Are the other varieties of English under threat from the United States? This paper reviews the place of the United States of America (her English and culture) in the contemporary world, especially with regard to the spread and use of the English language. World War II and its aftermath raised America to the height of political, economic, commercial, technological strength which saw the transformation of English from being a reserve of the British Isles and their queen, to a code of international linguistic transaction. English today is no longer just spreading world-wide, but is overwhelmingly adopting a predominant American touch, given the pride and prestige of the American lifestyle and pop culture. This paper therefore observes that in a quite foreseeable future the world Englishes will gradually subsume their heterogeneous identities into the sweeping current of the American variety of English.

‘Botti vietati agli under 14,’ La Repubblica, 29 Dec 03. The aim of this work is to examine the use of English loan words in a specific genre of language: parts of an Italian newspaper. In essence, it looks at how English is encroaching on one among many languages – and occurring in their texts. The key question is: ‘In a specific context, what are loanwords?’, in terms of which we will consider genre as it is exemplified in newspapers, following which there is an analysis of loan words used in the different sections of an Italian newspaper

Distinctive developments in an Arab sultanate. Relatively few people around the world react with instant recognition when the Sultanate of Oman is mentioned. This may however be changing as international news media focus ever more strongly on events in the Arab world and on the strategic significance of the Persian Gulf. There are many who misunderstand the spoken word ‘Oman’ as ‘Amman’ and therefore think erroneously of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Oman, however, is a beautiful and hospitable country possessing white sand beaches, rugged mountain ranges, breathtaking cave systems, a long and somewhat surprising history, and an English of its own.

Japan not only borrows words from English; it often changes them radically. The present study reviews both the historical background to contact between English and Japanese and the periods in which English loans entered the Japanese language. Such loans are particularly significant sociolinguistically because they shed light on the exposure of the Japanese to English since they opened up to the world. Discussing the inflow of such borrowings both provides a background to the many English-derived words currently in daily use in Japanese and makes a broader point about the adoption of loanwords as a cultural process involving both acculturation and deculturation.

Native speakers of English are a minority; there are far more non-native speakers in the world (cf. Kachru 1997, Pennycook 2001). In addition, native speakers' standard or ‘correct’ English, in terms of its grammar and phonology, is not always useful or even appropriate in international contexts (cf. Gisborne 2000, Newbrook 1998, Shim 1999). However, despite global changes in the use of the language, the norms for ENL (English as a Native Language) remain dominant, most notably for the assessment of oral proficiency. Yet it is a major deficiency in the use of international oral tests that the proficiency of non-native speakers is measured against unrealistic and irrelevant standards (cf. Jenkins, 1996). The present paper focuses on the need to revisit the testing of English oral proficiency for non-native speakers, bearing in mind that English is used for world-wide communication and that being able to understand one another (cf. McKay, 2002) is the most important goal.

Some perspectives from an English educator. Since the implementation of the policy of reform and opening up, and China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), China has been gaining strength quickly in the international, political, and economic arena. Globalization has led to China taking part in varous kinds of international cooperation and exchange. At the same time, globalization and the Internet have been providing a novel context in which to use English as an international language. Under such circumstances, the Chinese are using more English than ever before, and China English is being simultaneously localized and globalized. Like any other language, China English is a living entity or organism that is not only growing and progressing in the ‘Information Age’, but is also making a contribution that is enriching and developing world Englishes at large. Indeed, China English now plays a significant role in increasing international understanding and cooperation within the WTO and in the whole world.

Is a vast new variety of the language emerging? As the learning of English becomes a hot issue in China, linguists there and elsewhere have become interested in ‘China English’ – a relatively new concept. However, whether English as used in China has yet acquired the status of a distinct new variety of the language remains an open question. This paper reviews the acceptability of such an English, both at home and abroad, which has the potential (it is argued) to be accepted as a standard variety.

ENGLISH is the most commonly used language in the world. As it has become the language that provides access to higher education and job opportunities, and has become almost exclusively the language of diplomatic discussion and business negotiation (cf. English APEC Strategic Plan, 2004), there has been a growing interest in hiring native-speaking English Teachers (NSETs) in Asian countries. The aim of this paper is to report policies and practices that invite NSETs to Asian countries, including China and Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, with emphasis on public education sectors. Through surveying both similar policies and the implementation of policies in several Asian countries, we seek to find practical suggestions for hiring NSETs. We survey policy goals, recruitment procedures, and the qualifications of NSETs. The analysis will be based on the premise that ‘language planning cannot be understood without reference to its social contexts’ (Cooper, 1989:3).

This paper attempts to answer some questions that are likely to be useful in electing a norm for English at the syntactic level, such as how to distinguish between a norm and an error, where to start talking of indigenized English within a continuum, and whether the insistence on recurrence as yardstick is appropriate. I challenge the educated-usage criteria and assert that mainstream Cameroon English can only be elected in terms of the democratic and least-effort criterion. This criterion favours what I have called Community English, as against Institutional English.