GLOBAL ENGLISH

views updated

GLOBAL ENGLISH. A term of the 1990s for English as the world's pre-eminent language: ‘The future of global English’ (title of the closing chapter of David Crystal, English as a Global Language, 1997); ‘Technology … lies at the heart of the globalisation process, affecting the worlds of education, work and culture; it has helped to ensure that global English has become firmly entrenched as the lingua franca within such activities’ (‘English and the Internet’, in GEN: Global English Newsletter, Monitoring the Changing Role of English in the World, 1, an electronic newsletter issued by BRITISH COUNCIL, November 1997). See GLOBAL LANGUAGE. Compare INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH, WORLD ENGLISH.

More From encyclopedia.com