World English education

1. A growing trend has been for Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), where, in secondary schools, a subject is taught through the medium of English.

1.1. The students learn the language for mathematics at the same time as they learn the mathematics they are talking about in English. Rather than just teaching maths in English.

2. We have already seen other situations where English is studied not just for some unspecified general purpose, but, for example, for academic purposes (EAP) or as English for business.

3. Business English learning and teaching has grown enormously over the last 20 years.

4. English is taught in a bewildering variety of situations. In many countries it first appears in the primary curriculum.

5. David Graddol points out, good English is an entry requirement for much tertiary education in a global market where English gives the user a 'competitive advantage.

6. Indeed there may be good psychological reasons why a student actually wants to speak Singaporean English, with its distinctive pronunciation aspects and special lexical and grammatical patterning.

6.1. Speaking English with a Singaporean, Argentinian or Turkish accent, for example, may make a clear statement about who the speaker is.