Researching and critiquing World Englishes

This paper critiques research methods used in current studies of syntax in World Englishes. In order to do so, we draw from the literature on China English to exemplify these issues. By critically reviewing current literature that documents syntactic features of China English, we show that the features described as those of China English fail to index the variety itself. This is, we argue, partly a consequence of the limitations of the research methods that were adopted in these studies. The paper identifies six main issues with research methodology used in current studies of World Englishes: (1) uniqueness; (2) register variation; (3) using norms of writing for describing oral texts; (4) insufficient sociolinguistic information; (5) stability and extent of use; and (6) problematic sources of data. The results of the meta-analysis presented in this paper can help us in reconsidering the methodological requirements for work in this area. The paper ends with a discussion of alternative ways to carry out research in World Englishes.