A lingua franca is a language that is used over a wide area as a common or commercial tongue among people of diverse speech. English is used as a lingua franca in the world today. Continually, English will be a lingua franca in the 21st century because the global influence of English is becoming more powerful and this phenomenon will go on in the 21st century.

English is the most powerful language in the 20st century. The power of English comes from the economic power of the countries using it as a mother tongue. Now, they occupies 40% of the whole world's GNP. In the GLP(Gross Language Product) that GDP of each country is divided according to the language, English is the first at 7,815 billion dollars. This shows that the countries using English have the mighty economic power if we compare English with the second, Japanese which is 4,240 billion dollars. Moreover, in the trade section of GLP, English is 2,338 billion dollars. This statistic is remarkably high comparing with the European developed countries because Germany is 1,196 billions and french is 803 billions. Nowadays, we can see the expanding movement of English in the world. Above all, the sensation of English education is the example of this. In Asia, the English education is a common phenomenon. For instance, China has taught the children English at the elementary school as compulsory education since 10years ago. In the European school, English occupies 60% of the second language, and this is overwhelming comparing with French(30.4%), German(5.2%), and Spanish(3.5%). Like this, there is no language which can compete with English.

The global influence of English will continue in the 21st century because the 21st century is closely related with the 20st century. The 21st century is not so far from today. In two years, we will meet the 21st century, and two years are not long enough to change the lingua franca because a language is a social promise and has durability. Therefore, some scholars (quoted in an article in the October 28, 1999 issue of the Chugan Chosun), predict that English will maintain its mighty power as a lingua franca until 2050 at least. Besides, the present education of English will produce much more people who can use English in the 21st century. For example, about 40,000,000 people are learning English only in China today. According to "The Future of English," a report of British Council, people who will use English as a mother tongue or a second language in 2050 will be more one billion people. If we add the learners of English in the other countries to these people, there will be much more English users. Therefore, the power of English will go on in the 21st century.

In conclusion, English will be a lingua franca in the 21st century because its power is expanding all over the world and it will continue. Thus, if we don't study English enough, we would be failures in the 21st century.

Park Eun-ju