This statement is an opening point for the discussion on the
effects of the dominance of English as a language of science on
other languages and speech communities. The global search for a
common auxiliary language that allows unprecedented possibilities
for international cooperation, and the resulting prevalence and
dominance of English in science, vary in kind and degree, as well
as in effects, across language communities and countries. The volume
under review is an outstanding one with respect to both thematic
diversity and depth of analysis in most of its essays. Since Fishman
et al. 1977 edited the first collection of essays on the spread of
English, numerous valuable books on the status of English as a global
language have been published (Flaitz 1988, Doyle 1989, Kachru 1992,
Pennycook 1994, Hartmann 1996, Fishman et al. 1996, Crystal 1997,
Ryan & Zuber-Skerritt 1999), but there is no doubt that Ulrich
Ammon has edited an extremely innovative and insightful volume.