Mind your language 3

Instead of engaging with my argument about the implications of English having become the international academic lingua franca, Roy Harris distorts my points and resorts to insults about my intelligence and suitability for university employment (Letters, September 14).

As for my alleged misreporting of his article, Harris was indeed talking mainly about English in British universities, but he also threw in gratuitous caricatures of non-native English in general, and it was to these that I was responding.

It is not clear whether Harris understands my position, but the other two correspondents clearly do not. All three are entitled to disagree with me, but as academics they might be expected to first make sure they understand exactly what they are disagreeing with.

Jennifer Jenkins
Southampton University