In this series, we welcome a second collection of chapters on the theme of the English Language as Hydra (Rapatahana & Bunce, 2012), in which the worldwide trade in English-language teaching, testing and publishing is likened to the monstrous, multi-headed Hydra of Greek mythology. It should be noted from the outset that the editors and contributors do not seek to denigrate the English language per se. Far from it. Their targets are the agencies that peddle this language subtractively, at the direct expense of other languages, and thereby serve to denigrate the core identities of the people who speak them. The chapters in this book consistently advocate a considered, and respectful, mother-tongue-based multilingual approach to language education – all language should be taught additively so that especially children's linguistic repertoire grows – and a wider recognition of a diversity of languages.

In the Foreword I have space to take up just a couple of themes reflected in many of the Hydra chapters that follow (their summaries are in the Introduction). First, a framework. Robert Phillipson and I have for decades analysed a trio of interconnected concepts – stigmatisation, glorification and rationalisation:

The same trio of concepts has also been applied to the speakers of the hierarchised languages and their competence in the languages, especially the dominant ones. Many of the chapters in this book show examples of all this.

One theme is 'helping', which many chapters expose. Marianne Gronemeyer (1992) analysed the concept in her article 'Helping' (1992) so profoundly that I have been unable to use the concept 'helping' for over 20 years.