Elective course - Lingua Francas: Language Power and Society 3223-AMMS-EC-LFLPS

The aim of this course is to examine the role of lingua francas in society, with particular attention paid to English as a contemporary global lingua franca as well as to other historical, regional, and local lingua francas. The course introduces students to the sociolinguistic conditions under which particular languages become dominant media of communication in various geographical contexts. With English, which currently enjoys linguistic hegemony, being the central focus of this course, other lingua francas such as Latin, French, Arabic, Russian, Swahili, Hindi/Urdu, Mandarin, and Malay will be discussed too.
Students will learn how various lingua francas historically facilitated communication in given contexts, and how different these contexts were from the current worldwide dominance of English. The discussed themes revolve around linguistic imperialism, native-speakerism, language ideologies, and language contact. By the end of the course, students will have been able to critically approach the benefits and setbacks that each discussed lingua franca caused, as well as understand how language power may influence societies, both at the local level, and with regard to English, at the global level too.