Joins up with English to get respect (6)
I believe the answer is:
esteem
'respect' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'joins up with english' is the wordplay.
'joins' becomes 'meets' (meeting is a kind of joining**).
'up' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (in down clue: letters go upwards).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'meets' reversed gives 'steem'.
'steem' put after 'e' is 'ESTEEM'.
'to get' is the link.
(Other definitions for esteem that I've seen before include "Hold in high regard and respect" , "Honour - regard" , "Respect and admiration" , "'Regard, respect (6)'" , "Rate highly" .)