A muchcited and highly influential text by Alastair Pennycook one of the world authorities in sociolinguistics The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language explores the globalization of English by examining its colonial origins its connections to linguistics and applied linguistics and its relationships to the global spread of teaching practices. Nine chapters cover a wide range of key topics including international politics colonial history critical pedagogy postcolonial literature. The book provides a critical understanding of the concept of the worldliness of English or the idea that English can never be removed from the social cultural economic or political contexts in which it is used.