The major objective of the study is to develop a framework allowing for the systematic investigation of the institutionalised varieties and performance varieties of English (also known as learner Englishes). This involves a detailed description of the forms of English spoken in India and in Russia as well as discussion of sociolinguistic histories and cultural background. Relying on evidence obtained for Indian English and English spoken in Russia, this paper argues that learner Englishes are self-contained forms of English that reflect order and structure within the grammar and need to be documented and studied systematically in analogy to indigenised forms of English. Moreover, the description of both varietal types should take into account various factors relating to the extra-linguistic setting and sociolinguistic history of the variety in question. Finally, the study shows how systematic accounts of a learner variety can provide a sound basis for--and a useful source of--differentiated cross-varietal comparisons with other forms of English. (Contains 3 tables and 4 notes.)