Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2011. 333 p.This book provides crucial reading for students and researchers of world Englishes. It is an insightful and provocative study of the forms and functions of English in Asia, its acculturation and nativization, and the innovative dimensions of Asian creativity.Contents:
Introduction: Anglophone Asia
Contexts
Asian Englishes. Epistemological concerns. Language and nativeness. Contexts of the Asian presence of English. Asian Englishes within the Three Circles. The albatross of mythology. Mythology and the Asian context. Current strategies. Decolonizing text and context. Canonicity, diversity, and Asian Englishes. English on Asian terms. Institutionalization of Asian Englishes.
South Asian schizophrenia.The South Asian linguistic repertoire and English. Types of variation. The South Asianness of South Asian English. South Asian lexical stock in English. Models of English. Bilinguals’ creativity in South Asian English. English in post-1947 language policies. Attitudes and schizophrenia about English. Current issues.
Past imperfect: The Japanese agony. Perspectives on English in Japan. Eikaiwa ‘English Conversation Ideology'. Dimensions of paradigm shift. Marginalization, ideology and paradigms. Japanese without Eikaiwa.
Convergence
Englishization: Asia and beyond. The spheres of Englishization. Deficit versus dominance hypothesis. Exponents of Englishization. Lexicalization. Grammar. ‘Great Tradition’ versus ‘Little Tradition’. Thematic range and literary experimentation. Englishization and code development. Englishization and linguistic schizophrenia. Englishization and contact linguistics. Englishization and language policies.
The absent voices. ESP: Presuppositions. ESP: Beyond the canon. Acceptability and local contexts. Anglophone Asia’s language policies and ‘loose canons’ of Englishes. Asian Englishes as codes of communication. Pragmatic success and ESP. Asian Englishes and instructional resources. Localized varieties and English for international communication. Towards a shift in paradigm.
Mantras
Medium and mantra. The caste of English. Anatomy of the mantra. Structure as the puranic form. Rao’s credo in a historical context. Caliban’s canon and the Western canon. Rao’s mantra.
Talking back and writing back. Three basic questions. What are the solutions? Creativity, pluralistic contexts, and standards.
Predator
Killer or accessory to murder?. The wave of doom. Obiturial terminology. Hypotheses and rationalizations. Culprits and killers. The leaking model. Killer English? Language attitudes. Linguists and the war of words. The rescue brigades. Language reincarnation. The Asian context.
Pedagogy.
Contexts of pedagogy and identity. Approaches to South Asian English. The Inner Circle and issues of identity. Research agendas.
Afterword
Present tense: Making sense of Anglophone Asia The heart of the matter. Constructing constructs. Flogging a dead horse. On getting the Three Circles Model backwards. Identity markers and location. Pidgins and creoles in the constellation. Life-cycle hypothesis and ‘reincarnation’ . Lingua franca, again! Codification and standardization. The cauldron of ‘empires’. World Standard Spoken English (WSSE) and the real world. Futurology and the crystal ball. Asian voices in repositories of knowledge. The victimology of English and Asia’s response. ‘A different . uh, kettle of fish’. Barking up the wrong tree. Shared strands of ongoing debates.
