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Global english?Common languages? have always evolved to enable communication throughout any region that is socially, economically or politically integrated. Now that the whole world is integrating on all these levels, it's not surprising that one common language is evolving to enable direct communication throughout the world. And that common language is more or less ?english.? When two businessmen or statesmen from different African or Asian countries meet to talk business or politics, they will use english unless another lingua franca, such as Swahili or Malay, comes into play. Yet the vast majority of these businessmen and statesmen don't speak english as a native language, nor with native eloquence. From the perspective of native english speakers in Britain, north america, and other territories settled by Anglo-Saxons, the english spoken in such meetings can be dry, stunted, and even ungrammatical. Then again, on a global scale, such ?native english speaker? perspectives are ?just another beer in the bucket? ---- even when it comes to the evolution of their own language on a global scale. People in Indonesia aren't mainly learning english to better understand their two dozen million or so Anglo neighbors in Australia, although some may harbor that motive. They're more likely to be learning english to communicate with two billion odd people in Chindia ---- people who probably don't speak the Queen's english either themselves, especially if they hail from the ?Ch-? part of the equation. english teachers and teaching establishments are by and large still staked in a different paradigm. We teach our students ?proper? or ?good? english, meaning english as it's spoken in Britain, Ireland, north america, Oz, New Zealand, or South Africa (BOZNANZSAI). We expose our students to authentic materials from BOZNANZSAI exclusively. And most english schools, and their clients, draw a sharp distinction between teachers from these lands and teachers from elsewhere. Our approach is probably right for english learners who intend to integrate into a BOZNANZSAI society, as well as for learners who are learning english in order to better appreciate BOZNANZSAI culture and society ? and possibly even for learners who need to function at a high level in a former Anglo colony like India or the philippines, where near-native english can be crucial for communication or as a mark of status. But we may be doing a disservice to the shipping clerk in China who is learning english to better seduce future clients and online shoppers in egypt, Bosnia and South Korea. In my experience, language-learning is no exception to the 80-20 rule. We the teaching establishment(s) simply assume that our students will eventually have to go beyond the half-assed (80%-assed, actually) english that they may learn as a result of a 20% effort. Yet, unless they plan to integrate into an Anglo-Saxon society, half-assed english is actually exactly what they need. It will also be what many, if not most ---- and more every day ---- of their associates will be using with them. What are the implications, then, of Global english for us as teachers? Pronunciation-wise, the ?th? sounds (alone among consonants) and vowel quality (but not vowel distinctions, especially where vowel length is involved) may be ?fungible quantities.? Pitch and stress patterns so crucial to communication among native speakers may be expendable too. The tense and aspect system of english, simple In comparison to that of Russian or Portuguese, may undergo a further simplification in ?Global english.? Vocabulary will streamline too, and many idioms will fall away ---- although I bet there'll be new ones in time. All these can be ?areas to de-emphasize.? In writing, even as machine translation gets more sophisticated by the minute, Global english will simplify itself to meet the machines half way. We used to see our students walk out with crude but effective english and say, ?We did our best.? Now we can pat them and ourselves on our backs and say, ?Now you're talking ? Global english, that is.?
