About the Book
As social media keeps changing, so does the representation of World Englishes across the wide range of platforms available. This edited volume explores the different varieties of English on various social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, and YouTube.
Social media platforms showcase an ever-increasing diversity in languages and varieties of languages used on them. Divided into three parts, the book focuses in turn on language variation in digital contexts, identities and social meaning making, and metalinguistic commentary, and ends with a discussion chapter providing an overview of World Englishes and social media. Investigating these areas in detail, the book covers a wealth of topics, including ethical questions and research methodology, linguistic features and creativity, and meta-discourse. By offering up-to-date coverage of English use across different platforms, it provides an in-depth insight into the dynamic space of language variation online.
Table of Contents:
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Contributors
1. Englishes Online and Online Englishes, Sven Leuckert (TU Dresden, Germany), Sofia Rüdiger (FU Berlin, Germany), Jakob R. E. Leimgruber (University of Regensburg, Germany)
Part I: Language Variation in Digital Contexts
2. Functional Expansion and Syntactic Change in Colloquial Singapore English Is It, Mie Hiramoto (National University of Singapore, Singapore), Wilkinson Daniel Wong Gonzales (The Chinese University of Hong Kong), Jakob R. E. Leimgruber (University of Regensburg, Germany), Jun Jie Lim (University of California San Diego, US), Mohamed Hafiz (National University of Singapore, Singapore)
3. A Dynamic Perspective on Diasporic Social Media Communication, Axel Bohmann (University of Cologne, Germany), Fatlum Sadiku (University of Freiburg, Germany), Panagiota Papavasileiou (University of Freiburg, Germany)
Part II: Identities and Social Meaning Making
4. Global Englishes in Skateboarding: A Case Study of Margielyn Didal’s Multilingual Instagram Persona, Michael Westphal (Kiel University, Germany)
5. Don’t Jack*** the Thing: Language Use and Political Discontent by Trinidadian TikTokers, Guyanne Wilson (University College London, UK)
6. International Tourism in Cuba and Croatia: Investigating English Language Use on Social Media, Manuela Vida-Mannl (TU Dortmund, Germany)
7. Embrace (Y)our Dialect Cuz T’Iz We Own Ting: A Blended (Meta)analysis of Linguistic Identity Construction in a Caribbean Instagram Dictionary, Wiebke H. Ahlers (TU Dortmund, Germany)
Part III: Metalinguistic Commentary
8. “Asian Accent is Awesome”: Valuing Englishes on YouTube, Sofia Rüdiger (FU Berlin, Germany) and Sven Leuckert (TU Dresden, Germany)
9. Disputing Language Policing: Normalizing “Poor” English in Defensive Metalinguistic Commentaries, Vincent Wai Sum Tse (Monash University, Australia), and Andre Joseph Theng (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Part IV: Discussion
10. 1. Rethinking World Englishes in the Age of Social Media, Andrew Moody (University of Macau, China)
References
Index
About the Author :
Sofia Rüdiger is Guest Professor for Applied English Linguistics at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.
Sven Leuckert is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Technische Universität Dresden, Germany.
Jakob R. E. Leimgruber is Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Regensburg, Germany.
Review :
This volume deals with a topic that is long overdue: the manifestations of Englishes online. What makes this collection remarkable is how it foregrounds a number of methodological and conceptual issues that have ramifications also for the study of World Englishes offline.
This valuable collection of writings will become an elucidating and helpful part of a growing body of work, whose discoveries are much needed in the digital era we live in.
This book offers an exciting and important exploration of English on social media. Examining diverse platforms and contexts, it provides fresh insights into linguistic features, linguistic identity, metapragmatics and meaning-making beyond national boundaries. A groundbreaking contribution to understanding language in a globally connected digital world.
