Should young people be trained in the English classroom to understand and assess television, cinema, radio and the press? If so, what form should that training take?

In England and Wales, the debate on the English curriculum, between the concerned public and Her Majesty's Inspectors, moves into a second phase that is likely to be as controversial as the first.

In ET6, we reported that English may be superseding Latin as the language through which the Vatican talks to the world. To find out how it fares in one of the world's younger religions, English Today talks to IAN SEMPLE, at the World Centre of the Baha'i Faith in Haifa, Israel.

A wide range of newsletters, clippings and cuttings, catalogues and correspondence arrives (and is welcomed) on ET's editorial desk. From the mass that goes into our files TOM McARTHUR has sorted out a mélange of malapropisms, foreignisms, neologisms, fake languages and odd usages that – somehow or other – come within ET's brief.

The following extract from The Story of English (BBC/Faber, 1986) takes us from the Scotland of James VI in the early 17th century through Northern Ireland to the Appalachians and beyond.

The Dictionary of American Regional English is not only a great national scholarly project but also a pioneering venture in lexicography. How did dialectology and the computer work out together in the preparation of Volume I?

‘Scholars’ views on which dialects are worth studying, even on what is and what isn't a dialect, almost invariably embody some sort of hidden ideological agenda.' Is it so?

Pity the owners of trademarked goods. There is a danger in being too successful. This paradox comes into play when you or I begin to use one of these trademarks to refer to an entire class of products. At this point, the brand name risks becoming generic and the christeners of these products can no longer claim exclusive rights to their names. Competitors are then free to use these names to market similar products.

Ninth in our series on the literatures of English around the world, this survey looks at the special historical, geographical and ethnic factors at work in the literature of Australia. It is taken from A History of Australian Literature (Macmillan UK, St Martins Press USA, 1986).