ENGL 372 A: World Englishes

This course explores the ways major historical, sociopolitical, and economic developments have led to the spread of English as a world language and the subsequent emergence of new Englishes, refashioned existent local languages, and transformed communicative patterns and language relations in different parts of the world. Drawing on a wide range of artifacts (such as emails, social media interactions, speech transcripts, newspapers, hip hop lyrics, shop signs, advertisements, etc.), we will seek to explore the complexity of established and emerging Englishes in diverse locations in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. By pursuing comparative explorations of various Englishes, we will closely interrogate how these unique ways of using English shape and are shaped by locally specific influences of social, political, ideological and linguistic relations.