There are far more people learning English as an additional language than English-speakers learning English - so how best to teach the English language is a huge issue and one which is part of my work.
I take my responsibility very seriously as a phonics programme-author and teacher-trainer in the English language and am aware of this increasing demand for English language learning.
It was noticeable during the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest that most of the countries' representatives sang in the English language whereas in days of old, many of the countries, if not most, sang in their mother tongue.
For me, at the heart of this growing interest in teaching and learning English is the greater hope for closer relationships around the world as a growing number of people share a common language. I don't for one minute think that the 'common' language should be English, but the principle of greater communication with 'whatever' language more people have in common has to be a good thing.
How ironic, however, that the increase in demand for English language learning happens to be the language that has the most complex alphabetic code in the world - and even here in England and other English-speaking countries, debate still rages whilst teachers try to get to grips with reducing illiteracy and improving literacy standards.
http://blogs.wsj.com/expat/2015/06/09/t ... /?mod=e2tw
The Power of Schwa: Surging Demand for English Language Spurs New Crop of Teachers
By ANNA ESAKI-SMITH
HONG KONG– You gotta have schwa. Actually, if you’re a native English speaker, you’ve already been using plenty of schwa, because you naturally understand the nuances of the English language that non-native speakers struggle with during the thousands, if not millions, of class hours they put in yearly to acquire basic English fluency. You didn’t know that, did you? That little question I just posed is classified as a part of speech called a “question tag,” which latches onto the end of a declarative sentence to transform it into a question. That’s clear, isn’t it?