Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T17:08:30.700Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

29 - World Englishes and Transnationalism

from Part IV - Current Challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2019

By
Brook Bolander
Edited by
Daniel Schreier ,
Marianne Hundt  and
Edgar W. Schneider
Daniel Schreier
Affiliation:
Universität Zürich
Marianne Hundt
Affiliation:
Universität Zürich
Edgar W. Schneider
Affiliation:
Universität Regensburg, Germany
Get access

Summary

This chapter explores the relevance of the sociolinguistic study of transnationalism for research on World Englishes (WEs) via a review of core literature and examples of metatheoretical and empirical scholarship in sociolinguistics. In doing so, the chapter integrates discussion of research on transnationalism, which explicitly positions itself within a WEs framework, as well as research on transnationalism with a focus on English that has implications for WEs research. Before delineating a series of research trajectories, the chapter argues for the need to first recognize and attempt to do justice to the polysemy of transnationalism. Against this backdrop, it then addresses implications for WEs research of a shift away from “methodological nationalism” to transnationalism, particularly given the similarities between criticisms of “methodological nationalism” and criticisms of WEs research. Turning then to metatheoretical and empirical research on language and transnationalism from a sociolinguistic perspective, the bulk of the chapter reflects on how a transnational perspective might inform WEs research.

Keywords

transnationalismWorld Englishes (WEs)sociolinguisticsthe polysemy of transnationalismconceptual claritymethodological nationalismmetatheoretical discussionempirical research
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of World Englishes , pp. 676 - 701
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Appadurai, Arjun. 1996. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Basch, Linda, Schiller, Nina Glick, and Blanc, Cristina Szanton. 1994. Nations Unbound: Transnational Projects, Postcolonial Predicaments, and Deterritorialized Nation-States. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Baynham, Mike. 2015. Narrative and space/time. In De Fina, Anna and Georgakopoulou, Alexandra, eds. The Handbook of Narrative Analysis. London: Wiley-Blackwell, 119–139.Google Scholar
Bhabha, Homi. 1994. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Blackledge, Adrian and Creese, Angela. 2012. Pride, profit and distinction: Negotiations across time and space in community language education. In Duchêne, Alexandre and Heller, Monica, eds. Language in Late Capitalism. London: Routledge, 116–141.Google Scholar
Block, David, Gray, John, and Holborow, Marnie. 2012. Neoliberalism and Applied Linguistics. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan. 2007. Sociolinguistic scales. Intercultural Pragmatics 4(1): 1–19.Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan. 2010. The Sociolinguistics of Globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan. 2012. Sociolinguistics and English language studies. Working Papers in Urban Language and Literacies, No. 85.Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan, Collins, James, and Slembrouck, Stef. 2005. Spaces of multilingualism. Language and Communication 25: 197–216.Google Scholar
Bolander, Brook. 2016a. English and the transnational Ismaili Muslim community: Identity, the Aga Khan, and infrastructure. Language in Society 45: 583–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolander, Brook. 2016b. English language policy as ideology in multilingual Khorog, Tajikistan. In Barakos, Elisabeth and Unger, Johann W., eds. Discursive Approaches to Language Policy. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 253–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolander, Brook. 2017. English, Motility and Ismaili Transnationalism. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 247: 71–88.Google Scholar
Bolander, Brook and Mostowlansky, Till. 2017. Language and globalisation in South and Central Asian spaces. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 247: 1–11.Google Scholar
Britain, David. 2017. Language, mobility and scale in South and Central Asia: A commentary. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 247: 127–137 .Google Scholar
Bruthiaux, Paul. 2003. Squaring the circles: Issues in modeling English worldwide. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 13(2): 159–178.Google Scholar
Cameron, Deborah. 2012. The commodification of language: English as a global commodity. In Nevalainen, Terttu and Closs Traugott, Elizabeth, eds. The Oxford Handbook of the History of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 352–361.Google Scholar
Canagarajah, Suresh. 2013. Translingual Practice: Global Englishes and Cosmopolitan Relations. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Copland, Fiona and Creese, Angela. 2015. Linguistic Ethnography: Collecting, Analysing and Presenting Data. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Creese, Angela and Blackledge, Adrian. 2010. Translanguaging in the bilingual classroom: A pedagogy for learning and teaching? Modern Language Journal 49(1): 103–115.Google Scholar
Coupland, Nikolas. 2003a. Introduction: Sociolinguistics and globalisation. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7(4): 465–472.Google Scholar
Coupland, Nikolas. 2003b. Sociolinguistics and globalization. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7(4): 465–637.Google Scholar
Cressey, Gill. 2012. Diaspora youth, ancestral languages and English as “translation” in multilingual space. In Gardner, Sheena and Martin-Jones, Marilyn, ed. Multilingualism, Discourse and Ethnography. London: Routledge, 131–141.Google Scholar
Dahinden, Janine. 2009. Are we all transnationals now? Network transnationalism and transnational subjectivity: The differing impacts of globalization on the inhabitants of a small Swiss city. Ethnic and Racial Studies 32(8): 1365–1386.Google Scholar
De Fina, Anna and Perrino, Sabrina. 2013. Transnational identities. Applied Linguistics 34(5): 509–515.Google Scholar
de Swaan, Abram. 2002. The World Language System: A Political Sociology and Political Economy of Language. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Doan, Nguyen Tram, Quynh. 2015. Neoliberal capitalism, transnationalism and networked individualism: Rethinking social class in international student mobility. London: MEDIA@LSE. www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/mediaworkingpapers/mscdissertationseries/2015/nguyen-quynh-tram-doan.pdfGoogle Scholar
Dovchin, Sender, Sultana, Shaila, and Pennycook, Alastair. 2016. Unequal translingual Englishes in the Asian peripheries. Asian Englishes 18(2): 92–108.Google Scholar
Ek, Lucila D. 2009. “Allá en Guatemala”: Transnationalism, language, and identity of a Pentecostal Guatemalan-American young woman. The High School Journal 92(4): 67–81.Google Scholar
Falzon, Mark-Anthony. 2009. Multi-sited ethnography: Theory, praxis and locality in contemporary research. In Falzon, Mark-Anthony, ed. Multi-Sited Ethnography: Theory, Praxis and Locality in Contemporary Research. Surrey: Ashgate, 1–23.Google Scholar
Farr, Marcia. 2006. Rancheros in Chicagoacán: Language and Identity in a Transnational Community. Texas: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Glick Schiller, Nina Lina Basch, Cristina Blanc-Szanton, . 1992. Towards a definition of transnationalism: Introductory remarks and research questions. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 645: ix–xiv.Google Scholar
Guarnizo, Luis Eduardo and Smith, Peter Michael. 2009 [1998]. The locations of transnationalism. In Smith, Michael Peter and Guarnizo, Luis Eduardo, ed. Transnationalism from Below, Vol. 6: Comparative Urban and Community Research. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 3–34.Google Scholar
Harris, Roxy, Leung, Constant, and Rampton, Ben. 2002. Globalisation, diaspora and language education in England. In Block, David and Cameron, Deborah, ed. Globalisation and Language Teaching. London: Routledge, 29–46.Google Scholar
Hannerz, Ulf. 1996. Transnational Connections: Culture, People, Places. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Harvey, David. 1989. The Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Heller, Monica. 2010a. Language as a process: A study on transnational spaces. In Auer, Peter and Schmidt, Jürgen Erich, eds. Language and Space: An International Handbook of Linguistic Variation, Vol. 1: Theories and Methods. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 724–740.Google Scholar
Heller, Monica. 2010b. The commodification of language. Annual Review of Anthropology 39: 101–114.Google Scholar
Heller, Monica. 2012. Rethinking sociolinguistic ethnography: From community and identity to process and practice. In Gardner, Sheena and Martin-Jones, Marilyn, eds. Multilingualism, Discourse and Ethnography. London: Routledge, 1–15.Google Scholar
Heller, Monica and Duchêne, Alexendre. 2012. Pride and profit: Changing discourses of language, capital and nation-state. In Duchêne, Alexandre and Heller, Monica, eds. Language in Late Capitalism. London: Routledge, 116–141.Google Scholar
Hurrelmann, Adrian and DeBardeleben, Joan. 2011. Introduction. In DeBardeleben, Joan and Hurrelmann, Adrian, eds.Transnational Europe: Promise, Paradox, Limits. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1–16.Google Scholar
Holborow, Marnie. 2015. Language and Neoliberalism. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hundt, Marianne. 2014. Zero articles in Indian Englishes: A comparison of primary and secondary diaspora situations. In Hundt, Marianne and Sharma, Devyani, eds. English in the Indian Diaspora. Amsterdam: John Benjamims, 131–170.Google Scholar
Iriye, Akira and Saunier, Pierre-Yves, eds. 2009. The Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History (Palgrave MacMillan Transnational History). Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Jacquemet, Marco. 2005. Transidiomatic practices: Language and power in the age of globalization. Language and Communication 25(3): 257–277.Google Scholar
Jacquemet, Marco. 2010. Language and transnational Spaces. In Auer, Peter and Schmidt, Jürgen Erich, eds. Language and Space: An International Handbook of Linguistic Variation, Vol. 1: Theories and Methods. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 50–69.Google Scholar
Jörgensen, Jens Normann. 2008. Polylingual languaging around and among children and adolescents. International Journal of Multilingualism 5(3): 161–176Google Scholar
Jörgensen, Jens-Normann, Karrebaek, Martha, Madsen, Lian and Janus, Möller. 2011. Polylanguaging in superdiversity. Diversities 13(2): 23–37.Google Scholar
Kearney, Michael. 1995. The local and the global: The anthropology of globalization and transnationalism. Annual Review of Anthropology 24: 547–565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, Kendall A. 2013. A tale of three sisters: Language ideologies, identities, and negotiations in a bilingual, transnational family. International Multilingual Research Journal 7(1): 49–65.Google Scholar
Krishnaswamy, N. and Burde, Archana S.. 1998. The Politics of Indians’ English Linguistic Colonialism and the Expanding English Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lam, Wan Shun Eva. 2004 . Second language socialization in a bilingual chat room: Global and local considerations. Language Learning and Technology 8(3): 44–65.Google Scholar
Levitt, Peggy. 1996. Social remittances: A conceptual tool for understanding migration and development. Working Paper Series No. 96.04.Google Scholar
Levitt, Peggy. 2001. Transnational migration: Taking stock and future directions. Global Networks 1(3): 195–216.Google Scholar
Li, Wei. 2011. Moment analysis and translanguaging space: Discursive construction of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain. Journal of Pragmatics 43: 1222–1235.Google Scholar
Li, Wei and Hua, Zhu. 2013. Translanguaging identities: Creating transnational space through flexible multilingual practices amongst Chinese university students in the UK. Applied Linguistics 34(5): 516–535.Google Scholar
Lorente, Beatriz P. 2012. The making of “workers of the world”: Language and the labor brokerage state. In Duchêne, Alexandre and Heller, Monica, eds. Language in Late Capitalism. London: Routledge, 183–206.Google Scholar
Lorente, Beatriz P. and Tupas, T. Ruanni F.. 2013. (Un)emancipatory hybridity: Selling English in an unequal world. In Rubdy, Rani and Lubna, Alsagoff, eds. The Global-Local Interface: Exploring Language and Identity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 66–82.Google Scholar
Mahler, Sarah J. 2009 [1998]. Theoretical and empirical contributions toward a research agenda for transnationalism. In Smith, Michael Peter and Guarnizo, Luis Eduardo, eds. Transnationalism from Below. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 64–100.Google Scholar
Mair, Christian. 2013.The World System of Englishes. Accounting for the transnational importance of mobile and mediated vernaculars. English World-Wide 34(3): 253–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Makoni, Sinfree and Pennycook, Alastair. 2007. Disinventing and reconstituting languages. In Makoni, Sinfree and Pennycook, Alastair, eds. Disinventing and Reconstituting Languages. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 1–42.Google Scholar
Marcus, George. 1995. Ethnography in/of the world system: The emergence of multi-sited ethnography. Annual Review of Anthropology 24: 95–117.Google Scholar
Martin-Jones, Marilyn and Gardner, Sheena. 2012. Introduction: Multilingualism, discourse and ethnography. In Gardner, Sheena and Martin-Jones, Marilyn, eds. Multilingualism, Discourse and Ethnography. London: Routledge, 1–15.Google Scholar
McEwan, Cheryl. 2004. Transnationalism. In Duncan, James S., Johnson, Nuala C. and Schein, Richard H., eds. A Companion to Cultural Geography. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 499–512.Google Scholar
Meinhof, Ulrike Hanna. 2009. Transnational flows, networks and “transcultural capital”: Reflections on researching migrant networks through linguistic ethnography. In Collins, James, Slembrouck, Stef and Baynham, Mike, eds. Globalization and Language in Contact: Scale, Migration and Communicative Practices. London: Continuum, 148–169.Google Scholar
Meyerhoff, Miriam and Walker, James A.. 2007. The persistence of variation in individual grammars: Copula absence in “urban sojourners” and their stay-at-home peers, Bequia (St. Vincent and the Grenadines). Journal of Sociolinguistics 11(3): 346–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nonini, Donald M. and Ong, Aihwa. 1997. Chinese transnationalism as an alternative modernity. In Ong, Aihwa and Nonini, Donald M., eds. Ungrounded Empires: The Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese Transnationalism. London: Routledge, 3–33.Google Scholar
Norton, Bonny. 2013. Identity and Language Learning: Extending the Conversation. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Otsuji, Emi and Pennycook, Alastair. 2010. Metrolingualism: Fixity, fluidity and language in flux. International Journal of Multilingualism 7(3): 240–254.Google Scholar
Paolillo, John. 2007. How much multilingualism? Language diversity on the Internet. In Danet, Brenda and Herring, Susan, eds. The Multilingual Internet: Language, Culture, and Communication Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 408–430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, Joseph Sung-Yul and Lo, Adrienne. 2012. Transnational South Korea as a site for a sociolinguistics of globalization: Markets, timescales, neoliberalism. Journal of Sociolinguistics 16(2): 147–164.Google Scholar
Park, Joseph Sung-Yul and Wee, Lionel. 2012. Markets of English: Linguistic Capital and Language Policy in a Globalizing World. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pennycook, Alastair. 1994. The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Pennycook, Alastair. 2010a. English and globalization. In Maybin, Janet and Joan, Swann, eds. The Routledge Companion to English Language Studies. London: Routledge, 113–121.Google Scholar
Pennycook, Alastair. 2010b. Language as a Local Practice. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pennycook, Alastair. 2010c. The future of Englishes: One, many, or none? In Andy, Kirkpatrick, ed. The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes. London: Routledge, 673–688.Google Scholar
Piller, Ingrid. 2010. Sex in the city: On making space and identity in travel spaces. In Jaworski, Adam and Thurlow, Crispin, eds. Semiotic Landscapes: Language, Image, Space. London: Continuum, 123–136.Google Scholar
Piller, Ingrid and Pavlenko, Aneta. 2007. Globalization, gender, and multilingualism. In Volkmann, Laurenz and Decke-Cornill, Helene, eds. Gender Studies and Foreign Language Teaching. Tübingen: Narr, 15–30.Google Scholar
Pries, Ludger. 1999. Migration and Transnational Social Spaces. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Rampton, Ben. 1995. Crossing: Language and Ethnicity among Adolescents. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Rampton, Ben. 2000. Speech community. Working Papers in Urban Language and Literacies No. 15.Google Scholar
Rampton, Ben. 2009. Speech community and beyond. In Coupland, Nikolas and Jaworski, Adam, eds. The New Sociolinguistics Reader. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 694–713.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rampton, Ben. 2011. From “Multi-ethnic adolescent heteroglossia” to “Contemporary urban vernaculars.” Language and Communication 31(4): 276–294.Google Scholar
Rampton, Ben and Charalambous, Constadina. 2010. Crossing: A review of research. Working Papers in Urban Language and Literacies, No. 58.Google Scholar
Rubdy, Rani and Alsagoff, Lubna, eds. 2013. The Global-Local Interface: Exploring Language and Identity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Rubdy, Rani and Tan, Peter, eds. 2008. Language as Commodity: Global Structures, Local Marketplaces. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Schreiber, Brooke R. 2015. “I am what I am”: Multilingual identity and digital translanguaging. Language Learning and Technology 19: 69–87.Google Scholar
Seargeant, Philip and Tagg, Caroline. 2011. English on the internet and a “post-varieties” approach to language. World Englishes 30(4): 496–514.Google Scholar
Sharma, Bal Krishna. 2012. Beyond social networking: Performing global Englishes in Facebook by college youth in Nepal. Journal of Sociolinguistics 16(4): 483–509.Google Scholar
Sharma, Devyani. 2014. Transnational flows, language variation, and ideology. In Hundt, Marianne and Sharma, Devyani, eds. English in the Indian Diaspora. Amsterdam: John Benjamims, 215–242.Google Scholar
Sklair, Leslie. 1995. Sociology of the Global System. London: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Song, Juyoung. 2012. The struggle over class, identity, and language: A case study of South Korean transnational families. Journal of Sociolinguistics 16(2): 201–217.Google Scholar
Tupas, Ruanni F. and Rubdy, Rani, eds. 2015. Unequal Englishes: The Politics of Englishes Today. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Vertovec, Steven. 1999. Conceiving and researching transnationalism. Ethnic and Racial Studies 22(2): 447–462.Google Scholar
Wimmer, Andreas and Schiller, Nina Glick. 2002. Methodological nationalism and beyond: Nation-state building, migration and the social sciences. Global Networks 2(4): 301–334.Google Scholar
You, Xiaoye. 2011. Chinese white-collar workers and multilingual creativity in the diaspora. World Englishes 30(3): 409–427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×