通用语（发音为LING-wa-FRAN-ka）是一种语言或多种语言的混合物，被母语不同的人用作交流媒介。它来自意大利语，“语言”+“法兰克语”，也被称为贸易语言、接触语言、国际语言和全球语言。

英语作为一种通用语言（ELF）一词是指英语的教学、学习和使用，作为不同母语使用者的共同交流手段。

通用语的定义

"Where a language is widely used over a relatively large geographical area as a language of wider communication, it is known as a lingua franca—a common language but one which is native only to some of its speakers. The term 'lingua franca' itself is an extension of the use of the name of the original 'Lingua Franca,' a Medieval trading pidgin used in the Mediterranean region."

接触语言：洋泾浜语和克里奥尔语。帕尔格雷夫，1997年

英语作为通用语（elf）

"The status of English is such that it has been adopted as the world's lingua franca for communication in Olympic sport, international trade, and air-traffic control. Unlike any other language, past or present, English has spread to all five continents and has become a truly global language."

G.Nelson和B.Aarts，“调查世界各地的英语”，《语言的运作》，R.S.惠勒主编。格林伍德，1999年

"Even though everybody around the world speaks English—sort of—in their dealings with American media and business, politics, and culture, the English that is spoken is a lingua franca, a Bodysnatched English to be carefully scrutinized as to its meanings when it is used by a foreign culture."

卡林·多夫林，《作为通用语言的英语：全球说服中的双重对话》。Praeger，1997年

"But what do we mean by the term English as a lingua franca? The term lingua franca is usually taken to mean 'any lingual medium of communication between people of different mother tongues, for whom it is a second language' (Samarin, 1987, p. 371). In this definition, then, a lingua franca has no native speakers, and this notion is carried over into definitions of English as a lingua franca, such as in the following example: '[ELF] is a 'contact language' between persons who share neither a common native tongue nor a common (national) culture, and for whom English is the chosen foreign language of communication' (Firth, 1996, p. 240). Clearly, the role of English as the chosen foreign language of communication in Europe is an extremely important one, and one that is on the increase. ... It is important to note that this means that both in Europe as well as in the world as a whole, English is now a language that is mainly used by bi- and multilinguals, and that its (often monolingual) native speakers are a minority."

Barbara Seidlhofer，“共同财产：英语作为欧洲的通用语”，《国际英语教学手册》，吉姆·康明斯和克里斯·戴维森主编。斯普林格，2007

全球通用语

"I want to draw a distinction between a language which is spread through nurture, a mother tongue, and a language that is spread through recruitment, which is a lingua franca. A lingua franca is a language that you consciously learn because you need to, because you want to. A mother tongue is a language that you learn because you can't help it. The reason English is spreading around the world at the moment is because of its utility as a lingua franca. Globish—a simplified version of English that's used around the world--will be there as long as it is needed, but since it's not being picked up as a mother tongue, it's not typically being spoken by people to their children. It is not getting effectively to first base, the most crucial first base for long-term survival of a language."

尼古拉斯·奥斯特勒（Nicholas Ostler）在罗伯特·麦克鲁姆（Robert McCrum）的《我的好主意：英语在进步，但总有一天会消亡》中引用了他的话，《卫报》，卫报新闻和媒体，2010年10月30日

网络英语

"Because the cyberspace community, at least at the moment, is overwhelmingly English-speaking, it is appropriate to say that English is its unofficial language. ... The colonial past, imperialistic stealth, and the emergence of other language blocs in cyberspace as it grows will minimize in due time the preeminence of English as the de facto language of cyberspace. ... [Jukka] Korpela foresees another alternative to cyberspace English and a constructed language. He predicts the development of better language machine translation algorithms. Such algorithms will result in efficient and sufficient quality language translators, and there will be no need for a lingua franca."

J.M.Kizza，《信息时代的道德和社会问题》。斯普林格，2007