Lingua Franca and Language of Wider Communication

Abstract

“Lingua franca” and “language of wider communication” refer to the use of a language in international or multilingual contexts. Once limited generally to contact languages (pidgins and creoles) developed by sea traders and the workers of diverse linguistic backgrounds in coastal trading centers around the world, lingua franca eventually came to refer to the language chosen as the means of communication among people without a shared home language. In the contemporary world, English most frequently serves as an international lingua franca anywhere in the world or as a language of wider communication in multilingual regions. Consequently, demand has increased for instruction in English for international purposes but also in local varieties of English that have evolved since the first contact with English speakers via colonization, invasion, proselytization, or travel and education. Applied linguists have responded with pedagogical innovations. Yet, because the status of English globally is an unprecedented phenomenon, questions arise about its future as such. Languages that once held similar, but more geographically or functionally limited positions (e.g., Latin, Russian, French) eventually were displaced. In most cases, however, these languages, in one form or many, continue to thrive, albeit in more limited and local or regional ways than at the zenith of their dominance.