ABSTRACT

The study of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) is essentially the study of adaptive variation. It has become a truism to say that the extent to which English is now used as a lingua franca is unprecedented in that it has become an all-pervasive feature of a globalized world. For Noah Webster, a recodification of English was called for so that it would serve the cause of national identity. The extensive work on World Englishes, initiated and inspired by Kachru and Smith, was principally concerned with the description of varieties, linguistically distinct versions of intranational English that had their own communal identity and integrity. Basic was designed to meet the needs of international communication, but as the century progressed, English was becoming increasingly established as an international language without the need for artificial intervention. People invest their language with sociocultural values that they quite naturally seek to preserve and protect.