English language turns into big business asset

As the international language of business, the teaching of English has turned into an industry worth £1 billion a year

The last remaining manuscript of what became the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary was smuggled out of wartime Japan by AS Hornby, an English teacher. At the time he cannot have realised the importance of his actions.

Nearly seven decades and many editions later, the dictionary, the first aimed at foreign learners of English, has sold more than 36m copies and remains the best-selling title at Oxford University Press.

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As English has become the international language of business, the teaching of it has turned into an industry worth £1 billion a year.

“Probably the single biggest growth opportunity we have is around the teaching of English,” said John Fallon, chief executive of Pearson’s international education business. The company’s most eye-catching recent move was to buy 66