World Englishes refers to the emergence of localised or indigenisedvarieties of English, especially varieties that have developed in nations colonised by Great Britain or influenced by the United States. World Englishes consist of varieties of English used in diverse sociolinguistic contexts globally, and how sociolinguistic histories, multicultural backgrounds and contexts of function influence the use of colonial English in different regions of the world.
The issue of World Englishes was first raised in 1978 to examine concepts of regional Englishes globally. Pragmatic factors such as appropriateness, comprehensibility and interpretability justified the use of English as an international and intra-national language. In 1988, at a Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, the International Committee of the Study of World Englishes (ICWE) was formed.[In 1992, the ICWE formally launched the International Association for World Englishes (IAWE) at a conference of "World Englishes Today", at the University of Illinois, USA.[1]
Currently, there are approximately 75 territories where English is spoken either as a first language (L1) or as an unofficial or institutionalisedsecond language (L2) in fields such as government, law and education. It is difficult to establish the total number of Englishes in the world, as new varieties of English are constantly being developed and discovered.[2]
