English Learner Article English as an International Language
Summary: Comments on English as an International Language,
English Spelling, and Are Numbers Infinite?  By: |Audience: All
The status of English as an international language is long
established and, for the foreseeable future, unlikely to be
greatly challenged. However, I believe that to make it genuinely
international, then one step in that direction could be to
consider the influence of non-native speakers in a different
light.  Generally, their non-occurent uses are labelled errors
and they are encouraged to change to conform to the standard
English model, even though many native speakers don't. I've
heard the question 'what means' so many times now that I have
decided to accept it as correct without question. I also can't
feel too strongly about 'depends of' being used by so many
European and other speakers.  Allowing a greater influence from
outside will probably annoy the pedants, but it would be much
more of an international language if it