Graddol first option for the future appears therefore to be right: English is the lingua franca that Asians now share with one another and with the rest of the world. One should add however that this English is now also manifestly an Asian language in its own right. It has been thoroughly indigenised. One might con sequently say that whereas the centre of gravity of English as a native language continues to be the North Atlantic(in insular Europe and continental North America). the centre of gravity of English as a second language or lingua franca is manifestly Asian(especially in the South and East)