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By Root 880 0

and Sri Lanka, he concluded that the key was its power to connect diverse people to the outside world. In his book, The Alchemy of English, Kachru writes, “English initiates one into the cast that has power and, more important, that controls vital knowledge about the miracles of science and technology.”16

As for the preference for American English, he refers to the fact that “America has become a phenomenon of envy and emulation . . . for it combines technology, scientific progress and, above all, power.”17 Kachru does not go into the inherent qualities of English itself, but others have pointed to its basic characteristics that somehow allow a high degree of adaptability, flexibility, and assimilation that are not as prevalent in other major languages.

THE TESL INDUSTRY

With all these factors pushing English into every nook and crevice of the globe, it is not surprising to see a great expansion of the business of teaching English as a second language (TESL). Although almost all governments have made English compulsory in school, the effort has fallen far short of public demand.

Many public school courses have been slow to keep up with changing language styles and often wind up being more perfunctory than thorough. So parents become willing to pay almost anything to arrange lessons for their children, because they know how important the language can be for personal success in today’s world.

Many adults also have reasons to either brush up on their knowledge of English or learn it from scratch. They know that even rudimentary English can help them get a job with an international business firm. And they know that such knowledge can make them appear more worldly wise—or should that be word wise?—in the eyes of their peers.

As a result, teaching English outside public school has become the fastest-growing branch of the business. Although there are some large firms with many branches, most of the instruction is done by small firms or individual teachers attuned to local conditions.

The first requirement for anyone seeking instruction is to learn the basic acronyms determining whether lessons are for English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL). Teaching jobs are either TESL or TEFL. Of course, EIL means English as an international language.

The distinction between ESL and EFL is important because standards for using English as a second language are usually far lower than those for acquiring fluency in a foreign language through a formal course. The difference has become a subject of debate among instructors, with some demanding the establishment of standards for EIL.

The issue was addressed seriously in 2009 by Ahmet Acar and Paul Robertson in an article for a professional language journal. Not surprisingly, they concluded that since today’s international English “is no longer viewed as a homogeneous language but as a heterogeneous language with multiple norms and diverse grammars,” setting standards doesn’t make sense.18

Most of the language teaching abroad produces Amglish, not formal English. That’s apparently all that many nonnative users want or need.

AMGLISH AS A BRIDGE

Amglish has also become a linguistic bridge for communicating between countries where it is not already the native tongue. In 2005, when France’s premier Jacques Chirac met for the first time with Angela Merkel, the German premier, they reportedly conversed in Euro-English. The term refers to Standard English mixed with translating and learning errors by non-English speakers.

A FOUR-LETTER WORD FOR ALL

The word is STOP, the term for cautionary highway signs worldwide.

In almost every country, the familiar white-on-red sign warns motorists to come to a halt before proceeding farther because of a busy intersection or highway. The word got its international debut as a sentence ender in telegrams.

Stop signs were already widely used before 1978 when the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals, the international body for bringing uniformity to travelers, voted to approve such use.

Another version of the