Research on World Englishes (WE) covers a wide range of subdisciplines in linguistics, from traditional English studies through corpus linguistics, dialectology and features-based approaches, the sociology of language, pidgin and creole studies, applied linguistics, critical linguistics, and English as an international language (EIL), to English as a lingua franca (ELF) (Bolton, Reference Bolton, Low and Pakir2018). One of the major difficulties in WE research is the diverse interdisciplinarity in the field, which means that WE researchers have to deal with ‘a high degree of diversity with reference to WE research and WE research methodologies’ (p. xi). Although WEs are now an established subdiscipline within linguistics, there are few papers on WE research methodologies. For WE researchers, especially novice ones, there is therefore an urgent need for methodologically oriented guides.

Fortunately, Investigating World Englishes Research Methodology and Practical Applications, a timely methodological guide to WE research, may fill this gap. It methodologically focuses on the three selected areas within WE research, that is, corpus linguistics, ethnographic approaches, and the use of surveys and questionnaires. This book aims to provide an accessible and practical methodological guide to WE research for graduate students and researchers interested in WE. In the following text, we will briefly introduce and analyse the chapters and review the features and the weaknesses of the book as a whole.

Chapter 1 ‘World Englishes, ELF, and EIL’ provides an overview of WE research's three key paradigms, which are titled by the title of this chapter. The authors, Crowther and Maloney, briefly review several specific methodologies common to these paradigms. They explain that although the past ten to 15 years have witnessed a ‘methodological turn’ (Byrnes, Reference Byrnes2013) that has enormously increased quantitative and qualitative SLA research practices, many discussions of key themes in WE research (e.g., identity, pronunciation, variation) still put minimal emphasis on the actual ways in which they are investigated.

Part I ‘Methods of empirical inquiry’ is composed of chapters 2 to 4 and elaborates on the core concepts and theoretical backgrounds of three methods used in WE research. Chapter 2 ‘Corpus approaches to World Englishes: a bird's-eye view’ traces the development of corpus-based approaches to WE research, showing how corpus-based approaches became a sub-field within WE research. Readers may benefit a lot from the detailed accounts of the strengths and weaknesses explored in this chapter. Maloney and Kessler, in Chapter 3 ‘Ethnography: Connecting the local and the global’, expound on how WE research is informed by ethnography and ethnographic methods, especially for researchers examining the local contexts and the experiences of individuals speaking various varieties of English. In addition, the strengths and weaknesses of these methods are discussed, offering insight to novice WE researchers. At the very end of this chapter, a timeline of research articles using ethnography or ethnographic methods is provided. This is immensely helpful for novice WE researchers seeking to grasp the development of such methods. Chapter 4 ‘The use of surveys and questionnaires in World Englishes research’ moves on to explore the use of surveys and questionnaires in WE research. Both are considered ‘methodological tools for participant elicitation in the specific areas of WE within which they have been employed’ (p. 66). The chapter starts with a historical overview of how these tools have been used in WE research, and then explains their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, pointers on the application of the two methods are provided.

Part II ‘Usage of methodological tools in empirical research’ proceeds to further illustrate the actual use of the previously discussed methods in WE research. To begin, Bernaisch and Deshors, in Chapter 5 ‘Applying corpus methods to explore World Englishes: A practical perspective’, illustrate how corpus linguistic methods evolved from more traditional frequency-based studies to sophisticated statistical tools, such as regression and classification, in the search to much better understand the linguistic structures of WE. Through the lens of four sample studies demonstrating corpus linguistic techniques, they show the gradual methodological shift within the field ‘from form-based analytical foci towards analyses-based on a wide range of linguistics features’ (p. 87). Kessler and Maloney, in Chapter 6 ‘The use of ethnography in World Englishes’, alert readers to the challenges pertaining to conducting ethnography and critically review four sample studies adopting ethnographic approaches. Some challenges in conducting ethnographic research are also discussed. In Chapter 7 ‘On attitudes, intelligibility, and perception: Cases of studies in World Englishes using surveys and questionnaires’, Tan concentrates on how WE researchers apply surveys and questionnaires to examinations of language attitudes, intelligibility, and phonetics. This shows that WE research is unique in that questionnaires and surveys are commonly conducted with additional stimuli, such as recordings. Since questionnaires and surveys can elicit a large amount of data quickly, easily, and cheaply, their use as methodological tools is increasing within WE research.

Turning to WE research in the classroom, Part III ‘Usage of methodological tools in empirical research’ focuses on pedagogical inquiry in WE. The increasing global use of English causes a greater emphasis on how WEs are addressed in both second and foreign language learning contexts. Chapter 8 ‘Addressing pedagogical inquiry in World Englishes’ begins with an overview of themes common to pedagogical inquiry in WE and then critiques three sample studies, which respectively characterise the use of corpora, questionnaires, and ethnographic tools in WE pedagogical inquiry.

To sum up, the aforementioned eight chapters in this volume emphasize the following: (1) the question of methodology occupies a similar position at the heart of linguistics, sociolinguistics and applied linguistics, so a principled approach to conceptualizing and collecting data underpins WE research; (2) the value of methodologies research lies not only in understanding data collection practices but also in understanding the assumptions underpinning theory and ultimately the nature of WE; and (3) the assumptions made explicitly or implicitly in the chapters of this volume give a good sense of some of the different ways in which WEs are constructed within sociolinguistics and applied linguistics.

This recently published methodology guide to WE, Investigating World Englishes Research Methodology and Practical Applications, is commendable for four reasons. First, it provides a comprehensive and practical introduction to the three methods applied in WE research, namely corpus approaches, ethnography, and survey and questionnaire approach. In addition, one of the features of the book is the ‘study box’ in chapters 5 to 8. Sample studies in text boxes in each chapter in part II and part III are used to exemplify how the chosen methodologies are used by WE researchers. In the ‘study box’, an introduction of each sample study is followed by a critique of it, which is particularly useful for novice WE researchers’ grasp of the strengths and weaknesses of the given methods and ability to replicate WE empirical studies. Furthermore, each chapter in Part II and Part III also offers five annotated sources from methodology focused books that would further enhance understanding of the given methodology. And finally, there are no obscure terms in the book. The key terms relating to WE or the three methodologies covered are clearly explained and illustrated, so readers can easily understand this book. However, it needs to be noted that the book may not be accessible to readers with little previous knowledge of WE, applied linguistics, and corpus linguistics, as it assumes substantial prior knowledge. Lacking knowledge of the history of WE, the evolution of applied linguistics methodologies and WE theories would therefore make it harder to understand. This book would also have been improved by an appendix and an index to the corpora, the corpus tools and statistical tools used in the book. This would be immensely useful for readers who lack corpus linguistics knowledge when using the book. In conclusion, this book is readable and instructive, and is especially suitable for graduate students, scholars, and researchers interested in WE research.