Introduction: English in Europe

Abstract

The European Union, with slightly >1% of the population having English as a mother tongue, is experiencing a surge in the importance of English as an additional language among its citizenries. This has economic, pedagogical, political as well as sociocultural implications. In this special issue on Europe, with reporting on the current state of the English language in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Sweden, as well as Switzerland, which is not an EU member, there is deliberation on differing national approaches to the dissemination of English. The issue also includes a discussion of Europe with reference to applied linguistics and European identity. What is commonly shared among all the nations of Europe, and reported on in these articles, is that the acquisition and use of English across numerous domains continues to expand throughout the whole of the European Union.