BOOK REVIEW: Investigating Unequal Englishes: Understanding, Researching and Analysing Inequalities of the Englishes of the World

While English has become a lingua franca worldwide, it has also led to pervasive inequalities and injustices, as non-native English speakers often face discrimination and stigmatization, with their accents and linguistic variations viewed as inferior to idealized native forms of English (Tupas, 2019). The present book, edited by Ruanni Tupas, is an attempt to address the issues surrounding inequalities in the use of different English varieties. The book is organized into a preface, an introductory chapter, four parts comprising eleven content chapters, and a concluding chapter. The preface introduces the concept of Unequal Englishes (UE) as a critical framework for understanding the global spread and localization of English. In the preface, Tupas emphasizes how English changes as it enters new communities, becoming localized and pluralized. He then introduces UE as a lens to examine power dynamics and inequalities in the use of different Englishes. The introductory chapter, written by Prem Phyak, examines the perspectives of two Nepali teachers regarding English use in their local context. The dialogue between them skillfully captures the tension between their reverence for native English and speakers, and their unease with their own non-native English variety. In the chapter, the teachers' desire to emulate native norms appears to stem from a belief that their local English is somehow "artificial" or "unnatural."