We are proud to present here Part II of our 20th anniversary celebration: a very strong collection of six invited articles, one article from our normal submissions, and a book review. In Part I we published invited articles on Hong Kong, China, Japan, Singapore and Australia. We follow that now with papers on Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, The Philippines, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates—with a final separate article on the Indonesian context. I humbly thank all of the authors for their effort in delivering such impressive and valuable work.
While the invitation process focused on separate national contexts, it is obvious from the papers that, to a large extent, we live today in a post-borders, post varieties world. The once very useful Kachruvian three-circle model is now too static to accurately represent the status and functions of global English. English is simultaneously used intranationally and internationally, irrespective of the different historical, cultural and sociopolitical circumstances of its first arrival.
Our first three papers, by Trakulkasemsuk, Doan et al., and Paik, provide a thorough outline of the unique historical development of English in Thailand, Vietnam and Korea. They continue by demonstrating the complexity and multiplicity of English in its current and future use. The fourth paper, by Pefianco Martin, provides a rare view into the Philippine legal system. Supported by rich and extensive data, it helps us to visualize more concretely the multilingual reality which is discussed theoretically in the other papers.
The next two papers investigate specific linguistic aspects. Pillai and Ong provide in-depth analysis of syntactic innovation and phonological aspects of Malaysian English, concluding that current descriptions of MalE fail to show its ability to strengthen the repertoire of English. The final special issue paper by Hopkyns at al. employs Schneider’s Dynamic Model to show the remarkable diversity of English use in the UAE. It is perhaps one of the most unique contexts for English today, where the official language (Arabic) is not spoken by the majority of residents. The papers provide a fascinating look at how unique each context is, while at the same time helping to draw out valuable commonalities and areas of overlap that can enlighten our future research in this vibrant region.
Editor in Chief, Asian Englishes