Legitimacy of varieties of English as a non-native language

The article discusses the status of varieties of a pluricentric language, such as Russian English, Chinese English, among others. Some linguists waive this status because the language system of these varieties is not based on their own norms but is grounded on the norms of other varieties, either British or American. However, speakers of these varieties use them as lingua francas for communication and their Englishes are easily recognized as non-British or non-American, i.e., their varieties serve for linguacultural identification of the users. This is due to the fact that each variety is underpinned by the users’ culture and mindset and reflects traces of the users’ native languages, which allows us to make a conclusion that local varieties are not bound to the “political map” of the region (one of the critical arguments against world Englishes) but they are associated with their ethnic cultures. The article is an analytical review of the debatable issues of the World Englishes paradigm, English as a Lingua Franca theory, and English as an International Language concept. It aims to reveal factors that make it possible to recognize Expanding Circle varieties, to state the major features and functions of Russian English. The author focuses on some practical textbooks aimed at teaching world Englishes and their cultures. The method of corpus analysis of Russian English was used. Quantitative and comparative analysis of research articles in the leading sociolinguistic journals ( World Englishes and English Today ) was conducted to reveal the overwhelming predominance of Chinese English research as compared with that of Russian English. The author concludes that world Englishes of the Expanding Circle are legitimate varieties that have variable exonorms. Certain trends for their endonorms to start forming are revealed.