Global Englishes and GenAI
DATE
Wednesday 18 Mar 2026
TIME
3 pm
VENUE
Zoom (link sent after registration)
The global spread of English has produced a diverse linguistic landscape in which most users are plurilingual speakers outside traditional Anglophone contexts. This has prompted the development of the Global Englishes (GE) perspective, which challenges standardised native-speaker norms and seeks to recognise the legitimacy of diverse English varieties. Despite this shift, many educational settings continue to privilege particular forms of English, reinforcing linguistic hierarchies and limiting learners’ sense of ownership. The rapid growth of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has brought renewed urgency to these concerns, as evidence indicates that GenAI tools often reproduce standard language ideologies and marginalise non-dominant English varieties.
In this talk. the speaker will share a twelve-week intervention study he conducted in a GE course for English majors in Hong Kong. Students critiqued GenAI outputs, evaluated AI voice simulators, and designed GE-oriented chatbots. A mixed-methods design used pre/post questionnaires and interviews. Quantitative results showed increased recognition of English pluralism, awareness of how norms relate to power, and understanding of GenAI’s role in linguistic hierarchies. Qualitative results revealed deeper reflexivity and more critical views of GenAI’s effects on norms, minoritised voices, and students’ voice, identity, and authenticity. He will argue that GE-informed pedagogy strengthens students’ critical GenAI literacy and prepares future professionals for AI-mediated communication.