世界英語是一個新興的本地化或本土化的英語變體的術語，尤其是在受英國或美國影響的地區發展起來的變體。世界英語的研究包括識別全球不同社會語言學語境中使用的各種英語，分析社會語言學歷史、多元文化背景和功能語境如何影響世界不同地區的英語使用。世界英語問題最早是在1978年提出的，目的是在全球范圍內考察區域英語的概念。適當性、可理解性和可解釋性等語用因素證明英語是一種國際和國內語言。1988年，在夏威夷檀香山舉行的“英語教師對其他語言者”會議上，成立了世界英語研究國際委員會。1992年，在美國伊利諾斯大學舉行的“今日世界英語”會議上，ICWE正式成立了世界英語國際協會(IAWE)。現在有一本學術期刊專門研究這個題目，題目是《世界英語》目前，大約有75個地區在政府、法律和教育等領域將英語作為第一語言(L1)或非官方或制度化的第二語言(L2)使用。隨著英語新品種的不斷發展和發現，世界上英語的總數很難確定。

World Englishes is a term for emerging localized or indigenized varieties of English, especially varieties that have developed in territories influenced by the United Kingdom or the United States. The study of World Englishes consists of identifying varieties of English used in diverse sociolinguistic contexts globally and analyzing how sociolinguistic histories, multicultural backgrounds and contexts of function influence the use of English in different regions of the world.The issue of World Englishes was first raised in 1978 to examine concepts of regional Englishes globally. Pragmatic factors such as appropriateness, comprehensibility and interpretability justified the use of English as an international and intra-national language. In 1988, at a Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, the International Committee of the Study of World Englishes (ICWE) was formed. In 1992, the ICWE formally launched the International Association for World Englishes (IAWE) at a conference of "World Englishes Today", at the University of Illinois, USA.[1] There is now an academic journal devoted to the study of this topic, titled World Englishes.[2]Currently, there are approximately 75 territories where English is spoken either as a first language (L1) or as an unofficial or institutionalized second language (L2) in fields such as government, law and education. It is difficult to establish the total number of Englishes in the world, as new varieties of English are constantly being developed and discovered.