Job Discussion Forums

[dyak]

Some interesting opinions about which English to teach:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/teachingenglish/vote/vote14_international.shtml

[carnac]

Interesting website and discussion. I once gave a talk on the future of the English Language and "World English" in which I speculated that English would evolve into several varieties as did Latin and French. (lingua franca)
I regularly scan Indian and Singaporean newspaper websites for the "letters from readers" sections, looking for examples of accepted shifts in English within geographic regions. My conclusion is that the English language is very alive and deeply rooted in the world, and will indeed become a global language, albeit with regional accomodations. I certainly don't see any variety of Chinese, for example, doing the same, economic conditions notwithstanding: it's simply more limited. Not bad, just limited. But then, all languages have limits. What is the sound of a snowflake when it touches the ground?
Now there's a thought! Things that have no words. New thread coming up.

[matttheboy]

[teacheringreece]

People were predicting over a hundred years ago that British/American/Australian English would go their own ways and become as mutually unintelligible as Spanish, French and Italian are. It never happened because there has always been such a strong cultural link holding everything together. I think this link has strengthened over the last 100 years, due to the media, and I don't see that changing. It's true that there are varieties of English like Indian English, but with the wealth and political power of USA, UK and Australia, as well as the fact that the most non-native speakers (e.g. EU and Chinese politicians) are mostly likely to learn UK or American English, I don't see any "mainstream" English split for a long time. And it's this "mainstream" that most people will be learning.