Applied linguistics and world Englishes in Singapore and Malaysia in the 21st century

Abstract The trajectories of the English language in Singapore and Malaysia have undergone different developmental paths since English first arrived in both countries. Although they have a shared history, divergent language planning and policies in each country have resulted in varietal differences in Singapore English and Malaysian English. This article compares research done in the 21st century on each variety in the realm of applied linguistics and world Englishes. We also discuss possible future research directions in the Englishes of both varieties that can help both countries to address relevant issues faced, such as how research on the varieties can help build the necessary varietal language models generated by artificial intelligence for applications in the health industry and the urgent importance of future research helping to shed light on ethical, diverse, inclusive and sustainable approaches to the teaching and learning of languages in multilingual and multicultural global contexts of communication.