Ideology, Identity, and World Englishes: Toward a Heteroglossic Framework

Ideology and identity are central to the pluralization and localization of Englishes, as belief systems and identification practices are the basis from which languages evolve and change over time and across geographic spaces. Furthermore, the interplay between ideology and identity provides a lens through which to understand the linguistic similarities and differences that exist within and across speech communities, thus representing a key area of research on the use of Englishes in global contexts. For instance, scholarship on World Englishes (WE) contends that ideology plays an important role in how interlocutors construct their linguistic identities and explores the degree to which speakers adopt particular communicative practices, including localized pragmatic norms. Investigations of ideology and identity help advance WE scholarship into a more encompassing area of study concerned with not just surface linguistic features, but also, for example, how a propensity to...