Teachers’ and learners’ beliefs about World Englishes, EIL, and ELF: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

This article presents a systematic review of studies investigating teachers’ and learners’ beliefs about English varieties, World Englishes, English as an international language (EIL), and English as a lingua franca (ELF). A total of 122 empirical studies published in international peer-reviewed journals from 2000 to 2023 were selected and analyzed. Results revealed that the majority of the studies (n = 93) were conducted in Expanding Circle countries. Moreover, 48% of the selected studies utilized mixed-methods research as their research design and used interviews and questionnaires as their main data collection methods. Regarding participants, learners’ beliefs were probed in 69 studies while 44 of the studies explored teachers’ beliefs, and only nine studies investigated the beliefs of both groups. Finally, more than 90% of the participants in these studies showed strong preferences for native varieties of English, especially American English. The findings bear implications for policies, materials, and teaching practices to represent different English varieties.

KEYWORDS:

• English varieties
• World Englishes
• English as an international language
• English as a lingua franca
• student beliefs
• teacher beliefs

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.