Dreams and business plans unfold in English

English emerges as a lingua franca

“[English] is the powerful language of resistance—it is the dialect of common sense.”

English has rapidly become the international language for business, as a lingua franca. “That is to say, it is used as a medium of communication by people who do not speak the same first language,” explains Andy Kirkpatrick in his controversial book World Englishes: Implications for International Communication and English Language Teaching (2007).

In fact, some linguists claim that an estimated 700-800 million individuals speak English as a second, third, or fourth language. That is almost twice the estimated number of native English speakers, usually estimated at 400 million! Isn’t that amazing!

The power of English to transform lives in the developing world, including nations where English is an official language, deserves more recognition. The Washington Post published this an excellent article on April 6 called In India, Dreams Unfold in English: Boom is Driving Languge Classes . Read it!

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