English as the international language of science

A Yugoslav pharmacologist once told me that, in addition to his other linguistic accomplishments (he spoke Serbian, Slovene, Russian, German, Flemish and French) he was also fluent in the international language of science, ‘bad English’. He was not serious, but behind the joke lie some serious points that will be the focus of this paper. Is there a ‘language of science’? Is this ‘bad English’ or a particular variety of English, and who are its speakers?

My friend's description of his linguistic abilities, though, does reflect the perception that English is indeed the international language of science. Although precise figures are hard to establish, it is certainly true that English plays an increasingly prominent role in scientific publication round the world (Baldauf and Jernudd, 1983; Gibbs, 1995; Swales, 1990, 1996). There are a number of factors behind this dominance of English, ranging from the geopolitical to the local. The pre-eminence of Russian in the old Soviet bloc has been superseded by English with the end of the Cold War, while the pre-war dominance of German in chemistry has declined to the extent that Angewandte Cbemie is now published in English. This trend towards the publication of national scientific journals in English rather than the national language is found not only in Germany but around the world from Scandinavia to Mexico (Gibbs, 1995; Swales, 1996).