Following up Fred Parrott's article ‘The word-watchers’, in ET 13, a retired publisher looks hard at changing usage.

People complain to the editors of many periodicals about other people's usages. Teachers labour in many institutions to pass on shibboleths that they themselves were taught. Do such dedicated efforts make much difference to the language at large?

A veteran writer argues that the English language owes ‘a linguistic debt to the docile sheep and its wool’.

In the following pages, we provide extracts from the Reports of the Committee of Inquiry into the Teaching of English Language (‘The Kingman Report’) of March 1988, relating to the teaching of English in England and Wales, and published by Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London.

The committee of 19 scholars, writers, and educators was chaired by Sir John Kingman, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol. The four professors of English on the committee were Gillian Brown (Applied Linguistics, Essex), Brian Cox (English Literature, Manchester), Peter Levi (Poetry, Oxford), and Henry Widdowson (Education; English for Speakers of Other Languages, London).

The 100-page report (ISBN 0 11 270650 9)has six chapters and eight appendices. The chapters set the scene (1), discuss the importance of knowledge about the language (2), present a model for teaching English (3), discuss the use of the model (4), cover attainment and assessment (5), look at the education and training of teachers (6), and provide a summary of recommendations. The appendices cover terms of reference (1), membership of the committee (2), a note of reservation by Professor Widdowson regarding the need for a more searching initial discussion of why English should be a school subject at all (3), sources of evidence submitted to the committee (4), visits made by committee members (5), a glossary of specialist terms used in the report (6), a bibliography (7), and a pull-out summary of the model.

Our extracts relate to the 5-part model and the attainment targets suggested. We reproduce both in full, as being of particular international interest and in Angles of Vision provide a range of excerpts from the British press when the report appeared.

Do both the public and the scholarly uses of the phrases ‘native language’ and ‘native speaker’ need to be revised or even superseded?

Following recent articles on language awareness, we provide here an opportunity to listen in on the debate in Japan regarding language, culture and the outside world

Following the excerpts from the Kingman Report on English teaching in England and Wales, we reproduce below extracts from comments made in editorials and by education correspondents in some of England's leading newspapers.

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 comes this mix of quirky humour, special usages, neologisms and nonce usages.

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 comes this mix of curious usages, neologisms and nonce forms.

What might the phrase ‘awareness of language’ or ‘language awareness’ mean to different people, and what could it mean to anyone seriously interested in English as a successful international medium?

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 comes this mix of quirky humour, special usages, neologisms and nonce words.

English has had centuries of ‘traditional orthography’, but novel varieties of English have no orthography at all until it is created for them. How are these spelling systems developed and how close to, or distant from, ‘real’ spelling need they be?

American English, used in the Philippines since the turn of the century, may have reached crisis point in its complex relationship with Pilipino/Tagalog and other local languages.

Traditionally, in England and Wales, higher-level examinations in English have concentrated more on literature (and the language of literature and formal usage) than on language at large. There are, however, signs of change.

Examination, curricula, and standards of education are currently hot topics in many parts of the world. English Today talks to ROBERT BLACKBURN, Deputy Director General of the International Baccalaureate Organization, about how the IBO does its work.