alexander Clark, Chris Fox, & Shalom Lappin
Edited by Paul A. Malovrh & Alessandro G. Benati
The Handbook of Language and Globalization
The Handbook of the Neuroscience of Multilingualism
Edited by Nikolas Coupland
Edited by John W. Schwieter
The Handbook of Hispanic Sociolinguistics
The Handbook of Historical Linguistics
Edited by Manuel Diaz‐Campos
Ediited by Richard D Janda, Brian D Joseph &
The Handbook of Language Socialization Barbara S Vance
Edited by Alessandro Duranti, Elinor Ochs, & Bambi B.
The Handbook of Asian Englishes
Schieffelin
Kingsley Bolton, Werner Botha, & Andy Kirkpatrick
The Handbook of Asian
Englishes

Edited by

Kingsley Bolton, Werner Botha,

and Andy Kirkpatrick
This edition first published 2020
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from
this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

The right of Kingsley Bolton, Werner Botha, and Andy Kirkpatrick to be identified as the authors of
the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with law.

Registered Office
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA

Editorial Office
The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

For details of our global editorial offices, customer services, and more information about Wiley
products visit us at www.wiley.com.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats and by print‐on‐demand. Some
content that appears in standard print versions of this book may not be available in other formats.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty

While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this work, they make no
representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this
work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties
of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by
sales representatives, written sales materials or promotional statements for this work. The fact that an
organization, website, or product is referred to in this work as a citation and/or potential source of
further information does not mean that the publisher and authors endorse the information or services
the organization, website, or product may provide or recommendations it may make. This work is
sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. The
advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult
with a specialist where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work
may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither
the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages,
including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data applied for

9781118791806 (Hardback); 9781118791790 (ePDF); 9781118791653 (epub)

Cover Design: Wiley

Cover Image: © Alim Yakubov/Shutterstock

Set in 10/12pt Palatino by SPi Global, Pondicherry, India

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents

Notes on Contributors ix

1 Asian Englishes Today 1

Kingsley Bolton, Werner Botha, and Andy Kirkpatrick

Part I The History and Development of Asian Englishes 13

2 Asia before English 15
Alexander R. Coupe and František Kratochvíl
3 The Statistics of English across Asia 49
Kingsley Bolton and John Bacon-Shone
4 English and Language Policies in East and Southeast Asia 81
Andy Kirkpatrick and Anthony J. Liddicoat
5 English in Asian Schools 107
Ee-Ling Low
6 English in Asian Universities 133
Kingsley Bolton and Werner Botha
7 The Features of Asian Englishes: Morphosyntax 169
Werner Botha and Tobias Bernaisch
8 The Features of Asian Englishes: Phonology 189
Ishamina Athirah Gardiner and David Deterding
9 The Lexicography of Asian Englishes 209
James Lambert

Part II English in Outer Circle Asian Societies 241

10 Indian English 243
S. N. Sridhar
11 Pakistani English 279
Tariq Rahman
12 Bangladeshi English 297
M. Obaidul Hamid and MD. Mahmudul Hasan
vi Contents

13 Nepali English 317

Ram Ashish Giri
14 Sri Lankan English 337
Tanya N. I. Ekanayaka
15 Myanmar English 355
Khin Khin Aye
16 Malaysian English 373
Azirah Hashim
17 Brunei English 399
James Mclellan
18 Singapore English 419
Francesco Cavallaro, Bee Chin Ng, and Ying-Ying Tan
19 Hong Kong English 449
Kingsley Bolton, John Bacon-Shone, and Kang Kwong Luke
20 Philippine English 479
Isabel Pefianco Martin

Part III English in Expanding Circle Asian Societies 501

21 English in China 503
Kingsley Bolton, Werner Botha, and Wei Zhang
22 English in Macau 529
Werner Botha and Andrew Moody
23 English in Taiwan 547
Peter Iori Kobayashi
24 English in Japan 569
Philip Seargeant
25 English in Korea 585
Jamie Shinhee Lee
26 English in Indonesia 605
Allan F. Lauder
27 English in Thailand 629
Sawitri Pechapan-Hammond
28 English in Cambodia 649
Stephen H. Moore and Suksiri Bounchan
29 English in Laos 667
Lynda Achren and Daravone Kittiphanh
30 English in Vietnam 683
Peter Sundkvist and Xuan Nhat Chi Mai Nguyen

Part IV New Frontiers of Research 705

31 Globalization and Asian Englishes 707
Mario Saraceni
32 English as an ASEAN Lingua Franca 725
Andy Kirkpatrick
 Contents vii

33 Corpus Linguistics and Asian Englishes 741

Joybrato Mukherjee and Tobias Bernaisch
34 English in Asian Popular Culture 763
Andrew Moody
35 Asian Literatures in English 787
Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, Christopher B. Patterson,
Y-Dang Troeung, and Weihsin Gui
36 English and Asian Religions 813
Phyllis Ghim-Lian Chew
37 English in Asian Linguistic Landscapes 833
Kingsley Bolton, Werner Botha, and Siu-Lun Lee
38 English in Asian Legal Systems 863
Richard Powell

Index 887
Notes on Contributors

Lynda Achren is an independent consultant with a 25 year engagement with the

Lao PDR working on international development projects and conducting research.
When in Australia, she develops resources, delivers workshops, and conducts
research in the field of adult language, literacy, and culture. She has also lectured
in language teaching methodology at Melbourne University, La Trobe University,
and Victoria University and is a member of the editorial committee of Fine Print:
A journal of adult English language and literacy education. Her publications include
Middle way to Lao modernity: A cultural analysis of development and aid in Laos (2009).
Khin Khin Aye has been with Swinburne University of Technology, Sarawak,
Malaysia, since 2009. Her research interests and publications have focused on lan-
guage policies, world Englishes, and contact linguistics. Her publications include
“Singapore Bazaar Malay” in The survey of pidgin and creole languages, volume III
and a co‐authored chapter on Bazaar Malay in the book Pidgins and creoles in Asia.
Azirah Hashim is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Malaya. Her research
interests include English as a lingua franca in ASEAN, language contact in
Southeast Asia, language and law, and higher education in ASEAN. Some of her
publications include co‐edited volumes such as Communicating with Asia: The
future of English as a global language (2016) and International arbitration discourse and
practices in Asia (2018), and articles in journals such as Discourse Studies, English
Today, and Multilingua.
John Bacon‐Shone is Professor at The University of Hong Kong and Director of
the Social Sciences Research Centre. He is an applied statistician, and his research
interests include biostatistics, compositional data, data archiving, gambling, pri-
vacy, open data, sociolinguistics, statistical computing, survey methodology, and
policy research.
Tobias Bernaisch is Senior Lecturer in English Linguistics at Justus Liebig
University, Giessen, Germany. His research interests include corpus linguistics,
world Englishes with a special emphasis on South Asian Englishes, language atti-
tudes, language and gender, and variational pragmatics.
x Notes on Contributors

Kingsley Bolton is Professor Emeritus in the Department of English at Stockholm

University, Sweden, and Honorary Professor in the Social Sciences Research Centre
of The University of Hong Kong. He has published widely on English in the Asian
region, language and globalization, sociolinguistics, and world Englishes. He is
co‐editor of the journal World Englishes, and series editor of the Routledge book
series, Multilingual Asia.
Werner Botha is Senior Lecturer in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social
Sciences at Flinders University, Australia. His research interests include the use of
English in Asian higher education, language variation, multilingualism, and socio-
linguistics, with particular reference to the Asian region.
Suksiri Bounchan is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the Institute
of Foreign Languages, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where she has
been involved in the Teacher Training Program (Teaching English as a Foreign
Language) for more than 20 years. Her areas of interest are academic writing,
educational psychology, and literature studies.
Francesco Cavallaro is Associate Professor of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies
and the Director of the Centre for Modern Languages, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore. His research interests are in sociolinguistics and the social
aspects of bilingualism, especially of minority groups in multilingual contexts. He
has published on language maintenance and shift, the demographics of the Italian
community in Australia, language attitudes in Singapore, and minority groups in
Southeast Asia. He is the author of the book Transgenerational language shift: From
Sicilian and Italian to Australian English.
Phyllis Ghim‐Lian Chew is Professor at the National Institute of Education,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She was Fulbright Visiting Professor
at Harvard University in 2010, as well as Leverhulme Visiting Professor to the UK
in 2012. She is the project advisor for Instep, a textbook and audio‐visual series
used in Singapore schools. Her academic publications include Emergent lingua
franca (2009), A sociolinguistic history of early identities (2013), and Muslim education
in the 21st century: Asian perspectives (2014).
Alexander R. Coupe is Associate Professor of Linguistics in the School of
Humanities at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is a leading
authority on the languages of Northeast India and is the author of A grammar of
Mongsen Ao (2007). His fieldwork‐driven research focuses on the documentation
and grammatical description of the minority languages of South Asia and Mainland
Southeast Asia, feeding his broader interests in the development of complexity in
the grammars of the world’s languages, grammaticalization theory, language
contact, and linguistic typology and prehistory.
David Deterding is Professor at Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei, where he
teaches advanced phonetics, forensic linguistics, introductory linguistics, history
of English, Malay‐English translation, and research methods in linguistics. His
research has focused on the measurement of rhythm, the pronunciation of English
 Notes on Contributors xi

in Brunei, Singapore, Hong Kong, and China, the pronunciation of the indigenous
languages of Brunei, and the intelligibility of English as a lingua franca (ELF). His
most recent books are on Misunderstandings in ELF, Brunei English, and an edited
volume, The use and status of language in Brunei Darussalam.
Tanya N. I. Ekanayaka is a Sri Lankan‐British concert composer‐pianist as well as
a linguist, musicologist, and record producer. She has been contracted by Naxos
Records as a composer, recording artiste, and producer since 2014, and has taught
at The University of Edinburgh since 2007. She holds an Honours degree in English
literature and linguistics from the University of Peradeniya and an MSc and PhD
(the latter for cross‐disciplinary research in linguistics and musicology) from
Edinburgh University, as well as advanced professional qualifications in music.
Ishamina Athirah Gardiner is Lecturer at the Language Centre, Universiti Brunei
Darussalam, Brunei. Her research interests include intelligibility of interactions in
English as a lingua franca, describing Brunei English, pronunciation teaching, and
the pronunciation of the indigenous languages of Brunei. She has recently pub-
lished papers in the Routledge handbook of contemporary English pronunciation, the
Routledge handbook of English as a lingua franca, and Journal of Second Language
Pronunciation.
Ram Ashish Giri, PhD, is an academic at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia,
where he has been teaching since 2009. He was educated in Nepal, the USA, and
Australia. His research interests include TESOL, language testing, and language
(education) policy. He has published in international journals, written book chap-
ters, and published edited books. His next co‐edited book, entitled Functional var-
iations in English: Theoretical considerations and practical challenges, is due in early
2020.
Weihsin Gui is Associate Professor of English and a member of the Southeast
Asian Studies program at the University of California‐Riverside, USA. He is the
author of National consciousness and literary cosmopolitics: Postcolonial literature in a
global moment (2013), editor of Common lines and city spaces: A critical anthology on
Arthur Yap (2014), and co‐editor of a 2016 special issue of the journal Interventions
on Singaporean Literature and Culture and Neoliberalism.
M. Obaidul Hamid, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in TESOL Education at the University
of Queensland, Australia. His research and teaching focus on the policy and prac-
tice of TESOL education in developing societies. He is co‐editor of Language
planning for medium of instruction in Asia (2014). He has published his works in a
number of journals, including Current Issues in Language Planning, ELT Journal,
Journal of Sociolinguistics, Language Problems and Language Planning, TESOL
Quarterly, and World Englishes. He is on the editorial boards of Current Issues in
Language Planning, English Teaching: Practice and Critique, and Journal of Asia TEFL.
Sawitri Pechapan-Hammond is Assistant Professor of English in the Department
of English and Linguistics, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University,
Thailand. She holds a PhD in English studies (intercultural communication) from
xii Notes on Contributors

the University of Nottingham, UK. She is co‐author of Reading skills and English for
tourism. Her research interests include English for specific purposes, intercultural
communication, and world Englishes.
Md. Mahmudul Hasan holds an English and comparative literature PhD from
Portsmouth, UK, and currently teaches English and postcolonial literatures at the
International Islamic University Malaysia. His research interests include South
Asian literature, diasporic literature, and postcolonial feminist literature. Among
his co‐edited books are A feminist foremother: Critical essays on Rokeya Sakhawat
Hossain (2017), Displaced & forgotten: Memoirs of refugees (2017) and Bangladeshi lit-
erature in English (forthcoming).
Andy Kirkpatrick is Professor in Linguistics in the Department of Humanities,
Languages and Social Sciences at Griffith University, Australia, and a Fellow of the
Australian Academy of the Humanities. He is the author of World Englishes:
Implications for ELT and international communication and English as a lingua franca in
ASEAN: A multilingual model, and editor of the Routledge handbook of world Englishes.
His most recent books include The Routledge international handbook of language edu-
cation policy in Asia (co‐edited with Anthony Liddicoat).
Daravone Kittiphanh is the Acting Permanent Secretary in the Permanent
Secretary Office in the Ministry of Education and Sports, Lao PDR. She is a
Fulbright Scholar, an Australian Leadership Award Fellow, and an Australian
Leadership Award Scholar. Her key publications include English for Lao government
officials, Teaching competency standards in the Lao PDR, Intercultural metaphors:
Leadership perspective from Southeast Asia, and Challenges for developing educational
leadership in the Lao PDR.
Peter Iori Kobayashi is Lecturer in the Faculty of International Studies at Niigata
University of International and Information Studies, Japan. His main areas of
interest include Asian Englishes, language policy and planning in Southeast Asia,
and the Chinese diaspora. He studied at Ateneo de Manila University in the
Philippines, National Chengchi University in Taiwan, and the University of Hull
in the UK.
František Kratochvíl is Assistant Professor of Linguistics in the Department of
Asian Studies at Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic. He specializes in
the grammatical description of Papuan and Austronesian languages of Indonesia.
He authored A grammar of Abui (2007) and has published on topics related to
anthropological linguistics, discourse structure, historical linguistics, and mor-
phology. He is interested in the processes that led to the current linguistic diversity
in Southeast Asia.
James Lambert is former Assistant Professor at the National Institute of Education,
Singapore. His academic interests include lexicography and world Englishes, with
specific focus on Asian Englishes. He has worked as a professional lexicographer
for over 15 years with Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, Sydney, Australia, and
has taught English in Hong Kong, Japan, and Turkey. He has edited dictionaries
 Notes on Contributors xiii

and created corpora of various varieties of Asian Englishes, including Indian

English, Malaysian English, Philippine English, and Singapore English.
Allan F. Lauder received his Bachelor’s degree in the arts and humanities at
Auckland University, New Zealand (1980). He was the recipient of a Post‐Graduate
Research Scholarship in Japanese Language, at Tokyo University of Foreign
Studies (Tokyo Gaigo Dai), Japan, 1982–1984. He received his Master’s degree in
linguistics at the National University of Singapore (1991) and his Doctorate in cor-
pus linguistics at Atma Jaya University in Jakarta, Indonesia (2009). He has been a
guest lecturer and researcher in the Department of Linguistics, Humanities Faculty,
at Universitas Indonesia for more than two decades.
Jamie Shinhee Lee is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Michigan‐
Dearborn, USA, and co‐editor of World Englishes in pop culture (with Yamuna
Kachru) and English in Asian popular culture (with Andrew Moody). Her research
interests include bilingualism, globalization and education policy, Korean prag-
matics/discourse analysis, language and popular culture, and world Englishes.
Her articles have appeared in Asian Englishes, Critical Discourse Studies, Critical
Inquiry in Language Studies, English Today, English World‐Wide, Journal of Creative
Communications, Journal of Pragmatics, Language in Society, Language Research, and
World Englishes as well as in several edited collections.
Siu‐lun Lee is Senior Lecturer in the Yale‐China Chinese Language Centre at the
Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests include applied linguis-
tics, Cantonese studies, Chinese linguistics, sociolinguistics, and language teaching
pedagogy.
Anthony J. Liddicoat is Professor in the Centre for Applied Linguistics at the
University of Warwick, UK, and Adjunct Professor in the School of Creative
Industries at the University of South Australia. His research interests include the
teaching and learning of intercultural capabilities in language education, and lan-
guage policy and planning. He is executive editor of Current Issues in Language
Planning. His recent books include Routledge international handbook of language edu-
cation policy in Asia (2019) and Language policy and planning in universities: Teaching,
research and administration (2017).
Shirley Geok‐lin Lim, Distinguished Professor Emerita at University of California,
Santa Barbara, USA, is recipient of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, two American
Book Awards, the Multiethnic Literatures of the United States Lifetime Achievement
Award, the UCSB Faculty Research Lecture Award, and two Distinguished
Professor Fulbright awards. She has served as UCSB Chair of Women’s Studies,
English Chair Professor at The University of Hong Kong, Ngee Ann Endowed
Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore, and Distinguished
Visiting Professor at City University of Hong Kong.
Ee‐Ling Low is Dean of Teacher Education and Professor of Applied Linguistics
and Teacher Learning at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang
Technological University (NTU), Singapore. She obtained her BA (with Direct
xiv Notes on Contributors

Honours) from the National University of Singapore (NUS), and an MPhil and a
PhD in linguistics from the University of Cambridge, UK, under the NIE, NTU
Overseas Graduate Scholarship. Professor Low is currently the President of the
Singapore Association for Applied Linguistics and the series editor for the
Routledge‐SAAL series for world Englishes.
Kang Kwong Luke is President’s Chair Professor of Linguistics and Chair of the
School of Humanities at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His
teaching and research are in the area of talk and social interaction using an
Ethnomethodological and Conversation Analytic approach. His publications
include Utterance particles in Cantonese conversation (1990), Telephone calls: Unity and
diversity in the structure of telephone conversations across languages and cultures (2002),
and thematic special issues on “Turns and increments” (Discourse Processes, 2012)
and “Affiliation and alignment in responding actions” (Journal of Pragmatics, 2016).
Isabel Pefianco Martin is Professor at the Department of English and the
Department of Education of the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines. She is
the incoming Vice President and President‐Elect of the International Association
for World Englishes (IAWE). Professor Martin has published widely on such topics
as English language education, forensic linguistics, language policy, language and
law, Philippine English, sociolinguistics, and world Englishes. In addition, she has
held leadership positions in various national organizations concerned with lan-
guage education in the Philippines.
James McLellan is Senior Assistant Professor in English Studies at the University of
Brunei Darussalam, Brunei. He has taught at secondary and tertiary levels in
Australia, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Brunei, France, Malaysia, and the UK. He
received his PhD from Curtin University of Technology, Australia, in 2005. His
research fields include language alternation, multilingual education, Southeast
Asian Englishes, and Borneo indigenous languages. He is co‐editor of The use and
status of language in Brunei Darussalam: A kingdom of unexpected linguistic diversity
(2016) and Codeswitching in university English‐medium classes: Asian perspectives (2014).
Andrew Moody is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the
University of Macau and an authority on the forms, functions, and status of
English within the territory. His primary research and publications concern the
role of English in popular culture and sociolinguistic methods appropriate to the
study of popular culture. He and Jamie Shinhee Lee have edited a volume of
essays entitled English in Asian popular culture (2011), a volume that defines exam-
ination of this field. He is currently the editor of the journal English Today.
Stephen H. Moore is Associate Professor in the Linguistics Department at
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. He has worked in the fields of English
language teaching and teacher education, English for specific purposes, discourse
analysis, and language assessment for 30 years, including extended periods in
Cambodia. He has published widely about Cambodia and on the English lan-
guage in Cambodia.
 Notes on Contributors xv

Joybrato Mukherjee is Full Professor of English Linguistics at Justus Liebig

University, Giessen, Germany. His research focuses on applied and corpus linguis-
tics, English lexicogrammar and syntax, South Asian varieties of English, and,
more generally, world Englishes, including learner Englishes.
Bee Chin Ng works in the area of bilingualism and multilingualism with a focus
on the impact of language contact on individuals and the community they live in.
Her research approach is to explore both cognitive and social aspects of language
use. Currently, she is working on language and emotion in multilinguals, language
attitudes, identity and social categorization, and communicative aspects of aging.
She is currently the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies in the College of
Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Xuan Nhat Chi Mai Nguyen is Lecturer in TESOL and Applied Linguistics at the
Department of Languages, Information and Communications, Manchester
Metropolitan University, UK. Her research and teaching interests include critical
issues surrounding teaching English as an international language, second lan-
guage teacher education and development, and second language teaching meth-
odologies. She has taught English and trained second language teachers in various
contexts, including in Vietnam, Australia, and the UK. Her recent publications
have appeared in Teaching and Teacher Education, TESOL Journal, and RELC Journal,
among others.
Christopher B. Patterson (PhD, University of Washington) is Assistant Professor
in the Social Justice Institute at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He is
the author of Transitive cultures: Anglophone literature of the transpacific (2018) and
Open world empire: Race, erotics, and the global rise of video games (2020).
Richard Powell is Professor at Nihon University in Tokyo, Japan, where he teaches
business English and the sociolinguistics of human rights. In addition to linguis-
tics, he has a background in history, Japanese studies and law, and political sci-
ence, and he has published books, chapters, and articles on comparative legal
culture, cross‐cultural pragmatics, forensic linguistics, language planning, and
legal education. He is particularly interested in South and Southeast Asia and
recently authored Language choice in postcolonial law (2020). He is a director of the
Japan Law and Language Association and the Book Review Editor of The
International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law.
Tariq Rahman has two doctoral degrees, PhD (1985) and DLitt (2014), from the
University of Sheffield, UK. He was the first Pakistani to be honored by one of
Germany’s highest awards for academic research, the Humboldt Research Award.
The President of Pakistan conferred upon him the Pride of Performance in 2004
and the Sitara‐i‐Imtiaz in 2013.
Mario Saraceni is a Reader in English Language and Linguistics at the University
of Portsmouth, UK. He previously taught at Assumption University, in Bangkok,
Thailand. His main academic interest is in the area of the ideologies, representa-
tions, and roles of English in the world. He published extensively in this field, and
xvi Notes on Contributors

his publications include The relocation of English (2010) and World Englishes: A criti-
cal analysis (2015, winner of the 2016 BAAL Book Prize). Mario is currently editing
a three‐volume series on world Englishes.
Philip Seargeant is Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the Open University.
He is the author of several books, including Exploring world Englishes and The idea
of English in Japan, and editor of, among other things, English in the world, English in
Japan in the era of globalization, the Handbook of English language studies, and The lan-
guage of social media.
S. N. Sridhar is SUNY Distinguished Service Professor and Professor of Linguistics
and India Studies in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at Stony
Brook University, New York, USA. He has published widely on the descriptive
grammar, morphology, and syntax of Kannada and Indian English; the prag-
matics, psycholinguistics, and syntax of bilingual code‐mixing; language contact,
convergence, and spread; the uses of world Englishes in multilingual societies;
and implications for theories of second language acquisition and teaching. He is
the author of Kannada: A descriptive grammar and Cognition and sentence production,
and co‐editor of Language and society in South Asia. He is the current President of
the International Association of World Englishes (IAWE).
Peter Sundkvist is Reader at Stockholm University, Sweden. He received his PhD
in English linguistics from Stockholm University and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at
Yale University, USA. His research interests include dialectology, phonetics, and
phonology relating to varieties of English and Germanic languages generally. He
has conducted extensive fieldwork in the Shetland Islands and was Principal
Investigator of a project on Shetland Scots funded by The Bank of Sweden
Tercentenary Foundation. He has published on Asian Englishes, accent stereo-
types, pulmonic ingressive speech, and co‐authored the Routledge textbook World
Englishes (3rd ed.).
Ying‐Ying Tan is Associate Professor of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies at the
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Besides writing on language
planning and policy, she is also a socio‐phonetician who has published on accents,
prosody, and intelligibility. She works primarily on languages in Singapore. Her
work has appeared in journals such as English World‐Wide, International Journal of
the Sociology of Language, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, and
World Englishes.
Y‐Dang Troeung is Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language
and Literatures at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
She specializes in transnational Asian literatures, critical refugee studies, and
global south studies. Her work has a specific focus on genealogies of colo-
nialism, war, and militarism in Southeast Asia and its diasporas. She is cur-
rently completing a book manuscript on the afterlife of the Cold War in
Cambodia. Her published academic articles appear in the journals Interventions,
Modern Fiction Studies, Canadian Literature, MELUS, Inter‐Asia Cultural Studies,
Concentric, ARIEL, and Topia.
 Notes on Contributors xvii

Wei Zhang, PhD (Columbia University) is Professor of Linguistics in the English

Department at Peking University, China. She has published internationally on
topics including Chinese English, language and gender, and multilingual and
digital literacy in journals such as English Today, Discourse & Society, Journal of
Language and Politics, Journal of Pragmatics, and World Englishes. In 2015, her mono-
graph, Assessing the digital literacy of college English students (2013), received the
Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Achievements Award from the
Ministry of Education in China. She currently serves on the editorial boards of
Computers & Composition, Linguistic Research, and World Englishes.