Massimo Laganà

ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE

Nowadays it is very common to hear people speak about globalization, i.e. a very complex phenomenon according to which it is possible to trace in today’s world a sort of standardization which affects almost all aspects of contemporary life. As we have recently seen – suffice it to take into consideration the demonstrations we have every time the G8 is summoned –, some think of globalization as one of the most wicked evils we have to face, while others affirm that, after all, it is not so bad to live in a world which gives the same points of reference, no matter where you are or what you are doing. Taken to the extremes, there are those who fight globalization because they fear loosing their identity and those who support it claiming that identities will not be lost but just merged and blurred together in a big new world identity, needless to say that behind these moral issues the real reasons are calculated in terms of economical advantages. This is not the place to stop and argue whether globalization is dangerous or beneficial: globalization is a fact and, among the various elements this process affects, language is surely one which deserves the utmost care; and, when we talk of a global language, it goes without saying that the language we are referring to is English.

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