What is the future of languages in an increasingly globalized world? Are we moving toward the use of a single language for global communication, or are there ways of managing language diversity at the international level? Can we, or should we, maintain a balance between the global need to communicate and the maintenance of local and regional identities and cultures? What is the role of education, of language rights, of language equality in this volatile global linguistic mix? A group of leading scholars in sociolinguistics and language policy examines trends in language use across the world to find answers to these questions and to make predictions about likely outcomes. Highlighted in the discussion are, among other issues, the rapidly changing role of English, the equally rapid decline and death of small languages, the future of the major European languages, the international use of constructed languages like Esperanto, and, not least, the question of what role applied scholarship can and should play in mapping and influencing the future.

Table of contents

Introduction: Language and the pursuit of the millennium Humphrey Tonkin and Timothy Reagan 1–7 Contexts and trends for English as a global language Paul Bruthiaux 9–22 Global English and the non-native speaker: Overcoming disadvantage Ulrich Ammon 23–34 Language and the future: Choices and constraints John Edwards 35–45 Interlingualism: A world-centric approach to language policy and planning Mark Fettes 47–58 Development of national language and management of English in East and Southeast Asia Björn H. Jernudd 59–66 The “business” of language endangerment: Saving languages or helping people keep them alive? Luisa Maffi 67–86 Equality, maintenance, globalization: Lessons from Canada Jacques Maurais 87–97 Maintaining linguodiversity: Africa in the twenty-first century Alamin M. Mazrui 99–113 Language in the twenty-first century: A newly informed perspective Teresa Pica 115–131 Language and language education in the twenty-first century Timothy Reagan 133–143 Why learn foreign languages? Thoughts for a new millennium Humphrey Tonkin 145–155 Conclusion: Surveying the linguistic landscape: Assessing identity and change Kurt E. Müller 157–176 Bibliography 177–195 Contributors 197–199 Index 201–209