English "the language with all the modern improvements" (James)

[alice wellintown]

 I noted previously that the decline in both the quantity and quality
of peer reviewed articles is owed to many factors, and that most of
these are having positive as well as negative effects on education
generally, on scholarship and research, and writing acroos the
disciplines.  As stated, the cross currents, the convergence of
disciplines, the international exchanges, the globalization of ideas
that are part of the larger international and global forces in
politics, economics, culture have an influence on academic traditions
and methods and these cross-fertilization have been greatly
accelerated recently. These exchanges are not new, but with modern and
post-modern developments, particulary in technologies, the world is
"flatter" and the "web" of ideas larger, perhaps less rigid and less
fragile. Two examples are the huge influence of America an American
English. A more recent one is the huge influence of China.  Put these
two great forces together, consider one fact, that In China students
must pass an English exam, and  "English Mania" has set in, and we
begin to see how the language that we read in academic journals is
influenced by forces on a global scale.

So we can't ignore the ESL, the  L2, L3 influence.

And, we can't ignore that fact that American English is also in great
flux as its speakers, its regional languages are shifting: Check out
"Do You Speak American", a PBS Program that looks into how Americans
speak and how they view the language.



  http://www.ted.com/talks/jay_walker_on_the_world_s_english_mania.html