ABSTRACT
Braj Kachru (1988) was the first to diagram three concentric circles of English usage around the globe, suggesting that countries occupying the inner circle are those where English is a native language, those in the outer or extended circle are those where English plays a major if not dominant role in the country’s judicial, educational and other institutions and those in the expanding or extending circle are those where English has no official status but plays an increasingly strong role as an alternative mode of social and intellectual expression. As Truchot remarks in the Council of Europe report (2002), ‘in Western Europe the teaching of English has become the general rule, and all pupils now learn English’ (Truchot, 2002, p. 8), so that throughout Europe the language will exist in one of the three circles.
