English as a lingua franca

Common card · No. 270473

English as a lingua franca (ELF) is the use of the English language "as a global means of inter-community communication" and can be understood as "any use of English among speakers of different first languages for whom English is the communicative medium of choice and often the only option". ELF is "defined functionally by its use in intercultural communication rather than formally by its reference to native-speaker norms" whereas English as a second or foreign language aims at meeting native speaker norms and gives prominence to native-speaker cultural aspects. English became the established global lingua franca in academia after the 1940s (until which French and German were of equal importance) and, by the end of the 20th century, partly by the cultural influence of the United States, had become the dominant lingua franca in all communication. While lingua francas have been used for centuries, what makes ELF a novel phenomenon is the extent to which it is used in spoken, written and...

Read on Wikipedia