This fascinating book provides a thorough description of the English language, including its use in context. One important characteristic of this volume is that it is completely research-driven, but still not inaccessible to those with little or no background in linguistics. The authors explain how English has emerged as a global lingua franca and mention the large number of speakers who use it as a second or foreign language. Crucially, they discuss the various views and conceptions that exist as to what counts as English, its boundaries, its constitution, and the way we might study it. There are three such views: (i) the folk view, which includes beliefs with a prescriptive quality, that is, about how English should be; (ii) the academic view, which includes the comparative, the variational, the structural, and the social perspectives; and (iii) the educational view, which analyzes why people around the world embark on the study of the English language.

This book is comprised of thirty-nine chapters organized under six major parts. Part 1 deals with English structure. This section studies English phonology, morphology, grammar, text linguistics, semantics, and pragmatics and provides a good basis for subsequent chapters. Part 2 covers the history of English. It is organized according to linguistic area, rather than periods, and includes all of the phonological, semantic, lexical, and grammatical changes that the language has gone through. Part 3 is about regional and social variation in English speech. It discusses various accents and dialects and gives details about language and social class, language and ethnicity, pidgins and creoles, and World Englishes. Part 4 talks about style, genre, and practice in written English, exploring different contexts where the language is used, including newspapers, advertisements, and literature. Part 5 includes English communication and interaction. Here, the focus is on the use of English in social contexts, dealing with topics such as language, reality and power, and language and gender. Part 6 examines English learning and teaching, which considers the learning and teaching of the language both inside and outside educational contexts, exploring language acquisition, TESOL, and linguistics.

The wide scope of this book makes it a great help for anyone interested in linguistics and language learning. However, the authors state that there was not enough space to deal with other topics that are also relevant, such as forensic linguistics, speech therapy, or computer-mediated communication. Nevertheless, the book provides a solid foundation for language studies, language analysis, and language use. The authors do not only rely on quantitative evidence, but draw on qualitative analysis as well. At the end, they take a glance at the future of the study of English, concluding that the changing media and evolving contexts in which English is used will impact what is studied and how it is studied.