Why Do We Teach English? Kenji Kitao Doshisha University (Kyoto, Japan) k.kitao [at] lancaster.ac.uk Introduction We are teaching English or studying the teaching of English, but why do we want to teach English, as opposed to other foreign languages? It is useful for us to consider this basic question occasionally. The Importance of English English is not the most widely spoken language in the world in terms of the number of native speakers--there are many more Chinese speakers than native English speakers--but Chinese is spoken little outside of Chinese communities, so English is the most widespread language in the world. It is difficult to estimate exactly how many English speakers there are, but according to one estimate there are more than 350,000,000 native English speakers and more than 400,000,000 speakers of English as a second language (a language used in everyday life, even though it is not the native language) or foreign language (a language studied but not used...