English in East and South Asia

Abstract

English plays a dynamic and significant role in both intra-and international communication, politics, education, science and economics in both East and South Asia. Kachru categorises the Englishes in East Asia as being part of the expanding circle varieties and English in South Asia as part of the outer circle varieties. The geographical composition of East and South Asia requires further elucidation in order for us to understand what constitutes East and South Asian Englishes respectively. Pragmatic variations in the uses and users of South Asian English are another issue to be addressed. More research needs to be carried out to investigate how certain speech acts such as apologising, permitting, directing and informing are performed in each variety of South Asian English. The use of English in another variety of East Asian popular music, i.e. Korean popular music. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.