the april 2005 issue, et82, was hardly out when i began to think i'd been premature in what i wrote in its comment. i noted there that the issue ‘had the smallest number of contributions ever listed: seven titles in all, whereas traditionally there have been ten or more’. the reason of course was the length of several of the articles: closer to ‘papers’ in standard academic journals (yet none the worse for it, readability being as safe as ever).

recent developments in malaysia have brought forth many issues vis-à-vis language planning, notably including the return to english as a medium of instruction. the present review addresses current linguistic issues and their implications for malay as the national official language, bringing together linguistics, sociology, education, psychology, communication, geography, history, politics, finance and management, in a nation which is not only multilingual but also multiethnic, multi-religious and multicultural. to make the matter more complex still, the immigrant population is almost as large as the so-called indigenous ‘majority’.

the year 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 in 2001 by the previously little-known director peter jackson and released in three parts between 2001 and 2003 to widespread popular acclaim. the present is the second of three linked discussions of tolkien's work and the media through which it has been channelled. the first appeared as ‘why the film version of the lord of the rings betrays tolkien's novel,’ in et83 (21:3). the third and closing article will appear in et85 (22:1).

this paper examines the concept of globalization in relation to terrorism, and argues that the ‘imposition’ of the english language on the world, africa, and in particular nigeria (through the media, information technology, and other means of propaganda, and under the guise of globalization) is a form of linguistic terrorism. it consequently views globalization as another name for imperialism and domination by the west, and argues that the continued use of english in all spheres of life will make the nigerian state stagnant, if not indeed retrogressive, rendering growth and development elusive. as a step in the direction of a cure, it therefore advocates renewed interest in the adoption of an indigenous national language for nigeria.

this study examines some lexical residues of british colonialism in a language spoken in the western province of cameroon, west africa. the language is w$\tilde{e}$, a dialect within the indigenous language gh[open o]màlà, which is spoken in four villages in the western province of cameroon: bahouan, baham, bayangam and bandjoun. the paper also seeks to answer the question: why are there so many english lexical items in this dialect, changed almost beyond recognition, reminiscent of the presence of the british themselves in cameroon, although this part of the country was formerly under french rule.

is the ultimate logical language still being used – somewhere out there? if you know what the title of this article means, what follows is probably not going to be news to you. if you don't, you might be curious about the language in question, which certainly isn't english, but isn't a foreign language either.

how the polysemous nature of the word quality can cause problems for readers of articles on quality assurance in higher education. scholarly literature on quality assurance in higher education will always run the risk of confusing or repelling non-specialist readers. that is inevitable since, by its nature, such literature often uses technical jargon in dealing with abstract concepts. yet, a further and more fundamental problem exists, one that may not always be recognized by writers in the field: namely, that the word quality itself has different senses, combines with other words, with unusual semantic effects, and can function both as a noun and an adjective. these factors combine to increase the possibility that general readers may misconstrue key points in texts about quality.

the eu recently forced microsoft to issue a second version of its windows xp operating system without a built-in windows media player, ruling that, by bundling its own media player, microsoft was effectively blocking competition from rivals (particularly real player and quicktime). microsoft's monopolistic approach in this case also landed it a fine of €497.2 million ($665m). the wrangling lasted well over a year, during which time windows xp with bundled media player had been sold so widely in europe as to partly invalidate the eu's attempts at stopping the us company monopolising and controlling the market. ‘the second version of windows will reflect what consumers want, and not what microsoft imposes on them,’ was the triumphant but belated comment of mario monti, the former eu commissioner in charge of competition.

teaching a foreign language can sometimes be like doing linguistics the wrong way round. grammatical study should be based on sentences that have been produced and understood in actual contexts. we should expect to find some imprecise, changeable conventions, but not any rules. it can be difficult, though, to teach a language with that outlook. a learner will be dispirited if you suggest just taking language as it comes and learning from experience. learners want rules, as they seem to offer security and a starting-point. of course, once a teacher has been foolish enough to give a rule, any awkwardly enterprising student can easily find justifiable exceptions to it though, of course, they will not really be exceptions to anything.

more tales from a new york writing class. the axe split two ways: half of us against the death penalty, half for it. this i found out by asking the remedial writing-and-reading class to explain on paper how and when they arrived at their current opinion on capital punishment. with most of the students being from overseas, i thought it was important for each to explain his or her culture's or religion's or country's views on the death penalty. then we read – with those opinions and histories staring us in the face – claude gueux.

a very personal story. [this ‘language biography’ is written by a younger academic who teaches in a well-known mainland chinese university, who grew up in a time of great difficulty and change, in which he often felt caught between ideologies, cultures, languages, and literatures, in the course of which however english became a deeply personal possession. in order to retain the authentic voice of the text, editorial ‘smoothing out’ has been kept to a minimum. – editor.]

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?

there are, as it were, three levels in the title of the discussion, each going further ‘out’ from hong kong, although the direction and perspective could as easily have been reversed, moving ‘inwards’ from the world to china to hong kong, one of history's most successful social, cultural, political, and economic anomalies. there could equally easily have been four levels: hong kong, china, asia, and the world, a framework that would even then have been simpler than, say, ‘london, england, the united kingdom, the european union, europe at large, and the world’, but much the same as ‘lagos, nigeria, africa, and the world’ or ‘los angeles, california, the united states, and the world’.