Some pertinent questions (and perhaps, answers):

Is English a language or an accent?

If it is a language (as any thinking person might believe), what is its purpose? Could it by any chance be communication?

If the purpose of a language is to provide a means of communication what are the essential features required to make for effective, clear and near complete communication? The answer to this is the ability to speak or write in a manner that enables anyone who knows the language and can read it to understand clearly and without too much difficulty and when one is a listener or reader, to be able to understand as lucidly as possible, what the speaker or writer has conveyed. If one can perform all these functions reasonably well, one can be said to be somewhat of a master at a certain language.

Use of English is not limited to the UK or a just a handful of countries. In fact, if that were the case there would be less need for people from different parts of the world to learn it. English is used by people from all over the world. Thus, anyone who knows the language, regardless of where he comes from, should be able to communicate freely with people from all over the world who speak or use the language.

Will a British, American or Australian accent help one's mastery over the langauge and make one better at the language, to communicate better?

Can a Chinese/Asian student with a perfect American accent, but with little or no knowledge of vocabulary, sentence structure and the essentials of a language and its subtle uses, communicate effectively with people from different parts of the world? In fact, will he even be able to really COMMUNICATE with an American. Moreover, there isn't even a standard American accent. There are more accents than one would dare imagine. But, yes, right pronunciation is what is needed,and is an essential part of communication. And, pronunciation is not the same as an accent.

In the search for an accent, English learners are essentially being taken for a ride.

More later!