ABSTRACT The English used in the Netherlands, a European Union country, is classified by many linguists as an ESL variety, or, within Kachru's (1985) Three Circles model, as an Outer Circle variety, or as being between an Outer and an Expanding Circle variety. This paper investigates the status of English in the Netherlands through a systematic application of the six criteria used by Kachru (1985) to classify the position of English in a country. The study is based on recent quantitative and qualitative data and shows that English in the Netherlands should be classified as an Expanding Circle variety.
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