Introduction: English Spreading at the Grassroots

This chapter highlights the novelty of the approach of investigating English at the grassroots in World Englishes research, as opposed to the traditional view of associating English with access to higher education and high status in a society. The notion of "grassroots" is defined, and historical patterns of the spread of English in different types of communities are outlined. A distinction is drawn between a wider notion of "English at the grassroots", heterogeneous language forms produced by non-elitist speakers, and the narrower concept of "grassroots Englishes" proper, typically associated with acquisition through natural interaction, driven by a strong instrumental motivation to obtain better jobs, characteristic social settings in the service industry and in tourism, and typical structural patterns, often perceived as reduced. The paper briefly surveys earlier work on related topics, research gaps, and the contributions offered by the papers in this volume.