Digital communication, social media, and Englishes

Abstract

Scholarship in world Englishes has long been interested in the impact of digital media on the spread of English worldwide. This special issue on ‘World Englishes and digital media’ examines how English(es) are positioned and used in relation to other languages in digital communication, what pragmatic functions English and other languages serve, and how various linguistic choices affect identity work in the context of digital communication. It is hoped that this special issue will make an important contribution to research in this field.

Posthumanism and the role of orality and literacy in language ideologies in Belize

“…The emergence and use of media technologies have contributed to the popularization of US features – uses of local and US forms has been observed in mass media, for example, in heterogenous forms of English on Jamaican radio (Westphal, 2017) or in accents of radio newscasters (Deuber & Leung, 2013). Computer‐mediated communication is an immensely increasing field of interest in understanding attitude development (Hinrichs, 2006; Dovchin & Oliver, 2021; Lee, 2020). Such research not only shows that media practices may impact on language attitudes within particular national contexts but also leads to the realization that non‐national, non‐ethnic or diasporic social structures may gain in relevance (Heyd & Mair, 2014; Honkanen, 2021; Mühleisen, 2021).…”

“…The fact that orthographic standards and national norms as we know them would not have been possible without the technologies of writing and print comes to the fore. Yet, the constituting role of media technologies in concepts of language and in the formation of language attitudes has not been a focus of research, even though the study of attitudes as represented in media has become more prominent (Lee, 2020).…”

Introduction

“…As already established, the linguistic landscape across the region is a complex and shifting one, and we have already noted one of the most recent developments in language policy and practice, namely the upsurge in EMI in the higher education sector. The eight contributions in this special issue utilise various theoretical, conceptual, and methodological approaches, which have been the focus of several recent special issues of World Englishes – translanguaging (Jenks & Lee, 2020) and digital media (Lee, 2020). This special issue of the journal further contributes to world Englishes scholarship by providing empirically informed research into diverse formal and informal language‐use contexts.…”

What’s In A Russian English Username? A Case Study of Social Media Accounts Names

“…Since its introduction, the World Englishes (WE) paradigm [1] has been extensively used as a research framework for various varieties of English within different domains, including digital media discourse represented by social media networks, such as Google, Facebook * , Instagram * , Twitter ** , YouTube and such [2]. Although the Russian variety of English or Russian English as an Expanding Circle variety has been generally acclaimed worldwide [3][4][5] and analyzed from a range of perspectives in a number of contexts [6][7][8], Instagram * Russian English (IRE) has rarely been the focus of scholars' attention [9].…”