ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on the compass of the discourse of English as an International Language (EIL), in terms of its size, its direction and its ability to encompass other discourses. Important in this process were, first of all, its origins in an Anglicist reaction to colonialism; second, the conditions of possibility for this discourse that emerged through the very particular process of the formulation of the disciplines of linguistics and applied linguistics; and finally, the worldliness of this discourse that places it in particular relationships to discourses of development, global economics and English language teaching. This discourse has come to articulate a very particular view of the global spread of English and English language teaching. The positivist and structuralist basis of this discourse, along with its connection to development and more recently marketplace orientations, has constantly stressed the neutrality, beneficiality and normalcy of the spread of English while ignoring a range of social, cultural and political issues.