Disadvantages (and advantages) of English as a lingua franca

Latin used to be the language of scholars, allowing them to share and discuss their discoveries. Other languages (such as German, for the sciences) are sometimes identified with a particular subject area. English as a lingua franca for scholars has definite advantages, but the need for language diversity is discussed in The giant shoulders of English: The advantages of having a scholarly lingua franca should not obscure the disadvantages, which points out that ‘Monolingual ghettos are bad for science’ as important work may be overlooked because it is not published in English. While the article does not address Internet multilingualism, the implications are obvious.