Abstract

The practice of English is gaining ground inside organizations. Two highly internationalized French organizations — a transnational corporation and a major university — are used to shed light on two major factors in this process. The first is economic: the goal of avoiding translation costs might favor, or hinder, the penetration of a partner’s language inside an organization. The second has to do with power: a foreign language creates an uncertainty that, to be controlled, calls for language skills. The acceptance of anglicization depends, first of all, on the perception that stakeholders have of its legitimacy and, then, on their competence in English. This view reasserts the role of “rational speakers” in a situation of linguistic change.