The purpose of this paper is to find out what speakers of the English language think of as authoritative sources for ‘correct’ or ‘standard’ English, which is of course difficult to define, and when and in what way they refer to these sources. The study is based on a survey of the students of Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, conducted by the author in February, 2002. The survey reveals that the authority of ‘Standard English’ is clearly declining among young educated people in the UK. It also shows that authority is not found in only one source, such as BBC English, and that they think Standard English should be defined as whatever the majority of people think it is. Moreover, the data indicates that the aspect of language considered most important is grammar rather than pronunciation.

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Aspects of Computer-Mediated Communication
The digitalization of communication and the explosive growth of the Internet are significantly influencing standard international English as well as spawning Netspeak, an emerging sub-form of electronic English discourse. This study introduces the major graphic, orthographic, grammatical, and discourse functions of Netspeak.

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This paper presents the outcome of a study concerning which specific here- and there- words occur, how often, and what alternative words or phrases might be used. Below is a brief summary of our methodology.
1. All the here- and there- compounds were selected from a number of agreements made by U. S. personal computer manufacturers and a Japanese companies.
2. The data were organized in the form of a matrix chart. The results of our findings were as follows:
* U. S. companies made much more frequent use of in this agreement or of this agreement than herein or hereof.
* The there- compounds were less used than the here- compounds, and the frequency of there- was extremely low.
We conclude that U. S. businessmen prefer plain English to the legal wording that was used traditionally for agreements or contracts, when the meaning of plain English phraseology conveys the same meaning as traditional legal phraseology. We conclude that U. S. businessmen feel that a simpler mode of expression more appropriately reflects their values and style.

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This paper attempts to study the characteristics and usages of terms observable in gross domestic product (GDP) statistics in English language journalism. The research has been conducted by scrutinizing GDP articles for the January-March, April-June and September-December quarters of 2001 of Jiji Press, a major Japanese news agency, the Japan Times, the Wall Street Journal of the United States and the Financial Times of Britain.
These articles show distinctive differences in how they are written, but a high degree of convergence is seen in the usage of words, especially those showing numerical changes. This paper also analyzes how these articles are written.
It is hoped that the study of GDP articles will pave the way for a better understanding of the mechanism of other vital economic statistics written in English.

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Until recently vocabulary has not received the recognition and attention it deserves in developing systematic language learning. Now, it is widely agreed that a good measure of second or foreign language vocabulary learning occurs spontaneously while the learner is engaged in extensive reading. However, the limitations of this “incidental learning” also must be expounded on to improve the Japanese high school students' learning environment more realistically.
In an EFL situation, our students don't have the advantage of being surrounded by the language they are learning. In addition, officially approved textbooks as the core materials at junior high school are not always the ideal vehicle for vocabulary development in the classroom in that they don't follow the learners' developmental sequences. Therefore, some “explicit learning” is probably needed for learners to reach a vocabulary size “threshold” that will make incidental learning more successful.
If teachers really wish to raise the consciousness of learners and make them more aware of the learning process, they themselves will have to be better informed as to the role and mechanics of vocabulary in language learning, and as to principal learning strategies and beneficial materials. This paper will suggest some clues to finding jumping-off points where senior high school EFL learners can start their new, systematic and independent learning of vocabulary.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of first language (L1) at different stages of second language (L2) learning by focusing on verb-noun combinations. To this purpose, a comparative study was conducted to ascertain whether the distance between English and Japanese would influence learning English collocations. The findings of the research are: (1) As learners' general vocabulary knowledge increased steadily, their collocation knowledge was developed at the same time. (2) Higher level students tended to resort to L1 in selecting possible collocations for a L2 given node, while lower level students much more easily gave up producing sentences whenever they did not know some words or verb-noun combinations. (3) Any level of students preferred refraining from giving any answers to paraphrasing or describing answers with synonymous words when they did not know the target collocations. These findings would indicate that L2 teaching should concentrate on those collocations which cannot readily be paraphrased and which pose serious problems in successful communication in English.

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The purpose of the paper is to examine some physical design features to enhance readability of printed business documents. The computer enables us to produce publication—quality documents with a variety of fonts and layout options. However, this can cause problems unless the user has some knowledge of good design techniques. As well as words and ideas, fonts convey a certain tone of a message, and layout influences the reader's impression of the writer. Therefore, the user should carefully make the physical design decisions including type size, font selection, choice of devices to highlight information, and arrangement of text on a page.

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Since the 1970s, experts in government, industry, and academia have advocated the use of Plain English in the USA and other countries. This advocacy gave rise to what was later called the “Plain English Movement.”
But what is Plain English? Is it just a slogan, or is it a technique people use to write clear and concise documents? Many researchers have been studying what Plain English is all about. By mentioning a few examples and key topics, I will investigate what Plain English means. I will discuss the Plain English Movement, the definition of Plain English, and a few topics that are central to Plain English: using everyday words instead of jargon, active voice versus passive voice, and using personal pronouns.
When you write documents in Plain English, the most important thing is to deliver your message clearly to help your readers achieve their goals. You should not only consider the overall structure, design, and readability of documents, but you should also use plain words, concise grammar, and a tone that is appropriate to the reader's purpose.

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