ABSTRACT
The world Englishes (WE) paradigm will designate English in Bangladesh as a national variety i.e. Bangladeshi English. However, WE has been critiqued from various perspectives including language as situated practice, suggesting that WE prioritises English-only and form-focused language use. This chapter is pitched against this theoretical juncture and investigates the different ways in which English is used in the virtual space occupied by Bangladeshi schools. The examination leads to identifying Southern ways of English in this domain. Southern theory and other epistemologies of the South challenge Western hegemony and call for understanding social phenomena including language from Southern perspectives. Applied to English, Southern epistemologies help to illuminate how English is understood as a language, how it relates to other languages and meaning-making processes, and how English is utilised for instrumental as well as socio-cultural goals. The chapter utilises text analysis of over two dozen school websites using four features of English as a Southern language to illustrate the pursuit of these goals. The grounded understanding of English demonstrates how it deviates from Northern, native-speakerist views of English and its local representation by elite institutions.
