Does Science Need a Global Language? English and the Future of Research

摘要

There is no doubt that English is now the global language of science. In this book, Scott Montgomery asks whether a global language-a lingua franca-for science is a good and necessary thing and, if so, whether it should be English. The English-language scholar David Crystal (born in Northern Ireland, educated in England, resident in Wales) notes in his foreword that the first wave of studies of English as a global language were published in the late 1990s, including his own English as a Global Language (1997). Crystal says these early studies were light on data and tended to be "personal, anecdotal, and at times superficial." He tags Montgomery's work as a "second-generation" study, providing deeper levels of detail and analysis.