Lingua Franca looks at all aspects of language. Old languages, modern languages and even invented languages. Through interviews and prepared talks, experts analyse a single topic of interest to users and lovers of language traversing such linguistic territory as bi-lingual education, ebonics, the language of pornography, and the political use of words.
Lingua Franca also analyses the language employed in our public debates about controversial issues such as Aboriginal land rights, tax reform, and the meaning of the word 'sorry'. We have heard discussions about the place of minority mother tongues in early literacy programs – whether in isolated Aboriginal communities or in urban America where Black American English is the vernacular; about research into why boys who play up in school can't read; about the failure of German spelling reform, and about what the 'free speech' of the Internet means for authors' copyright.