This issue presents a selection of articles on English in various contexts and settings, with a significant focus on education in the first four. Susan Van Rooy describes the language experiences of South Korean academics and their families in a small town in South Africa, and the consequences of their stay abroad for their English language proficiency. She reminds us that not all EFL learners of English have the ‘Inner Circle’ mainstream as their model: Potchefstroom, South Africa offers a mix between Inner and Outer Circle, probably having more features of the latter. Christian Burrows writes about methodologies of EFL classrooms in Japan, where cultural constraints make TBL (Task-Based Learning) more challenging than its Western proponents realise. The next two articles emphasise the need to pay attention to colloquial spoken language. Manfred Markus writes about the need to focus on phonetic accuracy in EFL teaching, or at least to try and replicate mainstream norms as much as possible. Fan Xianlong contributes a paper on the ever-changing spoken norms of the mainstream, based on his experiences as a visiting scholar in the United States. Although many of the features he describes are well known to Western sociolinguists, the article presents a refreshing perspective of how complex the notion of ‘target language’ must be to users of ESL and EFL. More often it is a moving and mystifying target, with its cultural and political minefields that find their way into everyday usage.

Learners of English from ‘Expanding Circle’ countries like South Korea find new opportunities of advancing their English. There is a considerable body of knowledge about the experiences of students who go abroad to continue to learn their language of choice in a natural setting where it is the dominant language. The current position of English as the most dominant international language results in a new phenomenon related to language learning abroad. It is reported that children, and sometimes families, travel abroad to countries where they believe they could improve their English proficiency. This phenomenon seems to be particularly true for learners of English in traditional Expanding Circle contexts, for example, South Korea, where the increase in the status of English is widely reported in academic.

A study of the need for attention to cultural aspects of task-based learning and teaching of English as a foreign language. In recent years applied linguistics has seen a move away from a linguistic syllabus to one built around the sequencing of real-life, communicative tasks. This shift, it is argued, offers a richer exposure to language use, while providing the motivation required for students to build on their existing language repertoire. Proponents claim this use of the language satisfies what is known about second language acquisition, by furnishing contexts that make the learning process closer to real-life language situations, as: ‘People of all ages learn languages best, inside or outside a classroom, by not treating the languages as an object of study, but by experiencing them as a medium of communication.’ (Long & Robinson, 1998:18)

An analysis of the need for attention to the spoken word and phonetics in the teaching of English world-wide. It is a truism that English is increasingly becoming a world language. Even in China a ‘craze for English’ has been, in view of the fact that over 200 million children (about 20% of all children in the world) now1 learn English in Chinese schools. McArthur has estimated that c.250 million Indians use English every day. All these speakers of English use it their own way. This localisation of English has been variously detected, for example in Hong Kong. It is also well known from versions of African English and, in fact, from most English varieties that have been attributed to the ‘Outer’ or ‘Extended. However, as early as 1983 Kachru voiced a caveat: ‘A large majority of the non-native speakers of institutionalised varieties of English use a local variety of English, but when told so, they are hesitant to accept the fact’.

This paper investigates the notion of ‘translated English’, in contrast to ‘non-translated English’. Its focal point is that translated English texts differ from comparable non-translated texts in English, the target language (TL), in the sense that they have specific properties that cannot be found in the latter. Translated English, therefore, is a distinct variety of English. What makes it distinct is that, on the one hand, translated English texts, regardless of the source language (SL), have been found to share significant lexical, syntactic, and textual features and, on the other hand, they are inevitably SL-specific, exhibiting unique characteristics due to, among other factors, features of the source language and the translation tradition involved.

Changing trends in colloquial American English from the viewpoint of a visitor and their implications for teaching of English in China. Knowing that language changes and an appreciation of current changes is of great importance for foreign-language learners as it helps enable them to have a good command of the current language so as to strengthen their ability to communicate with native speakers with facility. The reality Chinese learners of English face is, however, that they hardly have opportunities to be exposed to natural spoken forms of the target language around them, let alone access to its current changing trends. This paper aims to present such information. Based on the investigation I made among native English-speaking Americans, it tries, from a descriptive pragmatic point of view, to give an account of some salient trends of American English in daily communication. It takes everyday spoken American English as the object of study, for it is the kernel part of the language for social interaction. It is this part of the language that first undergoes changes in response to various social events, and that, having much to do with the study of language use, deserves our special attention.

An examination of the give and take between local varieties and the expectations of classroom English. Like a microcosm of World Englishes, English in Malaysia is spoken in a multitude of accents characterizing different ethnic groups, socio-economic, education, language and geographical backgrounds. It is also not unusual for Malaysians to accent-switch according to context. Amidst the cacophony of local accents arise issues about whether such accents are correct or good or acceptable. This paper discusses the tension between speaking English with a Malaysian accent and the need for a pronunciation model from another variety, typically British English, in the teaching of English in Malaysia. Based on ongoing research on the pronunciation of Malaysian English, this paper suggests how this tension can be alleviated.

The English language has developed and spread around the world as a global language. As a variety of English in China, it has also formed some distinct features. This paper first introduces the status quo of the English language in China, and then by analysing the use of four Chinglish idioms on the Internet, argues that the use of Chinglish idioms can be more expressive in some settings. The Internet use of Chinglish idioms shows the actual state of language diversity and creativity, and more significantly, it reflects Chinese identity.

The Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, India organized a symposium/dialogue on English in India and Indian English held during January 4–6, 2007 at the The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore, India. It was devoted to a discussion of the issues addressed in the keynote paper by Rajendra Singh, which some 23 scholars from throughout the world had been invited to respond to. Although a few of the invited scholars were not able to attend, they were kind enough to send their papers and we had a very productive and lively discussion in which the academic staff of CIIL and local journalists, students, and educationists also participated. This report is organized as follows: in section 1, we summarize the keynote address and all the full-length responses to it; in section 2, we summarize the brief comments and observations that were presented or tabled by the invited respondents; in section 3, we offer concluding remarks and a brief summary of Singh's responses to the interventions summarized in sections 1 and 2.

Some religious etymologies in English.

Whatever religious beliefs we hold or do not hold, there is no denying the fact that all cultures are affected to a greater or lesser degree by religion. Whether or not we attend church on a Sunday, the mosque on a Friday or the synagogue on the Sabbath the language we use during the rest of the week will be peppered with words and phrases which can be traced back to religious rites and practices of one sort or another. In the case of English, which has absorbed some of the vocabulary of most of the main religions in the world, the dominant influence has to be Christianity. And because the early church texts and documents were frequently written in, and heavily dependant upon, Latin and ancient Greek their influence is still detected in many of the religious and cultural references we make in everyday speech.