Kenkel and Tucker (1989) noted when researching into the English used by international students in America, for example, that “many international students … have spent much of their lives in acquiring and using their regional variety of English”. The pair concluded that the “errors” in the students work should more accurately be called deviations from the native-speaker norm.
I agree with them. Do you?
Here an example of an intelligible English deviation. My name is the George and I comes from in the near of big seas.
International speakers know that it’s a lake district that George is talking about.
What is an “international speaker”, Ralf?
You, Kofi Annan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jose Mourinho, Gerard Depardieu and everyone else speaking English as a second language.
I’ve never heard “international speaker” as a term used to describe an ESLer before. Where does it come from?