EDITORIAL | REDAKTORIAUS ŽODIS

Abstract

The intensifying and increasing globalisation of different spheres and practices of public life has been driving the world into two controversial outcomes with regard to linguistic and cultural diversity. On the one hand, globalisation tends to iron out linguistic and cultural differences, which consequently may pose a threat to safeguarding multilingual and multicultural landscapes. In other words, the smallest language varieties can get swamped in the melting pot of today’s globalisation and internationalisation processes. On the other hand, the same globalisation tendencies result into a multiplicity of artistic, scientific, educational, cultural, sport and other projects or undertakings involving multinational, multicultural and multilingual teams where different languages and cultures may have an influence of more or less significance. How do different languages coexist together in the course of such projects? What impact do the differences in cultural background have on the shared activities and achievement of common goals? Does it all eventually boil down to the use of English? And even if this should be the case, how do one’s deeply set cultural and linguistic patterns permeate through the discourses dominated by English as a lingua franca? Such questions are increasingly raised in various inquiries of linguistic, sociolinguistics or applied linguistic relevance, as for instance the growing internationalisation of higher education, the multilingual classrooms, and other issues.