When considering dialectal variation in the UK, linguists have frequently considered the North/South divide and the linguistic markers separating the two regions (see for example Trudgill, 1999; Wells, 1986). But it has been noted that this is not a straightforward division (e.g. Beal, 2008; Goodey, Gold, Duffett & Spencer, 1971; Montgomery, 2007; Wales, 2002). There are clear stereotypes for the North and South – but how do areas like the East Midlands fit into the picture? The boundaries between North and South are defined in different ways. Beal's linguistic North does not include the East Midlands (Beal, 2008: 124–5), neither does Wales’ (2002: 48). Trudgill states that in traditional dialectology the East Midlands area falls under ‘Central’ dialects, which come under the ‘Southern’ branch, but in modern dialectology it falls in the ‘North’. Hughes, Trudgill & Watt (2005: 70) include a map which has the East Midlands in the North. Linguistically, the question has been raised whether there is a clear North/South boundary (see for example Upton (2012), where it is proposed that it is a transition zone). This paper revisits this question from the point of view of young people living in the East Midlands, to examine their sense of identity and whether this cultural divide is salient to them.

In English Today 30.1, Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade introduced the Leiden University research project, ‘Bridging the Unbridgeable: Linguists, Prescriptivists and the General Public’, and gave an example of the kind of questions we ask ourselves. That example, about questions relating to the use of have went, was very specific. In this feature, we have some questions that are rather more general, and which have to do with the discourse on usage and normativism.

The following interview with Christine Pickering, an instructor of English as a foreign language at Duksung Women's University, Seoul, South Korea, discusses teaching English to North Korean refugees with People for Successful Corean Reunification (PSCORE). A non-profit nongovernmental organization and human rights-national unification initiative, PSCORE was founded in 2006 in Seoul and has an office in Washington, D.C., with support from the U.S. State Department. PSCORE offers a one-on-one education program and free volunteer tutoring in computers, languages, mathematics, and other subjects, serving some 140 North Korean refugees as they adjust to life and employment competition in South Korea. The interviewers thank Mr. Bada Nam, PSCORE secretary general, and Ms. Jeongeun Ahn, PSCORE research manager, for approving the interview. The interview questions were prepared by Alzo David-West, and the interview was conducted in person by Sora Suh on August 1, 2012, at a PSCORE teaching location in Seoul. All personal names of North Korean refugee students have been removed.

Almost three decades have passed since Kachru (1985) proposed his three-circle model of World Englishes. Although this model is often challenged, few would deny its significance in opening the dialogue and raising awareness of issues related to World Englishes. The context of the project described in this paper is South Korea, one of what Kachru's model refers to as an ‘expanding circle country’. Reflecting on the idea of South Korea as an ‘expanding circle country’, this article briefly examines how Korea has expanded and continues to expand as a nation, juxtaposing it alongside the university speaking class I was teaching, as I look toward expanding both my own and my students' minds through exploring World Englishes within a university speaking course.

The influence of corpus-based grammars has been pervasive in the past two decades in language learning as an important reference for researchers, teachers, and language enthusiasts alike. Yet such advances in the compilation of large digitized samples of language have not yet resulted in many practical implementations in EFL contexts. This is certainly due to the reluctance of many teachers to introduce corpora into their practice, in the belief that such a shift is technically cumbersome and time-consuming (Boulton 2010). I shall take up this issue in the last section of this paper.

Hamid & Baldauf's (2008) labelling of the term ‘bogged down’ within the Bangladeshi ELT context and their prediction about the outcome of the English Language Teaching Improvement Project (ELTIP) appear to be true. While Hamid & Baldauf (2008) endeavour to present the poor ELT reality of rural Bangladesh, the current paper aims to explore the problems that make ELT ‘bogged down’ in Bangladesh.

The Norman Conquest of 1066 has left a considerable mark on the English landscape (in the form of cathedrals, churches, and castles) and had a massive impact on the English language. Both of these are visible (and audible) today. It is well known that a very sizeable percentage of the vocabulary of Modern English is of French origin. What is generally realised less is the extent to which these are not loanwords in the conventional sense (that is, words incorporated from a foreign language) but terms taken over into English at a time of sustained language contact between English and French, when the two languages coexisted on English soil. Recent advances in lexicography, in the Oxford English Dictionary in particular, now make it possible to track much more precisely the processes which have led to this massive incursion of French terminology into English. Generally speaking, it is normally assumed that Anglo-Norman was a predominantly urban vernacular (Short, 2009), a view which some recent work has challenged (Rothwell 2008, 2009, 2012; Trotter 2012a, 2012b, 2013).

World Englishes (henceforth WEs) theory recognizes that English today is an international language that comprises ‘a unique cultural pluralism, and a linguistic heterogeneity and diversity’ (Kachru, 1985: 14). That is, WEs theory recognizes and appreciates an emerging group of English varieties worldwide (such as Australian English, Indian English, Singaporean English, etc.), seeing each as being of equal validity and legitimacy. This appreciation of the pluricentricity of English has aroused particular interest in the field of ESL/EFL teaching (e.g., Kachru, 1992; Jenkins, 2006; Kirkpatrick, 2008). It is well known that ESL/EFL teaching has long been dominated by the Inner Circle model (Kachru, 1985), also known as the native speaker (NS) model. The Inner Circle model of English teaching focuses on so-called ‘Standard English’ education and aims to develop ‘native-like proficiency’ among ESL/EFL learners. Such a monocentric approach posits the superiority of Anglo-American norms and cultures at the expense of other English varieties and cultures. However, criticisms of such an ‘exonormative native speaker model’ (Kirkpatrick, 2008: 184) have been frequently raised in the past decade, and a growing number of researchers (e.g., Kachru, 1986, 1992; Canagarajah, 1999; Jenkins, 2000, 2006; Seidlhofer, 2001; McKay, 2002; Kirkpatrick, 2006, 2008) have called for a paradigm shift to replace the monocentric Inner Circle model in ESL/EFL teaching. New models have also been proposed; for instance, Phillipson (1992a) argued for models in various specific English varieties that maintain international intelligibility; Kramsch (1998) proposed an intercultural speaker model, and Kirkpatrick (2008) advocated a lingua franca approach to replace the NS model; finally, Jenkins (2006) put forward the pluricentric approach to replace the monocentric approach in English teaching. Though different in some respects, these proposed new models all share the same aims for ESL/EFL teaching, that is, to promote pluralism in different cultures and English varieties, to raise ESL/EFL learners' awareness of the various English varieties, and to enhance ESL/EFL learners' confidence in their own English varieties. In this study, the term pluricentric approach is adopted because this term vividly catches the essence of the pluricentricity of English today.

English plays an important role in the lives of Ugandans. For example, official government records are written in English, Parliament conducts its business in English, national newspapers are written in English. English is the medium of instruction from elementary to tertiary level. English is a lingua franca among people of different ethnic groups whose mother tongues are mutually unintelligible, especially if they cannot use Luganda or, to some extent, Swahili.

World Englishes, like other topics covered in the Routledge Introduction to Applied Linguistics series (ELT, Classroom Discourse, Corpus Linguistics), is increasingly a feature of the curriculum of Applied Linguistics and TESOL programmes. Philip Seargeant's book is aimed at master's-level students who are teachers in training or language professionals returning to study, and final year undergraduates. The first part of the book is what you would expect: everything applied linguistics students need to know about WES (World English Studies). The second part is a meditation on WES as academic discipline which is likely to provide food for thought for researchers as well as students. Fortunately the long tradition of undergraduate textbooks which offer region-by-region descriptions of English is on the wane. More recent textbooks such as Jenkins (2003) and Schneider (2011), and the more advanced Mesthrie and Bhatt (2008), whilst individually reflecting the preoccupations of their authors, all address the twin strands of World Englishes. These are, on the one hand, variation which has emerged over time through the dynamics of language contact, and on the other, the global character of English, which now sets it apart from the study of other languages. This, for Seargeant, is a paradox at the heart of WES: English is celebrated around the world for the way it can express the identity of particular communities (authenticity) but also for its universality and neutrality (anonymity).

The Irish English Resource Centre is a website developed and maintained by Raymond Hickey, Professor in Linguistics at the University of Duisburg and Essen, a renowned expert on the variety of English spoken in Ireland. The website aims to ‘make material on the historical and regional diversity of Irish English, in the north and south of the country, and information on the sociolinguistics of present-day varieties, available to the interested public’. The contents are divided into twelve sections, which can be accessed in different ways: (i) Introduction, (ii) Levels, (iii) Urban varieties, (iv) Ulster, (v) Surveys and data, (vi) Transportation, (vii) Wider context, (viii) Search, (ix) Links, (x) Research, (xi) References, and (xii) Maps.

This book examines the acquisition of syntax in Seselwa and Morisyen children. Seselwa and Morisyen are historically related creoles spoken in the Seychelles and Mauritius, respectively. Working within Chomsky's (1981) framework, Adone focuses on the acquisition of (non-)reflexive pronouns, double object constructions (DOCs), passive and serial verb constructions (SVCs).