English as a lingua franca 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 typical ELF
English in the Netherlands "steenkolenengels" in Dutch translating to "coal English") is a portmanteau of "Dutch" and "English" and a term often used pejoratively to refer to the mistakes native Dutch speakers make when speaking English. Anglophobia, or more accurately linguistic anglophobia, within the European Dutch language area (i.e. the Netherlands and Flanders) has evolved out of schools and companies switching to English as medium of communication and a large number of English loanwords in the Dutch language. Consequentially this has led to some anglophobia with some groups advocating to dispose of all English loanwords. English disease (Dutch: "Engelse ziekte") is a pejorative term