A Foreword to 'English, the Business Lingua Franca' (original) (raw)

English being a language spoken by 1.5 billion (twenty percentage) of the global population, the teaching of English as a Second Language (ESL) has undergone a radical change ever since the globalization has set in as the cultural and the business phenomenon. In the beginnings, the teaching of English, being one of the expanding disciplines, started off as teaching grammar and literature, through the popular method called the Grammar Translation Method or Classical Method. However, with the outbreak of World War II, because of the exigency to teach English faster, a new approach by name Communicative Approach was in place thus the teaching of literature making way to the teaching of language per se. simultaneously, teaching language gave way to the teaching of communication skills. Thus the transition from the teaching of literature to language; language to communication skills; emphasis on accuracy (grammar) to fluency (communication); teacher centered lecture method to learner centered activities have taken place in quick succession, one after the other. In the whole process of transition, the emphasis and the focus has been the learners' need for communication, which has further branched out as English for Specific Purposes (ESP), aiming at teaching the specialized skills viz like English for engineers, legal English, business English, medical English and the like. Especially, the Business English assumes importance in view of the rise in business, post globalisation. The non-English countries like China too have been laying special focus on the teaching of Business English in the aftermath of the growing international trade and business. English has been fast expanding to such countries