The Oxford Handbook of Southeast Asian Englishes is the first of its kind with its goal to provide a contemporary look at the English language within the region of Southeast Asia (SEA). It effectively functions as a comprehensive compendium for anything related to the English language within SEA: covering issues from the history of the contact of the English language and its colonial roots in the region to current snapshots of the state of the various Englishes and the functions they fulfil in SEA today. This handbook brings together a myriad of scholars and perspectives from across the region and those from outside of it and is edited by Andrew J. Moody. Typically, SEA is known to comprise 11 nations: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor–Leste and Vietnam. However, this handbook also includes a couple of additions to its scope, namely Hong Kong and Macau, due to the crucial role they have played in the development of English in SEA. The handbook is split into six parts, each of which covers a different overarching topic regarding English in SEA, and within each part, various chapters present specific case studies of one or more of the SEA countries of note.

Part I provides an extensive summary of the linguistic history within the region, with focus on the introduction of the English language to the region, especially in the context of colonisation. The ensuing discussions of post-colonial Southeast Asia centre on several frameworks that have informed most World Englishes perspectives, namely Kachru's (Reference Kachru, Quirk and Widdowson1985) Three-Circle model and Schneider's (Reference Schneider2003, Reference Schneider2007) Dynamic Model of Englishes. This introduction of the models offers a great starting point for those new to World Englishes and a refresher to those more familiar with these models, which are frequently mentioned throughout this handbook in theorising the Englishes that exist in various multilingual environments in present-day SEA. What is also noteworthy in the chapters comprising Part I is how the authors grapple with and challenge these theoretical frameworks. This handbook is perfectly placed to ‘put to the test’ many of these frameworks that World Englishes scholars have followed, given the wildly differing experiences of each nation under colonisation (and subsequently decolonisation), along with these nations’ varying goals in economic and social development towards the 21^st century. For example, while Schneider's (Reference Schneider2003, Reference Schneider2007) model was once limited to considering only countries within the Outer Circle, given their colonial histories under English-speaking colonial powers, the more recent Extra- and Intra-territorial forces model (Buschfeld, Kautzsch, and Schneider Reference Buschfeld, Kautzsch, Schneider and Deshors2018) posits that Expanding-Circle countries can go through the five stages of Schneider's model given the colonising force of the English language through globalisation in the 21^st century. How Schneider's model is applicable to Expanding-Circle countries is shown in Part II.

Part II will be of great interest to scholars of World Englishes as it provides a description of the various Englishes that are spoken across modern day SEA, covering issues from their respective histories of English contact to distinct features of these Englishes. While it deals with several well known varieties in Outer-Circle countries that have been the subject of much research, such as Singapore English and Philippine English, this section also goes into detail regarding the lesser known Englishes, specifically those that would fall under the Expanding Circle category of Kachru's (Reference Kachru, Quirk and Widdowson1985) Three-Circle model.

Part III introduces the development of the English literary scene in the Outer-Circle SEA nations, where there has been a prominent presence of the English language, specifically Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. The chapters of Part III provide historical context in delineating the growth of literatures across these nations, which started first from expatriate writers in the colonial era, then evolved with the home-grown talent of SEA natives’ English literatures in their struggles for independence and beyond the post-colonial era. This part of the handbook illustrates how SEA nations that are typically not considered ‘native’ speakers of English – especially when considering that they are not Inner-Circle speakers when following Kachru's (Reference Kachru, Quirk and Widdowson1985) Three-Circle model – can take ownership of this language that was once a tool of colonial oppression and harness it as a means of self-expression through literature. Some linguists might think that the few chapters in this part of the handbook will perhaps be of little relevance given its subject matter, but I would urge readers to consider reading this small, albeit poignant, part in this handbook. Language is, after all, the medium of literature, and this part provides rich details of the literary scenes in countries such as the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia that add much to the perspectives of World Englishes, especially in ownership of these Englishes, which goes beyond what is typically covered in chiefly ‘linguistic’ volumes.

While Chapter 7 of Part I briefly covers the landscape of education and educational policies throughout SEA, Part IV delves into greater detail on each SEA nation's reality regarding English language education. While data can be easily collected online regarding English-language policies and the institutionalisation of the English language de jure, chapters of Part IV are successful in bringing to light the position that English occupies on the ground as the de facto reality of English in SEA. I appreciate the authors’ highlighting of the sociological factors surrounding English language education in Expanding-Circle countries, specifically in how social class can greatly affect the type of education each individual student will experience. Some countries may lack the support and infrastructure to uphold the governmental promises in making English a more important language across the board, and this is where private classes and international school systems come in to perpetuate further inequality. In a marketplace of English education, the more financially capable have greater access to learning the language more effectively as a gateway to better economic opportunity.

Part V highlights the various domains in which the English language has made a foothold in SEA across law and business, and for other communicative purposes. English is not just a lingua franca for communication between diverse groups of people, but it serves an ideological role, as these chapters will show. Chapters 34 and 40, for example, describe the use of English in SEA advertising and linguistic landscapes, which specifically show how the English language indexes ideological values rather than just being a means of communication. Businesses and advertisements that use and feature more of the English language – which is sometimes juxtaposed with the native languages of these SEA nations – are considered modern and ‘with the times’, and in some cases even position themselves as superior due to such modernisation purportedly associated with this ‘international’ language.

The handbook ends with Part VI, which may be the smallest of the six overarching sections, but provides the most direct line to current resources in the further study of Southeast Asian Englishes, largely in the department of corpus linguistics. The Asian Corpus of English and the Southeast Asian components of the International Corpus of English are highlighted as established resources that can be tapped into for further research into SEA Englishes. Step-by-step instructions on how to access and utilise the corpus are provided, along with relevant critiques of the various limitations that are still present in harnessing such resources. While this is already a highly elaborate handbook, the comprehensive research bibliography in this part can also direct readers to relevant journals and many foundational scholarly works surrounding English in SEA. This resource is neatly categorised for each nation in the region as well as for multinational topics, which makes it a convenient index for those that intend to research the various SEA Englishes in greater detail.

The Oxford Handbook of Southeast Asian Englishes is doubtlessly a robust resource for any scholar that intends to study any facet of the English language within the context of Southeast Asia – be it as a whole, or in the breadth of just one to few Southeast Asian countries. The handbook equips readers with the various frameworks that World Englishes scholars have been using for many years, and it also provides deep insights into the state of Englishes in SEA today while also providing rich details on the historical context of what has influenced the languages in the region. While each chapter is self-contained and can be read separately, as is customary with most handbooks, the way this handbook is ordered makes it suitable for those that intend to read from cover to cover. The handbook chronologically starts with all the historical context required to set up a solid foundation to understand the place of English in SEA; only then does it bring up the various models to make sense of how these Englishes have developed and what roles they play today. Once the reader is equipped with this knowledge, the handbook concludes by providing tools and other supplementary materials for further study and even conducting their own independent research on the Englishes of SEA. With various Englishes of SEA still undergoing change and possibly stabilising, as in Schneider's (Reference Schneider2003, Reference Schneider2007) model, there is certainly room for further editions of this volume in the future with the goal of updating the various states of English that are still in flux within SEA today.