English moves

“I [...] wore my English like a mask”

English as a global lingua franca transcends geographical, cultural, and socio-political boundaries. While it facilitates the integration process of migrants and the articulation of diverse experiences, English also plays an ambivalent role in hegemonic structures. This article examines the role of English in Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous , focusing on the protagonist, Little Dog, who writes letters in English to his Vietnamese-speaking mother. Drawing on Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of hybridity, Emily Apter’s notion of the translation zone, and Caroline Levine’s engagement with the affordances of forms, this study explores how the English language affects migrant identity and examines the ambivalent role of translation in this postmigrant bildungsroman . It argues that Vuong’s novel presents the English language itself as a site of ambivalence, in which identity and culture are constantly negotiated through the act of translation.

Local Worlds, Global Language: English in Rushdie's “In the South”

In the contemporary era of globalization, English has emerged as a dominant transnational language used across cultural and geographical boundaries. Scholars such as Braj B. Kachru, David Crystal, and Alastair Pennycook have emphasized the pluricentric and dynamic nature of English as it operates across diverse linguistic and cultural atmosphere. Building on these perspectives, this paper examines Salman Rushdie's short story “In the South” anthologized in The Eleventh Hour (2025). Adopting a qualitative methodology, the study employs close reading to explore how the narrative serves as a site of cultural synthesis and linguistic blending.  The analysis focuses on three key areas. Firstly, the sensory localization of English, where vernacular Indian terminology is seamlessly integrated into the prose to describe the unique landscape of the south. Second, the internal geopolitics of North and South as mediated through English as a common and contentious tongue. Third, the performative identity of senior, whose adoption of the European gentleman persona highlights the complex pride associated with English mastery in a post- colonial context. Consequently, the paper argues that Rushdie uses Global English to map the intersections of local tragedy and global modernity, positioning the language not as an external imposition, but as an essential medium for articulating the contemporary Indian life. The findings demonstrate that English in the story operates simultaneously as globally intelligible medium. The study contributes to postcolonial and world Englishes scholarship by demonstrating the literary implications of English as normalized global language.

World Englishes, Native Speakers and English Language Teaching

As the global lingua franca and a dominant medium of trade, communication, education, and cultural exchange, English has evolved through centuries of interaction with diverse peoples, societies, and historical forces. Its widespread adoption across regions has led to the emergence of multiple varieties, collectively referred to as World Englishes, reflecting the language’s dynamic and adaptive nature. This article examines the changing character and functions of English through two key lenses: the paradigm of World Englishes and the concept of the native speaker. It traces the development of World Englishes and critically engages with the native versus non-native speaker debate, highlighting the limitations of traditional frameworks. The discussion proposes a more fluid and contemporary understanding of English that acknowledges the realities of globalisation, digital communication, and translingual practices. While existing models remain valuable, they require revision to accommodate evolving linguistic landscapes and the increasingly diverse ways in which English is used and negotiated in the twenty-first century.

LANGUAGE, CULTURE, AND POWER: A CRITICAL READING OF THE INTERCHANGE ELT SERIES

This study critically examines the Interchange English language teaching series as both a pedagogical resource and a cultural artifact, focusing on the relationships among language, culture, ideology, and power. Drawing on a qualitative, bibliographic, and documentary approach, the analysis discusses how global ELT materials construct and disseminate cultural representations through topics, dialogues, images, communicative situations, and references to popular culture. Particular attention is given to the concept of conversion culture, understood as the process through which learners may be exposed to culturally hegemonic ways of speaking, acting, consuming, and representing the world as desirable or normative models. The study also considers the predominance of Anglo-American cultural references, the representation of diversity, the role of editorial updates, and the tension between global marketability and local cultural realities. The discussion suggests that, although Interchange has progressively incorporated more diverse and contemporary representations, global teaching materials may still reproduce symbolic hierarchies associated with the international circulation of English. The study therefore emphasizes the importance of critical pedagogical mediation, the inclusion of learners’ local realities, and intercultural approaches that enable English to function not as a means of cultural assimilation, but as a resource for pluralistic and meaningful communication.

Does the Spanish language threaten or thread the American cultural identity?

This essay examines whether the Spanish language in the United States constitutes a threat to American cultural identity or functions instead as a connective thread within it. Perceptions of Spanish as a threat are traced to a binary, dominance‑oriented worldview that prioritizes monolingualism and frames linguistic difference as discord. Using threading as an analytical metaphor, the study argues that languages actively interlace cultural differences, construct individual and collective identities, and generate unity through plurality rather than uniformity. By situating contemporary English‑only discourses and challenges to English‑Spanish bilingual practices within broader historical contexts and sociopolitical power structures, the essay reveals how language ideologies operate as mechanisms of cultural regulation and identity control. Rather than destabilizing American identity, Spanish emerges as a generative force that reconfigures national belonging as plural, relational, and historically contingent. Galvanized by Gloria Anzaldúa’s theories on borderlands and the third zone, the essay reframes linguistic inclusion not as cultural erosion but as a vital condition for social cohesion and cultural resilience in a multilingual United States.

Language, Displacement, and Cultural Negotiation in Sanaz Toossi’s English : A Study through Translingualism and Identity Theory