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ELF in the World of Technology


The article I read this week ("English for Informational Technology") looked at the importance for nonnative speakers of English to understand certain terms and phrases if they intend on entering the field of Information Technology. While it may not be completely necessary to speak fluent English to work in the field of IT, it may be very difficult to do so without at least a cursory understanding of the English language.  


If a nonnative speaker of English wants to get into the field of writing code, it may also be necessary to understand the English language as many of the tags needed to write working HTML are written in English. I had never thought of this until looking at English as a Lingua Franca. I am sure that there are other examples out there of professions or practices where knowing a specific language is required, even if it is not the spoken language of the area. Comment below if you know any examples of professions where a specific language must be understood, spoken, written, or read to be successful!

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