LING 115gw Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Google Translate, Hinder, Shortwave Radio
Document Summary
Language that has a special role and a dominant wide spread use throughout the world. Special status in a country if it is the mother-tongue, recognized as an o cial language, or strongly promoted in education systems. Success of a language linked to the military, economic, and cultural power of it"s speakers not due to it being linguistically easy to learn (i. e. latin"s success) A common language/lingua-franca is needed in any ethno-linguistically diverse populations. Concept of a worldwide "lingua franca" emerged with the increase in int"l groups in mid-1900s (i. e. the un, world. Need for a global lingua-franca has recently been stressed by: (1) increase in availability of air-travel (2) development of modern int"l communication (e-mails, internet, etc. ) Most widely taught language as a foreign language in schools across the world (4) global geographical distribution of speakers of english as an l1 or l2. Inner circle: countries where english is the l1 of majority of speakers.
