The Cultural Basis of Teaching English as an International Language1 1 TESOL Matters Vol. 13 No. 4 (September/October/November 2003) 2 by Sandra Lee McKay 3 One of the most complex problems in English teaching today is determining the cultural basis of teaching an international language such 4 as English. In order to examine this problem, it is necessary to consider the characteristics of an international language. 5 The Characteristics of an International Language 6 Clearly, one feature of an international language is that it must be widely spoken. Today, however, English is not the most widely spoken 7 language in the world because it is only spoken by one-third the number of native speakers of Mandarin. What makes English distinct at 8 the present time is not the number of native speakers, but the growing number of L2 speakers of English. In fact, Graddol (1999) 9 maintains that, in the not-too-distant future, the number of L2 speakers of English will surpass the number of native speakers. This 10 development supports Brutt-Griffler's (2002) contention that one of the central features of an international language is that it tends to 11 establish itself alongside other local languages in a multilingual context, resulting in many bilingual speakers of the language. Presently, 12 many of the bilingual speakers of English have no desire to acquire the culture of native speakers of English because, unlike immigrants 13 to English-speaking countries, they will not be living and interacting in a native-English-speaking context. 14 For the purposes of clarifying the cultural basis of teaching English as an international language (EIL), perhaps the most significant 15 features of an international language are those described by Smith (1976), who argues that, in reference to an international language, 16  there is no necessity for L2 speakers to internalize the cultural norms of native speakers of that language 17  an international language becomes de-nationalized 18  the purpose of teaching an international language is to facilitate the communication of learners' ideas and culture in an English 19 medium 20 If one accepts these features of an international language, then the entire notion that learners of EIL need to learn the culture of native 21 speakers of English must be challenged. The question is how does culture interact with language teaching?