ABSTRACT
It might be surprising to realize that the world counts more bilingual or multilingual language users than monolinguals. Traditionally, the use of several languages in one country has been the rule rather than the exception (Grosjean, 1982, p. vii). According to Romaine (1995, p. 8), there are about 30 times as many languages as there are countries; thus bilingualism is present in practically every country of the world. This situation is unlikely to change toward monolingualism. Rather, recent technological developments such as the World Wide Web provide an extra stimulation to use languages (especially English) other than the mother tongue. More and more, our world is turning into a global village (to use the term coined by Marshall McLuhan in the 1960s) in which the mastery of several languages is considered an important skill or even a prerequisite for international communication.
