National language has four official languages: English (Singapore English), Chinese, Malay and Tamil. Although English is the primary language of business, government, and education, Malay is designated as the national language. This is due to the geographical and historical ties to Malaysia as well as the recognition of ethnic Malays (about 14% of the population) as the indigenous people of Singapore. Traditionally, the lingua franca among the different ethnic groups in Singapore was Bazaar Malay, a Malay-based creole. Since independence, the government has been promoting English as the main language of Singapore. The bilingual education policy requires students to study two languages:
English as a second or foreign language to programs for Aboriginal peoples in Canadian or Australians. The term refers to the use of standard English by speakers of a creole or non-standard variety. It is often grouped with ESL as "ESL/ESD". All these ways of denoting the teaching of English can be bundled together into an umbrella term. Unfortunately, not all of the English teachers in the world would agree on just only a simply single term(s). The term "TESOL" (teaching English to speakers of other languages) is used in American English to include both TEFL and TESL. This is also the case in Canada as well