Some observations on ways in which English is arranged and deranged around the world

A consideration of ‘nativeness’, ‘foreignness’, expertise and language allegiance

A discussion of language standards, standard language, and examinations in terms of the National Curriculum for state schools in England and the tensions that have followed in its wake

PETER BARRY considers the half-hidden agenda behind the names given to shoes in Britain

A survey ranging from the revolutionary work of Isaac Pitman in the nineteenth century through spelling reform and global English to the contemporary issue of the world's endangered languages

At the ‘English Usage (Guides) Symposium’, Cambridge 2014, I was invited to account for my revision of Plain Words (Gowers, 2014), the style guide originally written by my great-grandfather, Sir Ernest Gowers (1880–1966). And because, by the time I gave that talk (see Gowers, 2018), I was already writing my own book on the English language, intended as a sort of adjunct to Plain Words, the arguments aired at that Cambridge gathering were particularly interesting to me. That said, they also left me more daunted than ever by my own project.

Cities are the natural homes for linguistic and cultural diversity. Valletta, Malta's capital city and the smallest city in the European Union, is no different. When its foundation stone was laid in 1566 by Grandmaster Jean Parisot de Vallette, it was given the formal title of Humillima Civitas Valettae, but ‘there is little that is humble about the appearance of Valletta, that city “built by gentlemen for gentlemen”’ (Luke, 1968: 65).

The question of which English to teach has been an issue since the late-20th-century advent of the world Englishes (WE) paradigm. In the early 1990s, Quirk and Kachru conducted one of the most significant debates about this controversial issue in applied linguistics. Quirk (1990) argued that only standard native varieties that have no grammar deviations and adhere to mainstream vocabulary usage should be taught in order to counter the contamination of English resulting from tolerance of variations, observing that he was ‘not aware of there being any institutionalized nonnative varieties’ (p. 6). In contrast, Kachru (1991) argued that language variation due to language contact is a common sociolinguistic phenomenon, so Outer Circle varieties are not substandard or deficit languages. Therefore, he contended, traditional notions of standardization are no longer acceptable. He recommended that multiple localized varieties should be taught in Outer Circle contexts because they reflect learners’ linguistic and cultural identity. In relation to Kachru's argument, English as a lingua franca (ELF) has developed as a recent paradigm in TESOL. Kirkpatrick (2012) has argued that a lingua franca approach to English language teaching (ELT) helps prepare learners to use the language successfully in multilingual settings like ASEAN countries, where English functions as a lingua franca. In these settings, the teaching of ELF, in which speakers retain their own grammatical forms, phonological features, and pragmatic norms, needs to be promoted (Kirkpatrick 2011; Kirkpatrick, Subhan & Walkinshaw, 2016).

The third of a four-part gazetteer of the basic geopolitical vocabulary of the English language, dealing with the facts, fancies, fallacies, ambiguities and subtle implications of such words. For convenience of presentation, the material is not always in strict alphabetical order.

2005 marks the 50th anniversary of the original publication of J. R. R. Tolkien's celebrated novel The Lord of the Rings. Voted both ‘the book of the century’ in a poll conducted by the UK book retailer Waterstones in 1997 and ‘The UK's best loved book’ in a BBC survey carried out in 2003, TLOTR was adapted to the screen in 2001 by the previously little-known director Peter Jackson and released in three parts between 2001 and 2003 to widespread popular acclaim. But does the film version of The Lord of the Rings betray both the letter and the spirit of Tolkien's novel?

One never quite knows what will catch on with ET readers and what will pass unremarked. Certainly, Louise Sylvester's piece ‘Unusual and dialect terms for scarecrows’ in ET42 (Apr 95) has prompted a remarkable – and painstakingly detailed – response, in the two replies that follow.

With the change of linguistic, cultural and ethnic landscapes, multilingual, multicultural and multi-ethnic realities are increasing globally. In the case of the UK, the 2011 Census showed that the Asian or Asian British ethnic group category had one of the largest increases since 2001, with a third of the foreign-born population of the UK (2.4 million) now identifying as Asian British (Office for National Statistics, 2013). It is not surprising then, given the aforementioned demographic situation, to see many Asian-origin words in the English language. East Asian words are now entering into the English lexicon with unprecedented speed as a consequence of increased contact between East Asia and the English-speaking world.

SAMUEL AHULU raises some points relating to Edmund O. Bamiro's ‘Innovation in Nigerian English’ (ET39, Jul 94)