On February 17, 2018, the China International Publishing Group (CIPG), an organization under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee, released a report on the most recognized Chinese words in the English-speaking world. The data for ‘A report on the awareness of Chinese discourse overseas’ (中国话语海外认知度调研报告) were obtained from two resources, i.e. (1) a number of articles selected from 50 mainstream media, and (2) questionnaires distributed in eight English-speaking countries, including the US, the UK, Australia, the Philippines, South Africa, Canada, Singapore, and India. It should be noted that the report only investigates the usage and understanding of Chinese words in their Pinyin forms (China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration, 2018).

In this article, I look at two concepts from functional linguistic that are often confused: genre and register. I look at what the concepts mean, how they differ, and how they can be used for the analysis of texts.

The last decade has witnessed a significant increase of research on English as a lingua franca (ELF) as today's world becomes progressively more globalized (Lei & Liu, 2018). However, studies on ELF in the Chinese contexts remain sparse although linguistic research in China has kept pace with the development of international linguistic academia. Moreover, many researchers studying ELF-informed teaching in China are either non-Chinese scholars or researchers working in countries other than China (Si, 2019). In other words, this newly emerged field of research has not yet been widely embraced by Chinese scholars, nor its paradigm has been promoted in English education while traditional native-English-based teaching has been challenged and initiatives have been taken to promote English education within the ELF paradigm in many countries in the expanding circle (see e.g., Sifakis & Tsantila, 2019). In this paper, we address the issue through identifying various hindrances to teaching ELF in Chinese classroom and analyzing the factors leading to the difficulties and problems with implementing the ELF-informed teaching in Chinese context. Following this, we explore the prospects for taking advantage of the pedagogical value of ELF research in the foreseeable future.

The author wonders whether English is becoming as universal as is often claimed? Demand for English and American language centers has increased around the world, and TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) is now administered regularly in many metropolises. To ensure that their students are competitive, economically affluent countries have invested lots of money in the latest audio-visual technology while also recruiting the most competent teachers of English as a second or foreign language. South Korea has stood out in contracting American and British teachers to provide interaction-with-native-speaker experience to its students via satellite while European countries have benefited greatly from student exchange programs that enable their students to improve their competence by immersion in native socio-economic ecologies. Equally noteworthy are financial and emotional sacrifices endured by many, chiefly Korean, families whose mothers/wives and school-age children live in Anglophone countries so that the children can develop native competence in English. The relevant parents assume that as the world-wide market value of English continues to rise, every young person anywhere will need it, at least as a lingua franca, and the more fluent ones will have a competitive edge over their peers. Pop culture will undoubtedly have contributed its share to this rise of its market value.

THIS paper describes the frequency of languages other than Portuguese in shop signs located in six towns, all in northwestern Portugal and close to the border with Spain, each ranging in size from a year-round population of 600 to one of 4,400. One of the towns, Fermentelos, lies slightly southeast of Aveiro. The other five – Afife, Arcos de Valdevez, Caminha, Ponte da Barca, and Vila Praia de Ancora – are north of Porto. The most frequently occurring non-Portuguese phrase in this six-town project was snack bar.

WHILE recent articles and research studies on Singapore Colloquial English (SCE, or simply ‘Singlish’) have so far tended to focus on the structure, grammar and the functional roles of Singlish in Singapore, this paper presents an insider's viewpoint of this local variety from a perspective that incorporates both linguistic ideology and cultural politics. Focusing on the spoken version at the basilectal end of the English speech continuum, the article attempts to explore Singlish from a cultural-political viewpoint and challenges popular belief that Singlish encapsulates an established Singapore identity. In the process, it throws up some insights about language, identity and culture. Based on two significant contributing factors to the unmarked use of Singlish in Singapore, the paper argues that – more than just a language used for wider intra-communication in this tiny republic and city state – this variety, with its odd mix of English and local ethnic languages, mirrors a people who find themselves struggling with a myriad conflicting and contrasting cultures, a people in cultural and linguistic flux, who are still searching – desperately – for an identity, and a language they can call their own.

To follow Philip Benson's account of Malaysian English in ET24, a review of the position of English in what was once the Dutch East Indies.

THE DEMOGRAPHICS of the English language are well known, and the following approximations are based on figures, always provisional, projected by Crystal, Graddol, and McArthur. Anglophones (to use a broader term than ‘native’ or ‘mother tongue’ speakers of English – terms which in any case pose problems) make up some 12% of the global population. Speakers of English in the UK constitute about 16% of the 380 or so million Anglophones worldwide. In the UK, some 2% of the population speaks English as a second language, and perhaps only 15% regularly speaks a southern British form of standard English. Only a small minority of these have a form of Received Pronunciation (RP) as their normal accent, even though RP is predicated as the basis of ‘phonics’ in initial literacy, and is assumed to be the default accent in the second-language teaching of British English, in the UK and elsewhere (with however the notable exception of North America).

For second language learners, the value of the explicit teaching of English grammar has never been questioned. However, in recent times there has been dissent about whether or not to teach English grammar to native speakers. From the late 1960s onwards English grammar teaching in the United Kingdom largely disappeared from the curriculum, and was replaced by teachers focusing on students learning to express themselves. This was in the main not a bad thing, because it made students active participants in their own learning, and they were expected to think critically and express themselves well. The teaching of grammar, with its emphasis on rules, drilling and learning by rote, was seen as conformist, dull and unnecessary, and this view seemed to be confirmed by research into the effectiveness of grammar teaching.

Neville thought of showing Kate's letter to Miss Mellerby, but when he read it a second time he made up his mind that he would keep it to himself. The letter was all very well, and as regarded the expressions towards himself, just what it should be. But he felt that it was not such a letter as Miss Mellerby would have written herself… He was a little ashamed of his Kate, and he thought that Miss Mellerby might perceive her ignorance if he shewed that letter.Anthony Trollope, An Eye for an EyeI am proud of my remedial students' writing. There are often moments and occasionally entire essays where the student, amused or moved and communicating her feelings, moves me to laughter or tears.

This paper investigates the English language spoken by four educated Japanese speakers from an acoustic phonetic perspective. We look closely at how they pronounce and connect segments in reading a short text. Because English has the status of an international language, it is actively used for various purposes within and across countries. English speakers are therefore not necessarily native speakers but have a different first language (L1); English is a second (L2) or foreign language (FL) for them. There are increasing numbers of studies on Japanese English (JE), particularly from attitudinal and perceptual angles (e.g. Tokumoto & Shibata, 2011; Matsuura et al., 2014), but, as McKenzie (2013: 228) notes, there is a dearth of research that documents, or systematically characterizes, the English produced by Japanese speakers.

In Malaysia, English on the Internet is creating its own hybrid variety.

The Internet has been described as not just a technological revolution, but also a social. Different modes of communication on the internet such as chat, blogs and Twitter are speedily overtaking traditional forms of communication for both professional and leisure activities. In response to the communicative limitations of technology, a unique form of communication has emerged involving the use of new word forms, structures and styles of expression.

This paper discusses the impact of technology on English in Malaysia by examining data samples from blogs, chats/instant messages (IM), e-mails and text messages. We highlight the distinctive features of Malaysian English users from different ethnic groups in this medium. Since Malaysians are generally bilingual and multilingual, we examine how and when different languages are used and comment on the innovation and creativity involved. It is hypothesised that technology impacts on this variety of English which has itself arisen from the globalisation of English, further shaping it, and thus giving rise to new blends and new styles of communication.

A fresh perspective on the prescription-versus-description debate, including a new approach to such pronominal (ab)use as ‘between you and I’

THIS paper examines English language policy in Africa from colonial times to the present day. Colonial policy was marked by a linguistic apartheid which consisted in driving Africans away from the language, first by limiting access to formal education, then by not showing much enthusiasm for teaching them the language, then at times preferring to encourage Pidgin English, and finally by encouraging deviant features. Linguistic apartheid continues today through such institutions as the BBC, whose African Network Service openly promotes deviant African features through their jingles, the employment of African correspondents with deeply local English features, and the reading of unedited letters from listeners that contain substandard features. More subtle ways of promoting such apartheid include the negligible weight of the English language in school curricula.

Discussion about the official or national language in Tanzania is basically a discussion about Kiswahili and English. These two languages have been competing for official status in Tanzania since Tanganyika (Tanganyika refers to the Tanzania mainland before it united with Zanzibar in 1964) gained its independence from Britain in 1961 (Rubagumya, 1991; Schmied 1991: 195; Mulokozi, 2010). Yahya-Othman & Batibo (1996) describe the competition between English and Kiswahili in Tanzania as a swinging pendulum. In a certain period of time, the status of English rises, and in another period of time the status of Kiswahili rises, and vice versa.

Linguistic landscape (LL) research has been subject to a great deal of attention since the publication of the well-known research paper by Landry and Bourhis (1997), whose most quoted definition of LL covers diverse linguistic tokens, including but not restricted to government-related inscriptions, street-name signs, commercial signs, and noticeboards. There is an increasing number of contributions on the use of English in many LLs worldwide. However, there are relatively few LL publications on the use of English in the LL in Arabic-speaking countries (but see Al–Naimat & Alomoush, 2018; Alomoush, 2019). The vast majority of previous LL studies in non-Arabic contexts (e.g. Backhaus, 2007; Griffin, 2004; Hasanova, 2010; Jaworksi & Thurlow, 2010; Lanza & Woldemariam, 2014; Ross, 1997; Schlick, 2003) focus on analysing language on fixed or relatively stable signs, such as shop names.

The revised version of an address in April 1992, given jointly at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, to the conference ‘World Englishes Today’ and the ‘Sixth Annual International Conference on Pragmatics and Language Learning’

Cyprus is an island in the Mediterranean Sea where English has the status of the most popular and important foreign language (Tsiplakou, 2009; Fotiou, 2015) and the majority of its inhabitants are literate in English. While a former British colony, it is generally absent from discussions of places where English has had some special relevance due to historical, political, social and economic reasons. For example, while other small countries with a history of British rule, such as Malta and Seychelles, are part of Crystal's (2003: 62–5) list of English speakers in territories where English has had special relevance, Cyprus is absent from that list. This paper aims to fill this gap in the literature by providing an overview of the use of English in various domains, i.e. workplace, education, linguistic landscape, the media, and communication between Greek Cypriots, along with a brief historical background. The latter aims to illustrate how Cyprus was different from many British colonies and how this has affected the status of this language in this setting both now and during the colonization period.

teaching and learning english as a foreign language: an adverse perspective. in china english is viewed as the ‘gatekeeper’ to higher education, employment, economic prosperity and social status. is chinese, as a result, drowning in the sea of english?

Recently, a regional newspaper agency in Mainland China reported on the Chinese celebrity Angelababy by using her English name (Net Ease Entertainment, 2016). A reader complained about this, suggesting that Angelababy's Chinese name needs to be in the report as well. The reader's comment and the name Angelababy went viral on many online news outlets, and comments were posted about the problems associated with such an English name from a large number of Chinese netizens.