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Beyond the World Englishes Paradigm: Agency, Performativity and Malaysian English

Individual language user agency in the Malaysian context indicates the limits of the World Englishes paradigm.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2016

Jeffrey Brown
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Extract

As a global language, English is taken up and used in local contexts in ways that cannot be accounted for by limited World Englishes (WE) paradigm. This can be illustrated through an analysis of the performative agency of individuals’ language usage in specific contact contexts. After a brief overview of the WE paradigm, this article offers a consideration of the Malaysian linguistic context and Malaysian English from a ‘post-WE’ perspective. The conclusion is that, rather than think of the respective WE and post-WE approaches as opposed to one another, it is more useful to characterize them as distinctive theoretical prisms that illuminate divergent issues.

Type
Research Article
Information
English Today , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , September 2017 , pp. 54 - 59
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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