A teacher of EFL takes up RFL, and all on his own.

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.

IN RECENT years, the ‘Information Age’ has often been compared to the period when printing first developed (cf. Dewar 1998). During both the printing revolution (15th century) and the electronic revolution (later 20th century on), technological developments have been at the forefront of a transformation in the spread and availability of information. The introduction then widespread use of print six centuries ago led to changes not only in society's management of information but also in language itself. Comparably, present-day information technology has made for easy and rapid access to enormous amounts of information, with hotly debated consequences regarding copyright, censorship, and the communication of information.

SLANG IS characterized by its capacity to shock, startle and amuse: often achieved by manipulating existing lexical material in a playful way. Indeed, this play instinct is at the core of language use at large: cf. Nilsen & Nilsen (1978:28–44), Redfern (1984:6), and especially Crystal (1998). It is however in the realm of informal discourse that all types of ludic word-forming – from malapropisms to homonymic puns – thrive most richly. One such way of manipulating existing lexical items is to expand them implicitly into longer forms so that the original does double (and often facetious) duty. This process is at work not only in such acronyms as S.F.A. – impeccably, Scottish Football Association, but facetiously both sweet fuck-all and its euphemistic variant Sweet Fanny Adams – but also in such elaborations as do-re-mi for ‘dough’ (US slang money), Oswald for ‘an ounce’ of a drug (expanding oz, the abbreviation of ‘ounce’), and Georgie (after the late renowned footballer George or Georgie Best), for ‘best’ itself. The following article seeks to explore the curious realm of curtailed puns formed on the same principle as Georgie.

THE AIM of this paper is to study the rhetorical use of tense and voice in research writing undertaken in both English and Arabic medical research. Six reports (three by native speakers of English, three by native speakers of Arabic) were analysed, all being typical of texts containing functional information. Moreover, several medical prescriptions were also analysed. The analysis showed important differences between medical English and medical Arabic, in terms of tense, voice and the use of modals. The study concludes with a number of practical and research recommendations.

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.

In ET58 (Apr 99), there appeared an article entitled ‘English everywhere in China’, in which Kang Jianxiu has not only cited many examples to show that English is extensively used in China, but also lists several reasons for using the language and predicts that the phenomenon is unstoppable. From the date of its publication to the present time, more than six years have passed. What has happened in China during those years concerning the use of English? Has Kang's predication been proved right? We have been following the phenomenon, and would like to discuss these questions.

The 20th century’s most popular novelist? – the third of three articles. The year 2005 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of J.R.R. Tolkien’s prose epic The Lord of the Rings: voted ‘the book of the century’ in a poll conducted in 1997 by the UK book retailer Waterstones 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 New Zealand-based director Peter Jackson and released, to widespread acclaim, in three parts between 2001 and 2003. The present is the third of three linked discussions of Tolkien’s work and the media through which it has been channelled (text and film), and of why it has been so phenomenally popular.

A study in current technical commercial usage, 2006: 2-Track Global, Inc. Ticker – TOTG Rating – 10 out of 10

‘UK school leavers a dismal failure’: conclusion of a survey of employer opinion on communicative and related skills. Most of the text (unadapted) of a British press release sent to ET in Nov 05 by the Forum of Private Business (FPB), a pressure group formed in 1977 that represents c.25,000 UK-based small and medium businesses (SMEs) employing over half a million people, for which it lobbies in both the United Kingdom and the European Union at large. The FPB claims ‘a track record of positively affecting [EU] legislation prior to its introduction in the UK’ (and elsewhere in the EU).

A short guide to formal address in English

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.

THE ORIGIN of this article, and of the first of its two topics, was the inclusion of relative pronouns that seemed to the author unnecessary and burdensome. He had been reading, out of duty rather than for pleasure, some texts written by professional classicists and grammarians and began to be aware that these writers, from Britain and the USA, nearly always included relative pronouns when they were not grammatically obligatory and where sometimes not having them would, in his view, have been to the benefit of the sentence.

IN RECENT years, a married couple in the United States developed a pidgin-like patois (for their own use) out of three languages that one or the other knew well but both did not share. The following account, while telling something of their story, looks at how such a private ‘language’ can impact negatively on second-language acquisition. The study seeks also to gauge the effect of this personal ‘pidgin’ on Pierre, a native speaker of Wolof, and on his acquisition of English, a language he needs to know. In one sense their private language is a success, but in another it is a problem, because Pierre needs to become fluent in the language of his new home. He and Mary have created a language style that suits their daily needs, but their very success and originality may be preventing Pierre from moving on into conventional English.

Two inter-related essays deal with matters of current English usage. The first is on an orthographic theme, while the second is on a lexical one. (1) On the letters ‘ph’ in English, (2) On Beedham on Pinker on ‘computer mouse’

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).

THE TEACHING of traditional grammar has been on the wane in education for the last 25 to 50 years, in the face of more interactive classrooms, more exotic developments in transformational grammar, and research suggesting that it may not play an effective role in improving student's writing. Recently, however, there has been a resurgence of interest in teaching at least some of its fundamental concepts. This new interest has taken on a more imperative bent as secondary schools and to some extent primary schools have been feeling pressure to teach basic grammatical concepts in order to prepare students for the 45 multiple-choice questions on grammar and usage in the new SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test). Teachers and schools that have not done well enough in this area will be held to account by parents and politicians, both of whom tend to believe that instruction in traditional formal grammar is the best means to this end. Teachers who send students off, without this training, to undergo the new SAT will have some serious questions to answer if those students scores are too low.

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.

THE RECENT Bulley-Davidson discussion of English initial consonant clusters (ET80, ET81, ET83) brings attention to the need for phonetic rigor and some phonological understanding when describing the sounds and sound patterns of English. Three topics the two writers deal with would benefit from such rigor: /tr/ and /dr/ clusters, the status and function of /j/ in initial clusters before /u/, and the role of syllable structure in the description of consonant clusters.

THIS ARTICLE addresses differences in meaning that are current in English as it is used along the West African coast. It is not uncommon for an ESL teacher to be confronted with such questions as, ‘Is that what “stranger” means?’ or such responses as, ‘Sir, I do not have a “belly”!’ However, in this context, a sound knowledge (or simply an awareness) of new meanings attached to old words may save some embarrassment. This paper proposes that, for the sound and successful teaching of English as a second language in West Africa, teachers should acquaint themselves with such usages.