This chapter describes some key developments in the English language from the end of the fifteenth century to the nineteenth century. During this period that English became standardised, the idea of a 'standard' form of English, which Could serve as a 'national' language of first England, then Britain, arises. As international trade grew, so did banking and other financial services such as stock exchanges. The Reformation is the name given to the breaking away from the Roman Catholic faith and from the institutional authority of the Roman Catholic church in many parts of northern Europe. The Reformation led to a generally freer climate with regard to the pursuit of analytical studies involving the natural world.

o n a l R e v i e w o f t h e E n g l i s h L a n g u a g e Visit Maldives! in English • Developing gender-neutral identities through English • Cameroonian pidgin English as an official language • Olé! 20 th -century Spanish loanwords • The future of EMI education in

This article introduces the crucial yet much overlooked dimension of verticality to landscape‐related research through a case study of one of the most iconic skyscrapers in Hong Kong, the world's most vertical city. A tripartite analytic model is proposed to examine the dialogical interaction between the discursive and material landscapes in a vertical layout, while at the same time to explore the intricate interrelations among social actors, practices, functions of space, levels of access and forms and functions of semiotic resources, all within one single site of varying levels of verticality. In the process, the study reveals the vertical space as a highly stratified and hierarchical system, and underlines the value of taking a functional approach to verticality in order to deepen our understanding of its indexical social meaning and its role as an active agent both in reflecting and shaping social stratification in today's globalised and consumerist world.

The border between mainland China and Hong Kong has become one of the world's most fascinating linguistic divides. On one side lies the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen, stretching the entire length of the border – an extraordinary urban development which in many ways epitomises the recent urbanisation of modern China. On the other side lies the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Hong Kong (see Figure 1). It is not possible to cross from Hong Kong to mainland China by land without passing through one of the Shenzhen checkpoints.

Scholars working in the World Englishes tradition have usually been concerned with those varieties of English which, following Kachru, belong to the ‘outer circle’ of Englishes that emerged in former colonies. Recent criticisms of the World Englishes approach have argued that too little attention has been paid to the social and economic contexts in which these forms of English are used, since they are as important as linguistic features in characterising their identity. A more radical proposal, raised for example by Bolton, Graddol, and Meierkord, calls for World Englishes to extend its purview to the role of varieties of English in economic and social development. The study reported here indicates how this might be theorised by shifting attention from the form of texts to the way in which meanings are given by members of the community. A language landscapes approach is taken to bilingual signage in the border area between Hong Kong and China, where a former international border is rapidly becoming an internal one – a transition associated with significant social and economic change. We demonstrate how potential meanings given to a particular sign are located in time and place and reflect the identities of readers.

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According to a 2010 China Daily article, the number of English learners in China is now around 400 million, approximately one third of China's population (see also Wei and Su, this issue). The importance of English in the state education system has been supplemented by the rapid growth of privately-run language schools and training institutes across the country in recent years. The same article quoted a comment by Ms Xiao Yan, the public relations manager of the Wall Street English language school chain, who gave her explanation for the current popularity of English in the following terms: More and more importance has been given to English after China carried out the policy of reform and opening up to the outside world in the late 1970s. And accompanying China's rise on the world stage in recent years are growing connections of commerce and culture with other countries, especially those developed English-speaking countries […] The entire Chinese society attaches high importance to the English study as sometimes it even plays a vital role for a person who plans to pursue further education and seek a better career. There is no doubt that people who have a good command of English are more competitive than their peers. (China Daily, 2010a)

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ABSTRACT: Over the last three decades scholars promoting the world Englishes paradigm (WE) have worked towards establishing a more positive attitude towards international varieties of English. However, despite the best intentions of Western linguists working in this field, there is an obvious imbalance between the developed and developing world in many contexts of English language education. Educators and teachers in many Outer Circle and Expanding Circle contexts face difficulties in terms of conditions, facilities, and resources very different from those of Western institutions. Academics in developing societies have parallel difficulties in publishing research, both in journals and in books with international publishers, while local options for publishing are often restricted. This paper suggests a number of ways in which linguists and other scholars might begin to engage with a range of issues related to ‘developmental world Englishes’.

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Whenever I've given a lecture on the future of English, the question I am most frequently asked is ‘Will Chinese take over from English as the global language?’. With China's economy continuing to grow fast, whilst those of the west slow down in recession, China has been rising up the world economic rankings and has overtaken other economies faster than predicted. It seems no time since it overhauled the UK economy to become the world's number 4 (2005), and then Germany (2007) to become number 3. During the summer of 2010 it edged past Japan to become the world's second largest economy. It may take another 20 years to overtake the US economy in absolute size, though it may already have become the world's largest exporter (overtaking Germany), and has already overtaken the US in energy consumption. Next year, China is expected to take over from the US as the world's largest manufacturer – a position the US has held since it overtook the UK in the late 1890s.

ABSTRACTAs English Today notches up a century, it's high time to acknowledge Tom McArthur's inimitable contribution to the study of English worldwide.Tom McArthur's contribution to English language studies has been immense, and has had a powerful impact at a number of levels. Tom started his life as an educator, gaining crucial exposure to English across the globe very early in his career, when in one of his first jobs teaching English at the Cathedral School in Bombay (Mumbai). After a varied academic career, which included a post at the University of Quebec, Tom returned to the UK to start a new journal for Cambridge University Press, English Today. Tom's brief at that time was to be the founding editor of a journal that would inform a wide readership about the highways and byways of the English language, during an era when English was becoming a global language at an unprecedented speed.

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