the english language or english language

[techpeople]

This letter has been drafted in an effort to help you evaluate my proficiency in English language as per the present selection requirements.

[matilda]

i only saw ENGLISH, with no THE before or LANGUAGE after it.you'd better use ENGLISH without prefex or suffix.

[zahari]

when we use the word Enlish/French...etc without the word language after it we do not put the.But when we use the word language after a language we always put the.

....my proficiency in English

...my proficiency in the English language

Originally Posted by matilda

i only saw ENGLISH, with no THE before or LANGUAGE after it.you'd better use ENGLISH without prefex or suffix.

the : definite article
a, an : indefinite articles
prefixes and suffixes participate in word formation

Both "the English language" and "English language" are correct; it depends on the context you use them.
ex. I have studied English language for 10 years.[general use]
I must admit that English language is a great challenge to me.[general use/statement]
English are very nice people [general statement]
The English[ people] I know are very friendly and helpful

It is very difficult to understand the English language of the XVIth century .[ a certain type of English language ]

It works as in the following examples:

Bucharest is a very nice and interesting city...
I don`t know the Bucharest of those times[years]/that century

[rewboss]

Well, this is causing a few problems, isnt it?

We use "English language" without an article if we are talking about a subject which can be studied -- we would normally say "English" in this context, but we might need to say "English language" to distinguish it from, say, "English literature". It belongs in the same class of words as "mathmematics", "science", "history", "geography" etc.

Otherwise we generally use it with the definite article: "The English language is descended from Indo-European", for example. Now we are referring to the language itself, rather than a subject you might study at school.

In the original post, the definite article is required -- or you could just say "English" without an article and without the word "language", as matilda suggested.