One comment I often receive when I talk about teaching English as an international language (TEIL) is that TEIL is all about being politically correct--a mere gesture to be inclusive and egalitarian, promoted by a certain ideological stance. It is true that there are certain ideologies, language and beyond, that are compatible with certain aspects…

The Postgraduate Diploma in English Language Teaching (PGDELT) programme at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore provides an interesting case study of how economic and entrepreneurial concerns and aspirations in modern university settings have played a role alongside pedagogical motivations in shaping the development of the…

The argument put forward here is that we are witnessing the emergence of a concept of English as a lingua franca, which creates a set of attitudes about correctness and in particular "grammatical correctness". The traditional "native-speaker" as final arbiter can only apply to English as a national language. It is the…

This paper aims to reconsider the status of "English as an international language" from the language user's perspective. Accepting a shift in focus from "English" to "Englishes", we argue that the concept of "Englishes", which assumes the pluralization of linguistic and cultural norms, still remains a collective concept, and to discuss English…

This paper provides an overview of the development of English in Myanmar. It begins by tracing the changing role and status of English and Myanmar from the colonial period, which has had an impact on the current education structure. The paper outlines the structure of the education system and the recent reforms that reflect the rising importance…

This account of English in the formal education system in Thailand traces briefly its historical background and then looks at the teaching of English today. The country itself has quite a complex sociolinguistic context and in order to understand the teaching and learning of English, one must understand the basic tenets of the culture. From this…