Read the excerpts written by John Robert Schmitz, from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), São Paulo, taken from his article entitled “To ELF or not to ELF? (English as a Lingua Franca): That is the question for Applied Linguistics in a globalized world”:

The realization that there are today more nonnative speakers than native speakers of English in the world with institutionalized and nativized varieties as well as their own specific communicative, cultural and pragmatic competencies has led to the rethinking of present-day practices in teaching, teacher preparation, and the writing of textbooks. Jenkins' publications (2000, 2003) dealing with the phonology of English and material for teaching English as an international language along with her book English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) (2007) call for the disengagement of the language from Anglo-American native speaker norms. This line of research presents serious questions for Applied Linguistics (AL) and English Language Teaching (ELT) that will, if implemented, entail major changes in that endeavor. The winds of change may indeed be beneficial for some and a threat to others. I argue in this paper for an open mindset with respect to the issues and to the new state of affairs in this globalized world today. [...] The appearance of Lingua Franca English has contributed to rethinking the role of language assessment and testing (ELDER; DAVIES, 2006) along with reasoned debate (TAYLOR, 2006) with Jenkins (2006a, 2006b). In addition, the field of Second Language Acquisition has also been questioned (FIRTH, 1990, 1996), FIRTH; WAGNER, [1997] 2007) with regard to its dependence on native speaker standards as the measuring rod that determines successful learning. Finally, House (2003, p. 575) calls for continuing research on ELF in Europe and elsewhere, but concludes that it is "(...) not, for the present time, a threat to multilingualism".

Source: Schmitz, J. R. (2012). “To ELF or not to ELF?” (English as a Lingua Franca): that’s the question for Applied Linguistics in a globalized world. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada, 12(2), 249–284. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1984-63982012000200003

Text 10A2-III

As the world keeps warming and electricity bills take center stage in national politics, the data center boom will drive up USA carbon emissions and electricity costs. But a few simple policies could help bring both emissions and prices back down. That"s the message of a new analysis from the Union of Concerned Scientists released Wednesday, which models a variety of scenarios for how to fuel the coming artificial intelligence boom. The USA is poised to see a 60 to 80 percent increase in electricity demand through 2050, with data centers alone making up more than half of the increase by the end of this decade, the analysis finds. If policies stay the same as they currently are—with attacks on renewable energy being embedded into regulatory regimes and few significant national policies restricting carbon emissions from power plants—we could see between a 19 and 29 percent increase in CO emissions from USA power plants tied just to the energy needs of data centers over the next 10 years. There are answers, though: Bringing back tax credits for wind and solar energy, even if data centers eat up a significant chunk of new demand for electricity, would cut CO emissions by more than 30 percent over the next decade. They could also make wholesale electricity costs go down by about 4 percent by 2050, after a slight rise over the next decade. Power plants are the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the USA, making up about a quarter of the country"s overall emissions. Last year, emissions from the USA power sector rose slightly, marking the first increase since 2023; commercial buildings like data centers, a separate analysis released last week from the Rhodium Group found, were the main drivers of that demand.

Internet:http://www.wired.com/ (adapted).

Text 10A2-III

As the world keeps warming and electricity bills take center stage in national politics, the data center boom will drive up USA carbon emissions and electricity costs. But a few simple policies could help bring both emissions and prices back down. That"s the message of a new analysis from the Union of Concerned Scientists released Wednesday, which models a variety of scenarios for how to fuel the coming artificial intelligence boom. The USA is poised to see a 60 to 80 percent increase in electricity demand through 2050, with data centers alone making up more than half of the increase by the end of this decade, the analysis finds. If policies stay the same as they currently are—with attacks on renewable energy being embedded into regulatory regimes and few significant national policies restricting carbon emissions from power plants—we could see between a 19 and 29 percent increase in CO emissions from USA power plants tied just to the energy needs of data centers over the next 10 years. There are answers, though: Bringing back tax credits for wind and solar energy, even if data centers eat up a significant chunk of new demand for electricity, would cut CO emissions by more than 30 percent over the next decade. They could also make wholesale electricity costs go down by about 4 percent by 2050, after a slight rise over the next decade. Power plants are the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the USA, making up about a quarter of the country"s overall emissions. Last year, emissions from the USA power sector rose slightly, marking the first increase since 2023; commercial buildings like data centers, a separate analysis released last week from the Rhodium Group found, were the main drivers of that demand.

Internet:http://www.wired.com/ (adapted).