ABSTRACT
The close interrelationship between language and culture has already be come well established, supported, in particular, by cross-cultural investiga tions of English research writing and the appropriate discourses in o ther languages (M auranen, 1993b; Clyne, 1991; Bloch and Chi, 1995; Vassileva, 2000; Burgess, this volume; Ostler, this volume). The rising interest in such studies is connected with (1) the curren t role of English as an international m edium of transm itting world knowledge, and, consequently, with (2) the rapid expansion of the global m arket for English language teaching and learning. Due to the sociopolitical changes in the countries of the form er socialist bloc this m arket now has a tendency to increase significantly; as Crystal notes, a particular growth area (for ELT business) is ‘central and eastern Europe, and the countries of the form er Soviet Union, where it is thought that nearly 10 per cent of the population - some 50 million in all - are now learning English’ (1997: 103).
