Is the language really in need of protection, anywhere in the world? If it is, who could be the protectors? A freelance journalist offers some comments on usage gurus and linguistic popes.

People complain to the editors of many periodicals about other people's usages. Teachers labour in many institutions to pass on shibboleths that they themselves were taught. Do such dedicated efforts make much difference to the language at large?

What might the phrase ‘awareness of language’ or ‘language awareness’ mean to different people, and what could it mean to anyone seriously interested in English as a successful international medium?

Traditionally, in England and Wales, higher-level examinations in English have concentrated more on literature (and the language of literature and formal usage) than on language at large. There are, however, signs of change.

A wide range of newsletters, clippings and cuttings, catalogues and correspondence arrives (and is welcomed) on ET's editorial desk. From the mass that goes into our files comes this mix of curious usages, arcane acronyms, neologisms and nonce forms.

Chris Upward, Conference Organiser, Department of Modern Languages, Aston University.

Horses have been important in the British Isles since at least Roman times, and users of English have taken their interest in horses with them to many parts of the world. As a result, the language abounds in expressions from the now largely vanished world of horses, coaches and hunting.

A professor at Jiaotong University, in Shaanxi Province of the People's Republic of China, outlines her views on the need for an adequately standardized international English.

JUAN RAMÓN LODARES draws attention to a combination of archaic romanticism and simple error at work in the description of words of Spanish origin in some dictionaries of English.