Dynamique accumulative de la « valeur » de l’espagnol

International audience; This article discusses the sociolinguistic parameters that have made Spanish the most studied language, after English, as a Foreign Language for Special Purposes. In a globalised world where anything language related is desired, Spanish has commercial value. This article discusses how demographic weight, linguistic vitality, internal and external prestige of the language as well as its communicative value come together to make Spanish an international language with added value in the “special club” of the hispanophone community. The key role played by the Spanish speaking diaspora in both the United States and Europe where the diatopic, diaphasic and distratic varieties come together simultaneously with the different generations of speakers: native speakers, new speakers or heritage speakers.