This is the first English-language book to focus on the electric rice cooker and the impact it has had on the lives of Asian people. This account of the rice cooker's globalization aims to move away from Japan-centric perspectives on how "Made in Japan" products made it big in the global marketplace, instead choosing to emphasize the collaborative approach adopted by one Japanese manufacturing giant and a Hong Kong entrepreneur. The book also highlights the role Hong Kong, as a free port, played in the rice cooker's globalization and describes how the city facilitated the transnational flow of Japanese appliances to Southeast Asia, China, and North America. Based on over 40 interviews conducted with key figures at both National/Panasonic and Shun Hing Group, it provides a fascinating insight into the process by which the National rice cooker was first localized and then globalized. Interspersed throughout are personal accounts by individuals in Japan and Hong Kong for whom owning a rice cooker meant far more than just a convenient way of cooking rice. The book includes over 60 images, among them advertisements dating back to the 1950s that illustrate how Japanese appliances contributed to the advent of a modern lifestyle in Hong Kong. This account of the rice cooker's odyssey from Japan to Hong Kong and beyond is intended for a general audience as well as for readers with an interest in the empirical study of globalization, intercultural communication, Hong Kong social history, and Japanese business in Asia.

This volume explores the global spread of English or global Englishes, and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), focusing specifically on Asian Englishes. It is unique in the range of diverse perspectives across the languages and cultures by its contributors.

Although the notion of Global Englishes (GE) has been widely discussed in the literature, few books consider how GE can be translated into educational practice. This book addresses the incorporation of GE into language policy and curriculum, pedagogy and assessment practices, and focuses on a wide range of geographical and language contexts. Incorporating GE into language curriculum, pedagogy and assessment practices calls for a reframing of our pedagogical practices that take into account the use of Englishes in intercultural and multicultural encounters where people have different first languages and cultural backgrounds. This book will be of interest to policymakers, curriculum developers and practitioner-researchers in the area of English language education.

This ground-breaking work is a detailed account of an innovative and in-depth study of the attitudes of in excess of 500 Japanese learners towards a number of standard and non-standard as well as native and non-native varieties of English speech. The research conducted refines the investigation of learner attitudes by employing a range of pioneering techniques of attitude measurement. These methods are largely incorporated from the strong traditions that exist in the fields of social psychology and second language acquisition and utilize both direct and indirect techniques of attitude measurement. The author locates the findings in the context of the wealth of literature on native speaker evaluations of languages and language varieties. The study is unique in that the results provide clear evidence of both attitude change and high levels of linguistic awareness among the informants of social and geographical diversity within the English language. These findings are analyzed in detail in relation to the global spread of English as well as in terms of the pedagogical implications for the choice of linguistic model employed in English language classrooms both inside and outside Japan. The issues examined are of particular interest to educators, researchers and students in the fields of applied linguistics, TESOL, second language acquisition, social psychology of language and sociolinguistics. The pedagogical and language policy implications of the findings obtained make essential reading for those with a specific focus on the role of the English language and English language teaching, both in Japan and beyond.

This volume aims to familiarize readers with the varieties of world Englishes used across cultures and to create awareness of some of the linguistic and socially relevant contexts and functions that have given rise to them. It emphasizes that effective communication among users of different Englishes requires awareness of the varieties in use and their cultural, social, and ideational functions. Cultures, Contexts and World Englishes: demonstrates the rich results of integrating theory, methodology and application features critical and detailed discussion of the sociolinguistics of English in the globalized world gives equal emphasis to grammar and pragmatics of variation and to uses of Englishes in spoken and written modes in major English-using regions of the world. Each chapter includes suggestions for further reading and challenging discussion questions and appropriate research projects designed to enhance the usefulness of this volume in courses such as world Englishes, English in the Global Context, Sociolinguistics, Critical Applied Linguistics, Language Contact and Convergence, Ethnography of Communication, and Crosscultural Communication.

In this book, leading scholars in the field of World Englishes (WE) offer fresh perspectives in re-thinking issues on the use of English as a global language in an interconnected world. Established as a legitimate field of study, WE offers a conceptual framework which has influenced scholarship in many related disciplines: contact linguistics, postcolonial Englishes, English as a lingua franca, English as an international language, and applied linguistics. This seminal volume will have an excellent balance between theoretical and empirical works focusing on scholarship that has arisen in relation to the Kachruvian Three Concentric Circles model. This book covers topics such as state-of-the-art review of WE, WE and contact linguistics, post-colonial Englishes, English as a Lingua Franca, English as an International Language, WE and applied linguistics, language measurement and testing in WE, language policy and management, language education and dynamic ecologies, language typology, WE as a new canon, WE and corpus linguistics, WE and multimodalities, and makes predictions about the future of WE. It contains a comprehensive and up-to-date bibliography of major works published in the field.

The Handbook of World Englishes is a collection of newly commissioned articles focusing on selected critical dimensions and case studies of the theoretical, ideological, applied and pedagogical issues related to English as it is spoken around the world. Represents the cross-cultural and international contextualization of the English language Articulates the visions of scholars from major varieties of world Englishes – African, Asian, European, and North and South American Discusses topics including the sociolinguistic contexts of varieties of English in the inner, outer, and expanding circles of its users; the ranges of functional domains in which these varieties are used; the place of English in language policies and language planning; and debates about English as a cause of language death, murder and suicide.

Winner of the BAAL Book Prize 2016 The field of "World Englishes" takes on ever more importance in the modern era. Mario Saraceni's World Englishes: A Critical Analysis looks at the developments in the field from a critical perspective. It examines the historical, linguistic, ideological and pedagogical aspects in the study of the ever-evolving forms, roles and statuses of English around the world. The principal aim is to offer a critical overview of the field in order both to inform readers about the main issues at stake and to challenge established positions and descriptive/analytical paradigms. The book has four sections, each of which reviews established accounts and offers alternative perspectives on those. “History” considers representations of the evolution of 'old English' and 'new Englishes' and begins to unveil the strong link between conventional accounts and ideological motivations. “Language” critically examines the traditional notion of 'difference' in the description of varieties of English, and discusses more recent orientations which aim to describe English as a lingua franca and the phenomenon of language hybridity. “Ideology” examines ideological debates around the presence and status of English in the world, such as linguistic imperialism, language ownership and language ecology. The final section, “Pedagogy” discusses pedagogical implications, such as the choice of appropriate 'models' of English and considers the possibility of teaching English as a fully de-anglicised language.

Intelligibility is the term most generally used to address the complex of criteria that describe, broadly, how useful someone’s English is when talking or writing to someone else. Set within the paradigm of world Englishes – which posits that the Englishes of the world may be seen as flexibly categorized into three Circles (Inner, Outer, Expanding) in terms of their historical developments – this text provides a comprehensive overview of the definitions and scopes of intelligibility, comprehensibility and interpretability, and addresses key topics within this paradigm: Who – if anyone – provides the models and norms for a given population of English users? Hybridity and creativity in world Englishes Evaluating paradigms: misinformation and disinformation Practicalities of dealing with the widening variety of Englishes Is English "falling apart"? The much-debated issue of intelligibility touches not only sociolinguistic theory but all aspects of English language teaching, second language acquisition, language curriculum planning, and regional or national language planning. Designed for students, teacher educators, and scholars internationally, each chapter includes ‘Topics for Discussion and Assignments’ and ‘Suggestions for Further Reading’.

Bloomsbury World Englishes offers a comprehensive and rigorous description of the facts, implications and contentious issues regarding the forms and functions of English in the world. International experts cover a diverse range of varieties and topics, offering a more accurate understanding of English across the globe and the various social contexts in which it plays a significant role. With volumes dedicated to research paradigms, language ideologies and pedagogies, the collection pushes the boundaries of the field to go beyond traditional descriptive paradigms and contribute to moving research agendas forward. Volume 3: Pedagogies addresses the teaching of English as a world language. Chapters in this volume consider the teaching and learning of English(es) from a range of perspectives and on the basis of experiences and research from many parts of the world.