Squaring the circles: issues in modeling English worldwide

Abstract

The model originally promoted by Braj Kachru and representing English worldwide as Inner, Outer, and Expanding circles has helped valorize denigrated varieties by drawing attention to commonalities across old and new varieties and by altering perceptions of their communicative potential and relative prestige. However, the model suffers from being based in a political/historical view of English worldwide and thus fails to capture transplantations of the language in locations not formally recorded by colonial history. Because it promotes specific varieties, the model also ignores variation within locales, especially where the gap between those who know English and those who do not is vast. Overall, the model encourages broad‐brush descriptions of manifestations of English across all three circles that do not stand up to sociolinguistic analysis. In response, it is suggested that the model can continue to serve as a shorthand for English worldwide but that it must adapt by (1) moving away from a focus on nation‐states in favor of a sociolinguistic focus on English‐speaking communities wherever they are found and (2) recognizing that fundamental differences across contexts for English worldwide cannot be glossed over in support of specific varieties if we are to arrive at descriptively adequate sociolinguistics and socially relevant language policies.