Can the Expanding Circle Own English? Comments on Yoo’s ‘Nonnative Teachers in the Expanding Circle and the Ownership of English’

Abstract

Yoo’s (2014) article raises a number of questions concerning local teachers’ status and the ownership of English in the Expanding Circle. In this article, I address five issues that I see as most important relating to the ownership of English and empowering local teachers in the Expanding Circle. I provide up-to-date evidence of World Englishes and English as a lingua franca (ELF) research and respond to skepticism and fallacies in Yoo’s paper. This article demonstrates the necessity and benefit of accepting ELF users’ ownership of English in the Expanding Circle.