Multilingual computing
Robert Godwin‐Jones · Language learning & technology · 2002
Language teachers, unless they teach ESL, often bemoan the use of English as the lingua franca of the Internet.The Web can be an invaluable source of authentic language use, but many Web sites world wide bypass native tongues in favor of what has become the universal Internet language.The issue is not just one of audience but also of the capability of computers to display and input text in a variety of languages.It is a software and hardware problem, but also one of world-wide standards.In this column we will look at current developments in multilingual computing --in particular the rise of Unicode and the arrival of alternative computing devices for world languages such as India's "simputer."