Introduction

We developed this book to help emerging World Englishes (WE) scholars conduct high-quality research. This need to enhance the methodological rigour of WE scholarship and our plan to assemble a practical research guide is timely for several reasons. First, the changing WE landscape, which has gone beyond “areal studies” (i.e., the study of national varieties of English; see Bolton, Foreword, this volume; Davis, Afterword, this volume) to include contemporary topical interests such as the examination of “big data” and political discourses, warrants a corresponding shift in methodologies. Such a shift is necessary to ensure that data are examined in a systematic and principled manner. Put differently, topical diversity in WE research needs to be matched with methodological innovation, diversity, and rigour.