Teaching of English in India has been traditionally grammar based. The teacher teaches a good deal of grammar; assigns exercises in class or as homework and makes a lot of corrections. Such painstaking efforts on the part of the teacher are, of course, helpful in learning the language but does not much help the student to use the language in day-to-day conversation. Leaving aside the traditional method of dealing with grammar as an isolated subject, the present book offers a specific course in spoken English that focuses on the language of interaction and social exchanges. Its main emphasis is on developing communicative ability of the learner.

The English language in the Renaissance was in many ways a collection of competing Englishes. Blank investigates the representation of alternative vernaculars in both linguistic and literary works of the time.