English as a lingua franca the fore. English as a lingua franca English as a lingua franca (ELF) is the use of the English language as "a common means of communication for speakers of different first languages". ELF is also "defined functionally by its use in intercultural communication rather than formally by its reference to native-speaker norms" whereas English as a foreign language aims at meeting native speaker norms and gives prominence to native speaker cultural aspects. While lingua francas have been used for centuries, what makes ELF a novel phenomenon is the extent to which it is used – both functionally and geographically. A
Sambo (racial term) Sambo (racial term) Sambo is a term for a person with African heritage and, in some countries, also mixed with Native American heritage (see "zambo"). Formerly, it had the technical meaning of a person having a mixture of black and white ancestry, more black than white—contrast with mulatto, quadroon, octoroon, etc. in modern US English and British English. The word "sambo" came into the English language from the Latin American Spanish word "zambo", the Spanish word in Latin America for a person of mixed African and Native American descent. This in turn may have come from one of three African