Wherever you travel, you will hear English spoken in places as diverse as offices, canteens, parks and temples. Indeed, English has become as indispensable as computers.

However, many students are unaware that there are many types of English that can be studied. These types include Technical English (TE), English for Academic Purposes (EAP), and English as an International Language (EIL).

EIL offers significant career benefits because more and more employers want students who not only understand the diversity of the English language, but who can also successfully use English to discuss commerce and technology in the workplace.

What follows are ways to understand what EIL is and how students can use it to further their careers.

Loan words

One of the most important aspects of EIL is that, because of the spread of English around the world, a lot of English words are creeping into indigenous languages, including the Thai language.

For example, cognate or loan words such as "computer" and "camera" are used in Thai communications without being translated even though Thai words for them already exist.

Also, one of the main areas where EIL continues to develop is technology and science, where new words (neologisms) are continually entering the English language.

Because of this, it is often easier to use the new technological and scientific words rather than create new words that have a similar meaning for the second language.

Standardising English

Another important point for students to grasp is that English normally develops as a language on a national level, so there isn't overarching agreement on what the different variations of the same words and their meanings are internationally.

!For example, there are variations of English spoken in many countries, including Australia, Canada, the US and Ireland, by both native and non-native speakers, but it is difficult to come up with a standard that applies to all users wherever they are geographically.

A similar difficulty exists in the fields of technical English and science, where, because of the use of technology, which leads to people collaborating more and more on projects across different time zones and geographical locations, there is an increasing need to know exactly what is meant by the terms that are being employed in the collaborative process.

Therefore, when a degree of standardisation emerges, a common language brings both a degree of clarity as well as efficiency gains.

Problems

Finally, and perhaps more so than any other language, the tendency of the English language to absorb foreign words creates its own set of problems.

For example, loan words can come from a variety of foreign languages, sometimes directly, sometimes through other languages.

The following English words all come from different languages: history (Greek), whisky (Celtic), chocolate (Spanish), umbrella (Italian), sugar (Arabic), and robot (Czech).

With a language so linguistically and culturally diverse, the potential for miscommunication exists as the language user needs to be aware of all the variations in meaning as well as the subtleties of geographical use.

That being said, an understanding of EIL is so important these days that many universities and language schools are offering EIL programmes, including Chulalongkorn University, which runs a programme called "English as an International Language".

!With the steady march of globalisation, one can expect that EIL will continue to expand globally.