Book Reviews

Ed Rani Rubdy and Mario Saraceni, continuum:

London 2006

ISBN: 0-8264-8905 (hardback), 0-8264-8906 (paperback)

English in the World, edited by Rani Rubdy and Mario Saraceni is a valuable and timely contribution to the current debate regarding the standardization norms to be followed in the current scenario of global spread of English. As a consequence of the space that English has now occupied in international communication in arenas of commerce, communication, sports, science, technology and culture, a curious situation has emerged in which non-native speakers of English outnumber by far the native speakers. This obviously creates a diversity of ways in which English is used in various countries and there is a tension between the demand for perpetuating the standard variety (British, and now American as well) and the struggle made by non-native varieties to maintain their distinct identity.

Read More »English in the World

A few facts about me: who I am, where I write from and why is it that I review this publication? Every sensitive reviewer, I believe, asks these questions and it is only fair that the answers be shared with the reader.

A colleague, member of the same department, entrusted with much the same teaching responsibilities and a student of the same field as the authors, I write this piece to review and assess a textbook and through it a phenomenon of which I am myself a part. Therefore, this review is rooted in a framework hopelessly intermeshed with the one under scrutiny, a view from inside, so to say.

Read More »Business English

By: Kamlesh Sadanand & Susheela Punita.

Course is a set of two books with one audio CD with each book. The books, in the words of the authors, have been specially designed for students who ‘have have had a regional language as the medium of instruction at school and who have had little or no exposure to spoken English.’ The course proposes to help average Hindi speaking students at the intermediate and undergraduate levels and prepare them to be at par in the speaking skills with those who come through English medium schools. Read More »Spoken English: A Foundation Course (Part 1 & 2)

By: N.Krishnaswamy and Lalitha Krishnaswamy

New Delhi, India: Foundation, Books Pvt.Ltd., Cambridge House, 2006.

Pp vii+227

In The Story of English in India, Krishnaswamy and Krishnaswamy survey the complete panorama of the journey of English through the annals of India’s history. The survey runs through all the foreign influences on Indian culture, begins with the Aryans who came to India around the second millennium B.C. and ends at the globalisation phase of contemporary Indian society.

According to the authors, “The book outlines the growth and development of English in India, with a view to redefining the aims and goals of teaching English in post-independence India”. (p.v) It is divided into five chapters. Read More »The Story of English in India