World Englishes

English, the most widely used lingua franca, mediates among almost all people throughout the world. However, there is not a single variety of English. Even in the United States we can hear different varieties. Since the ultimate goal of second language acquisition is to achieve the target language competence, we all strive to achieve so. In my country, we studied differnet theories of language learning and teaching. We also studied the levels of language specially the English language. We used three term description for all 24 consonants and also described vowels: both monopthongs and diphthongs. We learnt different grammar rules and analyzed English sentences using tree diagrams, phrase structure rules and transformational rules. We studied the semantic and pragmatic aspects of vocabulary items and so on. But if my Fulbright friends sometimes do not understand me when I speak in English, I ask myself a question if I am speaking ENGLISH. I thought over it a lot and came to realize that all colleagues have their own idiosyncratic features. We all have our idiolect. Therefore, we sometimes do not understand each other. Perhaps this is due to the existence of WORLD ENGLISHES.