Is It World Or International Or Global English, and Does It Matter?

Is it world or international or global English, and does it matter?

TOM MC ARTHUR

A discussion of the three key names for English in a ‘globalizing world’

[Developed from both a talk at the Department (often close together) in newspapers, maga- of English in the City University of Hong Kong zines, books, broadcasting, and websites, (22 Sep 03) and thoughts on completing The notably in terms of politics, economics, and Oxford Guide to World English, 2002. I am communication (see Panel 1). They are also indebted to Loreto Todd for insights during the commonly used attributively, as in world news, development of this text. Further comment is international relations, and global warming, but welcome, especially where it might fill in any their mutual relations are by no means simple. gaps in the story of the three terms.] Consider for example the five following sets: 1 world shipping, international shipping, global THIS REVIEW explores the histories and mean- shipping ings of, and similarities and contrasts among, 2 world opinion, international opinion, global three labels for English at large: world English, opinion international English, and global English, first as phrases containing the words world, interna- Here, set 1 relates to everyday life and work tional, and global, then in terms of their history and set 2 deals in abstractions. In each, how- and use, and how a range of dictionaries has dealt (or failed to deal) with them. Although TOM McARTHUR has an M.A. from Glasgow all three phrases relate to the same vast lan- University, an M.Litt. and Ph.D. from Edinburgh guage or family of languages, each has a his- University, an honorary Ph.D. from the University tory and perspective of its own: World English of Uppsala, Sweden, and is an Honorary Fellow of since the 1920s, international English since the the Institute of Linguists, London. He has been 1930s, both emerging strongly in the 1980s, Head of English at Cathedral School in and global English since the mid-1990s. The Bombay/Mumbai, India, Associate Professor of first has been used to mean both standard Eng- English as a Second Language at the Université du lish and all English; the second refers to the Québec in Canada, a Fellow at the University of multinational use of English (notably in lan- Exeter (teaching lexicography), a Distinguished guage teaching); and the third both implies Visiting Professor in the Humanities at the Chinese University of Hong Kong; and a Distinguished vast use and links the language (often nega- Visiting Professor of English in the College of tively) with socio-economic globalization. Languages and Cultures of Xiamen University, Since all three are likely to go on being used, Fujian, China. He is the founding editor of both they may need to be handled with care. ‘English Today’ (Cambridge, 1985–) and the ‘Oxford Companion to the English Language’ (1992–), and author/compiler, among other World, international, and global: are works, of ‘The Longman Lexicon of Contemporary they synonyms? English’ (1981), ‘The English Languages’ In recent times, the three words world, interna- (Cambridge, 1998), and ‘The Oxford Guide to tional, and global have had a strong presence World English’ (2002).

DOI: 10.1017/S0266078404003025 English Today 79, Vol. 20, No. 3 (July 2004). Printed in the United Kingdom © 2004 Cambridge University Press 3 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 26 Sep 2021 at 19:43:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078404003025 ever, the words are synonymous and therefore World English 1: 1927–1979 freely interchangeable. But consider: In the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition 3 world peace, international peace, global peace (OED2 1989), there is under world a sub-entry world English, and in that sub-entry there are World peace and global peace both mean free- two citations of use, the first from 1927 (a year dom from war on earth. Currently, world peace before OED1 came out), the second from 1980 is commoner, contrasting with world war. (the same decade as OED2). Both are from Global peace is not however so straightforward, journals concerned with English, and are over because its implication of non-violence goes half a century apart. The first is: beyond formal warfare, to include for example 1927 K Malone, American Speech II. 323/2 ‘He.. an end to terrorism and violent organized warns against a slavish conformity to the crime worldwide. Both are closer than either is dictionary, i.e. to the prescriptions of standard to international peace, which is less compre- English, or *world-English as some people call hensive: it can, for example, be broken if only it.’[Asterisk, hyphenation, and lower-case w as two nations engage in hostilities. The three in the original.] kinds of peace are close, but not identical, and This brief citation is tantalizing. Malone the phrases are therefore synonymic (similar in describes someone’s warning, and equates meaning) rather than synonymous. three things: ‘the dictionary’, ‘standard Eng- lish’, and ‘world-English’, but we do not know 4 world law, international law, global law whether the unknown ‘He’ was only warning Here, the second phrase is in wide use, sug- against too much dependency on dictionaries, gesting treaties and processes of law among Malone adding the rest. However, although we nations, and the first and third are dubious. are also left wondering who ‘some people’ Although they have similar meanings, they do were, we learn that world-English (hyphen- not directly relate to countries and instititu- ated, a usage I have not met elsewhere) was in tion(s): there is no body of world or global law, use in 1927 in at least one publication. This but international law is codified and there is an suggests the possibility that the phrase was International Court of Justice at the Hague. born in the USA, perhaps serving the same ends as international in the names of American 5 *world warming, *international warming, dictionaries (used to contrast them with British global warming counterparts). But that is as far as things go for In Set 5, the asterisked items make little sense. the 1920s in the OED. Its second and final cita- *World warming might be global warming tion is dated 1980, from a journal published by without the doomsday element, but *interna- Julius Gross in Heidelberg, Germany, and tional warming doesn’t work either in socio- edited until recently by Manfred Görlach. It political or geophysical terms. Global warming runs: has however a vast apocalyptic quality whose 1980 English World-Wide (EWW) Ii.80 The only near match (if one needed such a thing) categories or types of AVE. can be seen as would be planetary warming. On the other existing across a scale having ‘World English’ hand, greenhouse effect, though related, singu- (‘book English’, ‘standard English’, ‘teacher’s larly fails to be ominous. preferred English’, &c.) at one end, and a The examples indicate that relationships national variety most distinct from it at the other. [Name of author not provided] among the three words are not simple, which suggests that, when each is combined with Importantly, the 1980 citation reinforces the English, the effect could be just as complex: 1927 sense of standardness. Alas, however, the that is, from synonymy on occasion to a range only other evidence I have for the use of the of contrasts within a shared area. Sometimes phrase world English between 1927 and 1980 there may be little or no difference between is my own, in 1967: World English as the title of world English, international English, and global an article in Opinion magazine in Bombay (28 English, but we should nonetheless be pre- Feb 67). I had no precedent in mind when I pared for differences. We can now look at their used it, but didn’t assume I’d coined it. respective ‘stories’, noting that I have felt the Although the article had the wide world as its need to give world English four times the space context, I was influenced at the time by my needed for either of its ‘rivals’. work in the English Department of the

4 ENGLISH TODAY 79 July 2004 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 26 Sep 2021 at 19:43:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078404003025 Cathedral and John Connon School, Bombay. tongue, dialect, pidgin, creole, lingua franca, Our pupils came from a range of local, and, importantly, such ‘Anglo-hybrids’ as national, and international backgrounds. Most Hindlish and Spanglish, especially where the were local and multilingual, with English as a Anglo element is strong, use is communal, and second or third language, while the rest were significant social ends are being served. For small minorities: local native speakers of me, world English is both shorthand for English English (mainly Anglo-Indian), native speakers as a world language and a superordinate term from outside India, and non-native speakers for Australian English, British English, Irish from outside India. We prepared all alike for English, Nigerian English, and the like. It the Indian School Certificate, a UK-descended embraces all aspects of the language: dialect, national qualification, and most did well. The pidgin, creole, variety, standard, speech, writ- English of such students seemed to me a micro- ing, paper-based, electronic. And, within such cosm of what one might call ‘world English’, a spread, the term World Standard English for which might or might not be standard (how- me fits well for the print-linked ‘educated’ vari- ever such a matter is judged). ety or varieties. In the article itself, I quoted Anthony Burgess suggesting that what writers in Eng- World English 2: 1980 to the present lish ‘should try to create is a sort of ecumenical day English’ (a generous term that never took off). I then mused: ‘A world English. And Linda In the 1980s, world English came into its own, Hess, Nayantara Sahgal and NJN [fellow writ- although it was not alone for long. If the com- ers in Opinion] might ask: Who will standard- pilers of OED2 had felt the need for more cita- ise it, if it is to be standardised? Who, with the tions, they could have found many, such as: genius of [the classical Sanskrit grammarian] 1982 ‘We may definitely recognize Australian Panini would create Anglo-International Gram- English and New Zealand English as making mar and with the lexical skill of Johnson amass their own special contribution to world English’ a Dictionary of World English for All Occasions? – from Robert D. Eagleton’s Antipodean UNESCO? A Commonwealth-American con- chapter in Richard W. Bailey & Manfred sortium?’ Görlach, editors, English as a World Language (EWL 1982) It was possible in the 1960s to imagine UNESCO undertaking such a task, but fanciful 1985a ‘The traditional spelling system… to think of it now. However, my Common- despite its notorious vagaries, is a unifying wealth-American option seems to be taking force in world English’ – from A Comprehensive Grammar of the shape (except that, as Loreto Todd noted when English Language (CGEL 1985), by Randolph previewing this piece, it is ‘American/Com- Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, monwealth, and would tend to be the so-called and Jan Svartvik “Old Commonwealth”’). Here we have the US, 1985b the UK, Australia, and other Anglophone terri- 1 ‘The Idea of World English: a historical and tories engaged in various (often co-operative) geographical look at the spread of English’, by lexicographical, grammatical, and corpus- Richard W. Bailey based projects, centred either on a world pub- 2 ‘An ABC of World English: Part 1’, by Tom lisher (such as Oxford or Pearson/Longman) McArthur or a federated project like the International – titles of articles in the 1st issue of English Today (ET), Cambridge University Press Corpus of English (ICE), initiated by University College London, or two or more national Such uses indicate that the phrase was well alliances, as with the Encarta World English established by the first half of the decade. In Dictionary (below), which involved the UK, the the July 1987 issue of ET, an article entitled US, and Australia. ‘The New OED and World English’ appeared, After writing the Bombay article I did not dealing with the move towards greater global expect to use the term again, but some years coverage than was possible in the first edition. later, when studying linguistics at Edinburgh, It was written by Edmund Weiner, co-editor it cropped up, although at present I have noth- with John Simpson of OED2. His topic was the ing to cite from the 1970s. For me, since 1967, dictionary’s world citation programme, in world English has meant all English: standard which the scantness of its sub-entry on world and non-standard, mother-tongue and other- English is the mildest of peccadillos.

IS IT WORLD OR INTERNATIONAL OR GLOBAL ENGLISH, AND DOES IT MATTER? 5 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 26 Sep 2021 at 19:43:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078404003025 The 1980s were a fertile time. Among the tions in world English as an overall label, but many developments in English studies was we can note the reference to ‘global domi- Pergamon’s launch in 1981 of a UK-based nance’, pre-echoing globalization. international journal called World Language A year later, the first post-OED2 Oxford dic- English, edited by William R. Lee. In 1984, tionary entry for world English appeared in the however, Lee gave up the editorship, prompt- New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (NSOED ing a complete re-development in 1985. 1993). Nested under world, it runs: Although the journal continued to be pub- World English a variety of, or the fundamental lished in Britain, it was re-named and moved features of, English regarded as standard or editorially to the US. There, the Indian-born acceptable wherever English is spoken. scholar Braj B. Kachru, at the University of Illi- nois Urbana-Champaign, and the American In this definition, the ‘standard English’ sense intercultural specialist Larry E. Smith, at the is sustained. A nearby sub-entry, world lan- East-West Center in Hawaii (of whom more guage, runs: ‘A language used throughout the below in relation to international English), world, such as late 20c English’, making became co-editors. explicit the easy link between English and In keeping with Kachru’s inclusive and world language (standard or otherwise). counter-imperialist approach, and Smith’s lib- Manifestly, the NSOED and OCELang took eral humanism, the journal was re-launched very different lines, but no one at OUP has as World Englishes: Journal of English as an drawn my attention to this fact (or apparently International and Intranational Language, the noticed it), and I haven’t until now raised the initials WE being foregrounded as an inclusive matter. But five years later, the New Oxford second-person plural pronoun. The journal Dictionary of English (NODE 1998) followed has since been a reservoir of description and with a remarkable entry in its own right, with opinion on English(es) wherever it is or they two senses: are to be found. As a result, many scholars world English > noun [mass noun] the English now routinely use the forms Englishes and language including all of its regional varieties, occasionally an English. Such innovations, such as North American, Australian, New however (even more than the phrase world Zealand, and South African English. English itself), have a way to go before they ~ a basic form of English, consisting of features become social reality for the mass of users of common to all regional varieties. any English. This is a radical change, which however is for me both pleasing (sense 1) and puzzling World English 3: Some Oxford (sense 2). NODE’s first sense fits well with OCE- Lang but ill with both the OED2 and NSOED, references in the 1990s and says nothing about standardness at the In 1992, a short entry entitled World English same time as it names varieties routinely asso- appeared under my initials in the Oxford Com- ciated with national kinds of standard English panion to the English Language (OCELang). It (where once their usage might have been con- began: ‘An increasingly common term for Eng- sidered ‘colonial’ or ‘provincial’). But the sec- lish as a world language.’ The citations of use ond sense baffles me. In the 1970s, I were: the title of my Bombay article (the earli- researched Ogden’s Basic English and other est I knew of, because [gravissima culpa] I did restricted kinds of English. Ogden’s ‘Basic’ was not think of checking in the OED2 1989), then an acronym, for British American Scientific Eagleton 1982 and Quirk et al 1985 (both as International Commercial, whereas the ‘basic above). I closed with the note: ‘Some scholars form of English’ in NODE draws its elements use the term cautiously or avoid it, because for from ‘regional varieties’ (not from two varieties them it suggests global dominance by English and a range of registers): indeed, it appears to and English-speaking countries, with an atten- be what has sometimes been called ‘common- dant down-grading of other languages.’ I did core English’. not refer to the term being used to mean ‘stan- NODE’s list of defined world-related com- dard English’ because at that time I had never pounds and phrases runs from World Bank, come across such a use. In addition, since the world-beater, World Council of Churches, World arrival of the phrase global English, I have felt Cup, world English, and world fair on down to less concerned about any brooding implica- World Wide Web. Its international phrases

6 ENGLISH TODAY 79 July 2004 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 26 Sep 2021 at 19:43:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078404003025 include International Atomic Energy Agency, but with which I concur): ‘World English the International Baccalaureate, International Bank English language in all its varieties as it is spo- for Reconstruction and Development, Interna- ken and written over the world.’ tional Brigade, International Date Line, on Perhaps, however, the stop-press news is down to International Telecommunication that the jacket and prelims of NODE (1998: Union – but there is no international English. In Editor, Judy Pearsall), which came out only a contrast, only three phrases are subtended few months earlier than Encarta, are so similar. under global: Global Surveyor (a vehicle for use The jacket refers to Oxford as ‘the world leader on Mars, not Earth), McLuhan’s global village, in authenticating new words and authenticat- and global warming. There is no global English, ing language’, describes ‘the Oxford World which in 1998 would have been on the border- Reading programme’, with its ‘60-strong line for inclusion. international network of readers’, then claims In sum, the evidence suggests that, as a ‘150 strong international consultative body recently as 1998, only world English has had in some of the world’s greatest institutions’. In prominence enough to attract the attention of the prelims are listed 29 ‘World English Con- the most powerful and widely based dictionary sultants’, English is described as a ‘world lan- publisher in the English-using world. At the guage’, the ‘English-speaking world’ is end of the ’90s, however, the world of large- invoked, and ‘excellent coverage of world Eng- scale English-language lexicography was lish’ is asserted, while in a section headed changing, and in ways that could not have ‘World English’, English is called ‘the language been predicted when the decade began. of international communication in trade, diplomacy, sport, science, technology, and World English 4: Encarta versus countless other ﬁelds’. With the emergence of these parallel vol- NODE umes, and after decades of relative obscurity, In 1999, the publishers Bloomsbury in London, the phrase world English has taken centre stage in co-operation with, and on behalf of, as both a descriptive and promotional term, Microsoft Corporation, brought out the but not in the sense of standard English world- Encarta World English Dictionary (Encarta wide. The phrase world English is not however 1999) [all underlines in this section mine]. In a alone on that stage, and has in fact not been serious sense, and whatever its fate as both an alone for many years. electronic and a paper dictionary, Encarta changed the rules of the game. International English: from the In its prelims, Encarta’s editors and publicists 1930s to the present refer not only to its International Publishing Partners but also to ‘essays covering word his- The term international English appears to be tories, World English, regional English, usage, almost as old as world English and in its earlier and cultural links’, list a ‘World English Data- decades certainly as rare. The OED does not base Advisory Board’, and talk about ‘World provide an entry, but when Loreto Todd English and Language Consultants’; Blooms- searched its text online (in the course of check- bury chairman Nigel Newton talks in a fore- ing an earlier version of this text) she found word about ‘the need for a world English dic- two occurrences of the phrase in quoted texts tionary’; editor-in-chief Kathy Rooney used to cite other words: J. B. Priestley discusses the dictionary’s ‘Corpus of World (unspeciﬁed) in 1930, and C. Logue in The English’; executive editor Faye Carney lists Times Literary Supplement in 1958. Like world ‘Labels for Varieties of Regional and World English, however, it appears to have been rare English’; and I provide a general essay entitled until the 1980s, and I certainly did not ‘World English’, in a section on the history and encounter it as a technical term or in print lexicography of the language. That essay before the 1980s, when it began to appear in includes the phrases World Englishes, the Eng- many places. lishes, the world’s lingua franca, the New Eng- In 1982, for example, Peter Trudgill and lishes, International English, and Global Eng- Jean Hannah brought out their trend-setting lish). I was also responsible for paragraphs on and long-running International English: A key varieties of English in the A–Z list, while Guide to Varieties of Standard English (Edward under w there is an entry (which I did not write Arnold), published in the same year as Bailey

IS IT WORLD OR INTERNATIONAL OR GLOBAL ENGLISH, AND DOES IT MATTER? 7 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 26 Sep 2021 at 19:43:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078404003025 From ‘World English: A Study of its Development’, by Janina Brutt-Griffler, in Multilingual Matters, 2002 Since colonialism coincides chronologically English as an International Language, Smith with the development of World English, it is cer- (1987) addressed what he considered to be a tainly justifiable to inquire whether causal sig- possible misinterpretation of the notion of EIL: nificance attaches to the role of imperialism in Referring to professionally and technologically the international spread of English. It is worth based limited domains of English usage, he posing this question whether Phillipson himself insisted ‘EIL is not English for special purposes does so. He remarks rather ambiguously that with a restricted linguistic corpus for use in ‘English’ is now entrenched world-wide, as a international settings’ (p. xi). In direct contrast, result of British colonialism, international inter- in Widdowson’s (1997) understanding of World dependence, ‘revolutions’ in technology, trans- English, the international language comprises port, communications and commerce, and varieties of English for specific purposes, because English is the language of the USA, a ‘autonomous registers which guarantee commu- major economic, political and military force in nication within global expert communities’ (p. the contemporary world’ (pp. 23–4). Of these 144). Davies (1989), relating the question of factors, apparently only the first, however, is World English to current theories of SLA, posits intended to refer to the pre-World War II the question: ‘Is International English an Inter- period…. Taken as a coherent explanatory language?’ – alluding to a dominant paradigm framework for World English, the central for explaining the second language learner’s premise of linguistic imperialism is that the progress. He rejects the notion of defining World spread of English represents a culturally imperi- English as an interlanguage (IL) on the ground alistic project, which necessarily imparts English that the latter properly accounts for individual language culture to its second language learners. language development and variation, while World English ‘deals with societal varieties’ (p. Almost a decade after his seminal paper on 447).

and Görlach’s English as a World Language. The TEIL in OCELang (1992), whose opening sec- two books in effect, and unintentionally, set up tion runs: an alternation between, on the one hand, the A term in language teaching and applied phrases English as a world language and world linguistics for teaching the use of English English and, on the other, English as an inter- between or among speakers from different national language and international English, nations. Such persons may be native speakers even though in general terms (if not in some (such as Americans and Britons who may not dictionary definitions) world English has always understand each other well), non-native tended to be the more all-embracing term. speakers (such as Thais dealing with Arabs or The Trudgill-Hannah sense of standardness Mexicans dealing with Japanese), or native was augmented by a language-teaching devel- speakers and non-native speakers (such as opment that became known in the 1980s as Americans dealing with Hungarians, or Ethiopians dealing with Australians). (Teaching) English as an international language (TEIL, EIL), a term and approach meant to con- For Smith, (T)EIL differs from (T)EFL and trast strongly with two sets of established (T)ESL in that native speakers also need to terms and pedagogical aproaches, (Teaching) make an effort in international situations. English as a Foreign Language (TEFL, EFL) and Underpinning it is the view that English (Teaching) English as a Second Language (TESL, belongs to all its users, that ways of speaking ESL). The (T)EIL concept was two-fold, each and patterns of discourse are different across area distinct from the other. In the UK it was (and inside) all languages and communities, promoted by the applied linguist and language and that such ways and patterns inﬂuence both teacher Peter Strevens, notably through his native and non-native speakers when a lan- Teaching English as an International Language guage serves as a shared international (TEIL 1980), while in the US its principal pro- medium, often in ways that inhibit easy com- ponent was Larry E. Smith at the East-West munication. In short, we all need to co-operate Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, who took a more and accommodate. Smith is noteworthy in sociocultural line. Smith wrote the entry for being associated with two ‘rival’ systems and

8 ENGLISH TODAY 79 July 2004 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 26 Sep 2021 at 19:43:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078404003025 From World Englishes by Gunnel Melchers & Philip Shaw, London: Arnold, 2003 From the back cover blurb: English is increas- stand the world they live in… the language’s ingly becoming the world’s lingua franca. If we regional and social patterns of global varia- are not native speakers of one of the many vari- tion… informants from all over the world… eties of English, then we may be students of Eng- Graphic maps & World Atlas’… categorize the lish, or use English regularly for academic or world around them…noticeable in many business purposes. The English Language series, spheres of life… the worldwide expansion of which is international in focus, aims to synthe- English… after the Second World War… its con- size the wealth of existing linguistic research quest of the world… In other parts of the both on and in English… ‘English is now truly a world… the role of English as an international global language, to an extent that no other lan- language of communication – its use in the guage has ever been. World Englishes provides “expanding circle” created by globalization… an overview of the global variation in vocabu- the overall statistics for English worldwide… lary, grammar, phonology and pragmatics of the worldwide impact of English… One out of English around the world. five of the world’s population speaks English… international business… international competi- Phrases from the text, from p. x to p. 11: ‘to tions… worldwide spread… the global sway… present and describe global variation and the worldwide spread… a cosmopolitan vocabu- change… 20 years of teaching an undergradu- lary… a worldwide perspective… an influential ate course called “Global English” at the Depart- world language… our own account of World ment of English, Stockholm University, and Englishes… this world language… varieties of work on the dialects of the British Isles, and English around the globe… the classificaiton of Philip Shaw’s many years of work with speakers World Englishes… our presentation of world of English from every part of the world… social Englishes… the political situation in the real patterns of global variation… English as a For- world’ eign or international language… better under-

sets of terms: on one side, (T)EIL and interna- addition, in the earlier emphasis on world Eng- tional English, on the other his joint approach lish as standard English, some limited the wide with Braj B. Kachru (above, as journal co-edi- range implicit in the name while none reported tors), which focuses on world English(es). on international English as a term used by lan- Although (T)EIL has been a minor move- guage scholars and others for the standard ment in English language teaching (ELT), it variety around the world. However, interna- had an influence on the mainstream at about tional English cannot be set aside as a more the time when the lines between EFL, ESL, and limited version of world English. Rather, its ENL were beginning to blur, notably as a con- essence seems to be three-fold: distribution sequence of migration and mixing. Students across nations; standardness; and lingua- from many backgrounds with many needs now franca-hood. It is what millions of non-native find themselves sharing classrooms in cities parents specifically want for their children, like London and New York. In London, for especially as provided by international schools example, children from some 350 language in locations like Hong Kong and reflected in backgrounds go to school in a medium that is the internationally acceptable English that Sin- more or less foreign to most of them yet pre- gaporeans have as their collective goal. sent and essential all around them. Their teachers, to be effective, need to teach across Global English: from the mid-1990s an entire ENL/ESL/EFL/EIL methodological spectrum. A less clear-cut use may be in store for global Despite all of the above, as we have seen, English as a label, despite the significance in major lexicographers have failed to capture recent dictionaries and elsewhere of such international English. The OED2, NSOED, usages as global, globalize, globalization, global NODE, and Encarta all deal with world English village, and global warming, which cover differ- (two of them incorporating the term into pub- ent areas from international, internationalize, licity and prelims, and one into its name); none internationalization, international village, and has listed and defined international English. In (the non-viable) *international warming. In all

IS IT WORLD OR INTERNATIONAL OR GLOBAL ENGLISH, AND DOES IT MATTER? 9 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 26 Sep 2021 at 19:43:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078404003025 probability, however, both international in 1986, when world English and international English and global English will appear in the English were well in the ascendant. Given that next editions of major dictionaries, and an phrases like English as a world language and effort may even be made to contrast them (per- English as an international language have haps under world English, with cross-refer- apparently helped precipitate first world Eng- ences from and to the others). Although global lish then international English, it is no surprise English was too late for OCELang in 1992, I to find that expressions like English ‘as the first included the following entry in the Concise truly global language’ preceded global English Companion (COCELang 1998): by about a decade. It might even have emerged GLOBAL ENGLISH A term of the 1990s for without globalization. English as the world’s pre-eminent language: For much of the 20th century, global was sim- ‘The future of global English’ (title of the ply a geographical term historically associated closing chapter of David Crystal, English as a with the titan Atlas carrying the globe of the Global Language, 1997); ‘Technology… lies at world on his back (whence atlas of the world). the heart of the globalisation process, affecting Global tends to imply ecological/economic the world of education, work and culture; it has scale (global warming, global investment), the helped to ensure that global English has US magazine BusinessWeek handles everything become firmly entrenched as the lingua franca of the kind (from global conglomerates to global within such activities’ (‘English and the MBAs), and in Davos in Switzerland a global jet Internet’, in GEN: Global English Newsletter, Monitoring the Changing Role of English in the set annually achieves almost the cosiness of World, 1, an electronic newsletter issued by McLuhan’s global village (1963): the acceptable [the] BRITISH COUNCIL, November 1997). face of globalization, perhaps, as opposed to any [As far as I know, only one issue of GEN unacceptable vision of American (or Anglo- appeared. If there had been more, the phrase American, or English-language) hegemony. might have been in wider use today in the In 1997, David Crystal’s English as a Global English-language business.] Language (EGL) was published. In it, he uses both world English and global English, but not Alongside it I also thought it useful to have an international English, although international entry global language, because of the close ties appears in other combinations. However, the between the two. It runs: two terms he uses cover the same territory as GLOBAL LANGUAGE A late 20c term for a world English covered on its own in his Cam- language used everywhere on earth (and bridge Encyclopedia of the English Language usually linked with English): ‘It has become the (CEEL 1995). There he used it alongside the language of the planet, the first truly global fuller phrase World Standard English (WSE), language’ (Robert McCrum et al., The Story of which appeared at the heart of a radiating dia- English, 1986); ‘What is a global language? – gram of mine, ‘The Circle of World English’ (in A language achieves a genuinely global status ET32 Oct 92), which he reproduces, acknowl- when it develops a special role that is edges, and discusses. His further development, recognized in every country’ (David Crystal, in both works, is World Standard Spoken Eng- English as a Global Language, 1997); ‘The future of English as a global language therefore may lish (WSSE), a radical concept which I had left depend, in large measure, on how the language implicit in 1992. Many commentators deny is taken up and used by young adults in Asian that a converging speech style exists or is likely countries’ (David Graddol, The Future of to emerge worldwide any time soon, and may English?, 1997); ‘English is shockingly emerging not be comfortable with a World Standard as the only truly global language’ (Michael English even in print form. However, the exis- Toolan, ‘Recentering English’, in English Today tence of both are patently clear for me, in a 52, October 1997). [We may note here that in dual US/UK mode: think of The International this article Toolan considers re-naming English Herald Tribune (US) The Economist (UK), CNN as simply Global. A citation: ‘In the case of International (US), and BBC World Service Global, its non-English majority of users are increasingly claiming ownership of it.’] (UK). In EGL (of which a second edition appeared in Whereas it may be no surprise that the Crystal 2003), World English and global English appear and Graddol citations come from the same to be style variants, indicating that at least two year, 1997, it is worth noting that McCrum et and probably all three terms can be so used if al called English ‘the first truly global language’ one wishes. Global and globalization were

10 ENGLISH TODAY 79 July 2004 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 26 Sep 2021 at 19:43:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078404003025 vogue words when EGL came out in 1997, and in the media. WSE also exists, although it global made sense in terms of public awareness varies somewhat within nations and from and publicity. The following is a brief sampling nation to nation in terms of people’s educa- of parallel world English and global English tional levels, kinds of employment, social class usages in EGL1, together with some general and aspirations, sociocultural fluency, and use uses of international [underlines mine]: of print, broadcasting, teleprompts, and com- puters. A world standard is not however simply 1 [p. viii] I have thus tried to tell the story of one or more national standard writ large. It is, World English [cap W] objectively and with- as it were, a ‘federative’ entity, tending out adopting the kind of triumphalist tone towards uniformity, without ever necessarily which is unfortunately all too common becoming ‘federal’. Like all language stan- when people write on English in English. dards, it approximates to an ideal, and is not 2 [p. 25] How far back do we have to go in absolute. order to find the origins of global English? 3 [p. 97] English has long been recognised as the international language of the sea. Envoi 4 [p. 101] English – with all its failings – In the preface to OGWE, I talk about providing remains the recommended language of ‘as comprehensive and accurate a description international air travel. as possible of English as a world (or global or 5 [p. 136] Even if the New Englishes did international or universal) language – beauty become increasingly different, as years went spots, warts, and all’ (xi). Although a by, the consequences for world English (quasi-)synonymy may seem intended (world, [lower-case w] would not necessarily be global, international, universal), I was more fatal. concerned with simply bringing together some Crystal uses global in relation to English in of the attributives used to characterize English both title and text, and in the text uses it syn- in the 19th century. World, international, and onymously with world in attributive position, global are not now easily detached from Eng- apparently more for stylistic than technical lish when we consider it as a medium for any- reasons: world English and global English are one anywhere who wants/needs to use it. And, two names for the same phenomenon. Given although English is far from being used every- that the intended readership was primarily where by everybody (and may never get non-specialist, strictness of terminology may there), even universal no longer seems too big not have been a crucial concern. At the close, a term, because millions who do not use Eng- however, and interestingly, he sets global lish nonetheless know bits of it, and know aside, uses international in its general broad about it. Yet even so, a securely standard area role, then returns to world (within his concept continues to be a minority resource, for ENL, WSSE), pretty much as it was in CEEL: ESL, and EFL users alike. English is however further along the road to 6 [p. 136–7] A likely scenario is that our cur- universality than any language has ever been, rent ability to use more than one dialect [of and much further now than in the 1920s or English] would simply extend to meet the even at the end of the 1970s. Recent related fresh demands of the international situation. studies demonstrate this globality in their A new form of English – let us think of it as titles: Janina Brutt-Griffler, World English: A ‘World Standard Spoken English’ (WSSE) – Study in its Development (Multilingual Matters would almost certainly arise. Indeed, the 2002); Michael Cronin, Translation and Glob- foundation for such a development is alization (Routledge 2003); Jennifer Jenkins, already being laid around us. World Englishes: A resource book for students He notes, however: ‘[The impression that (Routledge, 2003); Gunnel Melchers & Philip WS(S)E already exists] is misleading in several Shaw, World Englishes: An introduction respects. A totally uniform, regionally neutral, (Arnold 2003); Christian Mair, ed., The Politics and unarguably prestigious variety does not of English as a World Language (Rodopi 2003); yet exist worldwide.’ It seems to me, however, and Jacques Maurais & Michael A. Morris, eds, that this statement applies as much to national Languages in a Globalising World (CUP 2003). standards, notably with regard to speech, but We don’t need to wait for something ‘totally we know they exist, at least for publishing and uniform, regionally neutral, and unarguably

IS IT WORLD OR INTERNATIONAL OR GLOBAL ENGLISH, AND DOES IT MATTER? 11 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 26 Sep 2021 at 19:43:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078404003025 1 World, international, global Some representative citations

From BusinessWeek, 21 Apr 03, in deeper into the global thicket part (the three words listed global multilateralism separately) global consensus a global scale

WORLD From Newsweek, 5 May 03, in part America and the World [article heading] (the three words listed together, the world’s attention the world’s dictators in order) world leaders the virus that’s spreading around the globe… the world is shocked isn’t the only… threat facing a 21st-century reshape the Arab world world that is growing ever smaller made the world a dicier place isolate him both domestically and threat to world peace internationally told the whole world… the Washington think tank Center for Strategic the world is more likely to accept and International Studies the world could soon slip into recession U.S. Agency for International Development boss The World Trade Organization Andrew Natsios …while much of the world now sees the climbing world Bush as a lonesome cowboy with an the International Federation of the Red Cross itchy trigger ﬁnger and Red Crescent the postwar world donations to ‘international’ causes went up the world’s problems an international fund-raising consultancy the world’s needs Even Julie Andrews herself doesn’t live in the a World Economic Forum meeting world her name invokes Third World countries The world is in ‘shock and awe’ the world’s poor the world’s mediator Europe’s role in the world ‘not since the most power-crazed emperors of the new world that’s emerging Rome has the world seen the exercise of brute aggression on such a scale’ INTERNATIONAL the world’s energy supplies International Outlook [section heading] 75 percent of the world an international monitoring body The World Health Organization international economic consultation …set off global alarms international spats over Iraq San Francisco International Airport international affairs global threats international problems global cooperation Blair unveiled a Doctrine of the International [title] Tracking the Global Spread [of SARS] Community Globalism A crowded, mobile population helps As Blair said in Chicago – ‘We’re all disperse new infections internationalists now’ international business and tourism the entire global economy GLOBE/GLOBAL global economic growth around the globe worldwide recession global economic relations American International Group the global economy [3 times] the world’s largest insurer Global Wrap Up [section heading] the rest of the world global trade talks no one in the world knows what to base Globalization and growth predictions on global tensions working globally to contain them Globalization; the driver of the 1990s boom into every corner in the world the real challenge to the world and travelers from around the world globalization as we know it ➸

12 ENGLISH TODAY 79 July 2004 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 26 Sep 2021 at 19:43:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078404003025 the world’s farms Walt Disney Television International’s Asia- the world’s largest health agencies Pacific Managing director the world’s largest oil reserves to become the world’s No 2 advertising market [title] ‘When Worlds Collide’ Venture to develop global standards the development of open global standards From The South China Morning also the international co-ordinator Post 23 Apr 04, in part (the three the interoperability of global RFID standards words listed together) a worldwide implementation of RFID a lack of global standards the secretive North Korean government cut to embrace internationally accepted standards international phone lines one of the principal transit points in the world From The Economist, 20 Mar 04, in the global presence of American-owned part (the three words listed businesses together) a world of targets for our enemies an increasing international dimension The world this week [heading] Hong Kong is one of the world’s principal Global agenda [section heading] transit points [China] the envy of the world and a boon to findings by the World Health Organization global markets China’s entry to the World Trade Organization the fastest-growing large economy in the world He still jets around the globe welcomed by the rest of the world open to the outside world the Brotherhood’s contribution to global Islamic good for Asia and the world work We must not leave the global picture the highest living standard in the world economic development along global trends a world without poverty [ad] the dean of the School of International relations International Director: Africa [ad title, × 2] Islamabad would escape international Join our International Directors’ team [ad] condemnation On international terms and conditions [ad] the US House of Representatives International PLAN International [ad: phrase repeated × 2] Relations committee global coordination and implementation of the US agency for International Development PLAN International [ad] conceal such a scam from the world global fund-raising [ad] This is the world of the Society for Textbook worldwide operations [ad] Reform strong international credibility [ad] not atypical for similar funds worldwide a field related to multi-national business, world The Who/Unicef global strategy affairs [ad] approved in the World Health Assembly in 2002 the highest concentration of turbines anywhere this year’s World Breastfeeding Week in the world So, Hong Kong, don’t listen to the Old World his policy on global terrorism anymore to understand how the world was changed by based on increased international air travel September 11th the longest non-stop commercial service in the Distinguished Leadership in Global Capital world Markets [ad] Window on the World [section heading] almost as big a shock to Spain, and the world describing the enclave [Macau] as a “suburb of sent tremors round the world the world” portray himself as the vanguard of a global jihad At a recent international seminar on the Asian ‘a global movement infected by al-Qaeda’s media radical agenda’ [quotation] unmatched by any technology company in the Afghan camps have dispersed around the world world ‘…evil people in the world’ [quotation] International men of mystery? [title] a comprehensive study of global attitudes hell-bent on global destabilisation armed forces distributed around the globe the world’s most powerful person the second world war and the Korean war shuns the international spotlight the biggest restructuring of America’s global flood the international media forces since 1845 the second-most favoured destinaiton the unknown unknowns of international worldwide terrorism ➸

IS IT WORLD OR INTERNATIONAL OR GLOBAL ENGLISH, AND DOES IT MATTER? 13 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 26 Sep 2021 at 19:43:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078404003025 the pre-Iraq international rancour a strong international presence will help to shape the global review create its own global stars the International Committee of the Red Cross globally competitive ‘national champions’ by suggested a revised global ‘posture’ 2010 when its own empire sprawled across the globe the Fortune 500 list of top global firms a good time to review America’s place(s) in the ‘global’ companies such as Haier world China has not built a truly competitive global make their mark on the world stage firm The whole world’s gaze is fixed on China a deficit… with the rest of the world Around the globe, shelves are stacked In the rest of the world, meanwhile churned out by ‘the world’s workshop’ lots of genuinely global companies dictate global prices will have to play by international rules its relations with the rest of the world looks every bit the global success acceded to the World Trade Organization in a world away from the chaos of nearby 2001 Shenzhen city the global integration of China’s economy harder to compete internationally than at home now the sixth largest in the world continue to build its global champions socialist regimes around the world have life on the world stage can be nasty, brutish and crumbled short Internationally, China has become respectable taking global markets by storm overtake America as the world’s biggest one third of all socks sold worldwide economy the World Bank’s Country Assistance Strategy even the best are not globally competitive report But it has been with the rise of globalisation the World Bank’s words in Shanghai between the two world wars the world’s last big communist country as measured by the World Bank one in three microwaves sold the world over the group’s poor 6% global average the globe’s second largest piano maker There wasn’t anyone anywhere in the world compny’s that can compete globally could surpass Japan as the world’s second- As the World Bank’s strategy report notes largest new-car market the Institute for International Economics high by global standard lending arm of the World Bank ‘Look out world, here we come’ [ad] protect the economy from a world slowdown the world’s largest trading nation global investment banks Prestigious global brands to list Chinese companies internationally Global companies that control scarce resources the Royal Institute of International Affairs Monitor international price trends to build a global brand We set the global standard for success [ad] that decorate the world’s most expensive cities a results-oriented environment unmatched in looks like a global success the world [ad] gearing up to become even more global the University of International Business and their country can build global brands Economics [ad] international expansion must seem logical In the heart of the sport industry. And, now, eyeing up the rest of the world global [ad] create a genuine global brand in partnership with the World Bank Institute After China joined the World Trade [ad] Organization Duke Center for International Development ‘This is a globalised era’ [ad] the very opposite of a focused, global brand one of the largest industrial construction stronger global demand projects in the world [Australia and Spain] the world’s [consumers] the world’s top brewers most exposed to higher interest rates higher than their global margins the world economy has enjoyed its most stable the two global suppliers, Airbus and Boeing decade high world prices often claimed that the world has become a more London’s Royal Institute of International uncertain place Affairs UBS Global Asset Management the World Bank’s William Mako and Chulin And since the second world war Zhang ➸

14 ENGLISH TODAY 79 July 2004 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 26 Sep 2021 at 19:43:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078404003025 From The International Herald If the Earth were this perfect Tribune, 15 Apr 04 [Asia] (the The mass of the Earth [twice] words listed together, in order) The Earth’s rotation Dermatologists worldwide International Herald Tribune [title] Warm Welcome to the World [headline] America’s enemies around the world Its standing in global markets ‘We’re changing the world,’ Bush said Australian businesses around the globe he reminded a global audience So far from the world’s financial… centers every man and woman in this world The best in the world the greatest power on the face of the earth Globally recognizable companies the most volatile corners of the world Global growth bolsters sales of coal America’s moral mission in the world Premium news for global thinkers [ad] Since World War II Direct to your inbox from around the world their world-girdling tour The International News Alliance international affairs adviser in Khabarovsk 8 of the world’s most respected newspapers familiar with international practices worldwide news in English Briefly International [column heading] from a truly global perspective only under UN or international command from the International News Alliance World News [page heading] Citigroup, the world’s biggest financial services America’s enemies around the world company the enemies of the civilized world World Cross Rates/Asian Cross Rates the will of the civilized world to compete globally confirm to a watching world Global prices raise net at copper producer executive vice president of Global Underwriters as global prices of the metal surged the international community cannot stand idle China, the world’s top user of the metal the U.S. Agency for International development Tokyo electron, the world’s second-largest sped up global warming maker of semiconductor production the world’s hunger for beef equipment the world’s largest exporter of beef Hynix, the world’s fourth largest maker of international demand has led to shortages computer memory chips this mess will require international support China used a third of global steel supply in 2003 a global problem fueled by global markets coverage of the world of business That calls for global solidarity from the international media and marketing Would it have been better for the world if industry integrating themselves into the global economy Global Funds [twice] the most open economy in the Arab world International Markets the world has been divided between ‘us’ and the United States and other parts of the world ‘them’ even more global debate and discussion the world was made up of drivers and International Business Travel passengers the international business traveller 80 percent of the world’s knowledge the global weather report look at the world and this war the world’s daily newspaper needling Japan for its role in World War II Samsung, the world’s second largest chip maker a firestorm of criticism in the Muslim world Samsung, the world’s top DRAM maker beginning with the World Trade Center attack Samsung, the world’s second-largest handset elsewhere in the world vendor in contact with the spirit world Intel, the world’s largest chip maker the spinning Earth From the world’s top newspapers the moon, planets and other bodies Brought to you by the International News the World Trade Center rose and fell Alliance ▫

prestigious’ to decide that within world English eclectic usage. Yet, as CNN, the BBC, and even there is a manageable ‘standard’ core and a fur- Microsoft suggest, the community of English ther range of negotiable comprehension. We users may have fewer problems at the world, have never had uniformity and/or neutrality in international, or global level than in past English, and it would be perverse to expect it to national levels. There may now indeed be more emerge in the rough and tumble of today’s conformity than less.

IS IT WORLD OR INTERNATIONAL OR GLOBAL ENGLISH, AND DOES IT MATTER? 15 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 26 Sep 2021 at 19:43:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078404003025