A reconsideration of Smith’s ideology of English as an International Language: What it is and what it implies for English language education in Japan

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It is a simple fact that English is an international language in that it is one of the most widespread linguistic media of international communication. Larry Smith(1983),analyzing the state of English language usage around the world, advocated a new philosophy of ‘English as an International and Intranational Language’ (EIIL). Smith thought that EIIL was a more accurate term for how English was being used in most of the world than was the cover term ‘English to Speakers of Other Languages’ (ESOL) which included ‘English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and ‘English as a Second Language’ (ESL). Also, Watanabe and Ihara (1990) largely accepted Smith’s position of ‘English as an International Language’ (EIL), and considered prerequisites for realizing multinational-English language education in Japan and how best to achieve them. This paper expands and deepens Watanabe and Ihara’s discussion by reexamining past literature and examining others published thereafter, and reconsiders Smith’s ideology of EIL and its implications for English language education in Japan. Lastly, this paper touches upon English linguistic imperialism which should be resolved when thinking of international communication.

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