English as a Lingua Franca: An Examination of Two Perspectives (original) (raw)
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E. Nanjira, 2020
In recent years, the term 'English as a lingua franca' (ELF) has emerged as a way of referring to communication in English between speakers with different first languages. Since roughly only one out of every four users of English in the world is a native speaker of the language (Crystal 2003), most ELF interactions take place among 'non-native' speakers of English. Although this does not preclude the participation of English native speakers in ELF interaction, what is distinctive about ELF is that, in most cases, it is 'a 'contact language' between persons who share neither a common native tongue nor a common (national) culture, and for whom English is the chosen foreign language of communication' (Firth 1996: 240). Defined in this way, ELF is part of the more general phenomenon of 'English as an international language' (EIL) or 'World English's'. (For comprehensive overviews, see Jenkins 2003; McArthur 1998; Melchers and Shaw 2003.) EIL, along with 'English as
The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 2013
, 2011. xvii+244 pp. ISBN 978-0-19-437500-9 (pbk). £32. Barbara Seidlhofer's latest monograph, Understanding English as a Lingua Franca, comes at a moment when the English language, while serving this function since the first colonizations in the 16 th century (Jenkins et al. 2011), has truly established itself as a language of nearly global communication, a language for which the predominant reason for learning has become to interact primarily not with its native speakers, but with other non-native users. The past two decades have accordingly witnessed a burgeoning of articles, dissertations, conferences, corpora, and a dedicated journal devoted to the topic; yet in many circles the phenomenon has still remained unnoticed or unacknowledged, acquired many misunderstandings, is raising mixed opinions or encountering strong resistance. Barbara Seidlhofer, a long-time expert on the subject and one of the pioneers of research in the field, explores and elucidates the many facets and repercussions of the controversial topic at hand. For the purpose of her book, Seidlhofer defines ELF 1 as any use of English among speakers of different mother tongues and linguacultural backgrounds, across all three Kachruvian circles 2. In contrast to some earlier definitions and conceptualizations (e.g. House 1999, Jenkins 2007), this importantly includes native speakers of English (NSs), who for aims of intercultural communication may use ELF as their additional language. The opening chapter sets the scene by casting light on the familiar phenomenon of the growing masses of people learning English worldwide, on a scale unprecedented by any previous lingua franca. Chapter 2 makes readers aware of the deeply rooted and all-pervasive misconception-in both popular and scholarly discourse-that English is the preserve and asset of native speakers, the only legitimate and authoritative provider of standards. In her critique of this linguistic imperialism, Seidlhofer also devotes some space to interrogating the very concept of NS, showing how this stable, homogeneous and hypercorrect construct is an idealized notion and how difficult it is to agree on its satisfactory definition (let alone a definition of an 'educated' NS). Chapters 3 and 4 turn to the reified and equally elusive notion of 'proper', 'real', 'Standard English' (StE) and to why (contrary to Quirk 1985, for instance) it is an inappropriate objective for learning the language. The first interesting chapter for this reviewer is chapter 4, devoted to a discussion of how non-native users adapt and variably alter English ad hoc to suit their communicative purpose (rather than "adopt" it as a "franchise language", per Widdowson (2003:50)). Thus, they preserve their identity without striving to mimic NSs' communicatively irrelevant conventions, and therefore play an active role in the development and spread of the language. The aim of lingua franca interactions is communicative efficiency, which is achieved by accommodating to the interlocutor. This is different from grammatical correctness. In Chapter 5, drawing on data from the VOICE corpus and other empirical studies-though without adequately explaining annotation conventions used in VOICE corpus data-Seidlhofer provides numerous examples of authentic ELF talk that diverge from standard English to illustrate the processes and communication strategies at work. 1 Sometimes also labelled 'English as an International Language' (EIL). 2 'Inner', where English has historically been the mother tongue of the vast majority of the population, 'Outer', where its varieties function as official and second languages, usually owing to colonial history, and 'Expanding', where it is being taught in schools as a foreign language (Kachru 1985).
English as a Lingua Franca: concepts, use, and implications
Sowden's article raises a number of questions concerning English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and criticizes it as a simplified and culturally neutral means of communication. In this response, I address the issues concerning the conceptualization and use of ELF as well as the implications for ELT. I provide up-to-date evidence of ELF research and show the variability, richness, and creativity of ELF communication.
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2023
The present study foregrounds background information on attitudes towards acceptance of English language and educational opportunities in non-English speaking nations from a historical and contemporary viewpoint. The relevance of ELF-informed perspectives in non-ELF-speaking contexts is then discussed, both from an educational and a business/professional standpoint. Using English as a common language globally presents an unprecedented challenge for stakeholders in the 21 st century. The paper focuses on the divergent policies related to English language. It investigates several countries' status, their practitioners, and people's viewpoints regarding the widespread use of the English language and the diversity of societies and cultures. The objective is to investigate how accessible non-native speakers are to newer speakers and alternatives that might work for their working atmosphere to provide some recommendations for them. The purpose is to determine if they are willing to use more modern pedagogical approaches appropriate for their teaching environment and to make recommendations for non-native people's development programmes. Recent years have seen a rise in interest in studying English as a lingua franca (ELF), which has produced some fascinating findings regarding how non-native speakers of English interact with other non-native speakers. Index Terms-English Lingua Franca (ELF) communication, English Language Teaching (ELT), Standard English (SE) I. INTRODUCTION Many aspects of ELF can be said to characterize it as a postmodern phenomenon: it can be described as a hybrid, fragmented, contingent, marginal, and indeterminate use of language. There are presently five non-native speakers of English for every native speaker, according to David Crystal, the author of English as a Global Language, in 2003. English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), communication, and research are particular interest of present research because they have practical relevance for teaching English (Kobylarek, 2017). Although many native-speaking institutions prioritize English language teaching (ELT), the theoretical and methodological issues are meant to apply to ELT and ELF learning in other educational settings. From the education perspective, current initiatives to support ELF-informed programmes are examined, with a review of their effectiveness and development potential in the future. The present research analyses and assesses instructors' and students' generally cautious, occasionally unfavourable attitudes to ELFinformed proposals for pedagogical reform after providing a brief overview of educational laws and ELT practice. Native and non-native speakers are the two primary groups that categorize language users. In both theoretical and practical linguistics, this distinction between native and non-native language users has been made. The separation between 'us' and 'the others' that exists in communities that try to create a strong bond among its 'real inhabitants' (i.e., 'us'), prohibiting 'others too' from fully participating in activities and events, is nonetheless very analogous to it (Llurda, 2009). Although many native-speaking institutions prioritize English language teaching (ELT), the theoretical and methodological issues are meant to apply to ELT and ELF pedagogy (Alam et al., 2022) in other educational settings. The research endeavour intends to analyze and evaluate instructors' and students' normally cautious, occasionally unfavourable perspectives towards ideas for pedagogical change motivated by ELF after briefly assessing educational rules and ELT practice. As a result, the model for our English and the cultures we consider when learning English are not always those of the native contexts. According to a pluralistic perspective of English, more than one person may speak the "standard" form of the language. While learning and using the language, teachers and interlocutors may not all be native speakers. The article is hence based on selected interview of pedagogues and uses secondary data review the status of ELF in most native language-speaking countries. II. LITERATURE REVIEW Kohn (2015), in his detailed research article "Teaching towards ELF competence in the English classroom", has investigated how to create a common platform for integrated educational solutions by bridging the gap between ELT and ELF. Direction and alignment are provided by a set of communicative-constructivist presumptions regarding the communicative nature of ELF competence, a constructivist understanding of language learning as an individual and
ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA (ELF): CROATIAN L1 STUDENTS' PERSPECTIVES
The current paper presents the results of a research which aimed at establishing the attitude of Croatian L1 students towards the role of English as a global international language. In particular, the focus is to examine whether their perspectives reflect the notion of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) by means of a three-part questionnaire designed to investigate: (a) students' attitudes towards the role of ELF as a contact language among non-native speakers; (b) their attitudes to English pronunciation; and (c) students' perspectives on the lexico-grammatical features of ELF. The research was conducted on a sample of 320 undergraduate university students from the Faculty of Economics and Tourism «Dr Mijo Mirković» of the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, including full-time first-and second-year students (median age 20). The participants largely recognize English as a global language that has far surpassed the needs of a single cultural and linguistic circle, and acknowledge the role of ELF as a useful tool in establishing efficient intercultural communication with other non-native speakers of English. Overall, students are quite pragmatically oriented and liberal towards non-native English accents, while gender and self-assessed English proficiency play a significant role in determining what exactly constitutes the ability to efficiently communicate in ELF contexts. The third part of the survey revealed interesting insights into the participants' view on ELF lexico-grammar, where a rather weak correlation between students' evaluation of accuracy (i.e. objective knowledge) and intelligibility (i.e. subjective comprehension) of the eight distinct features of ELF indicates a quite articulate perspective that deviations from the Standard English norm do not necessarily represent a serious impediment to establishing successful ELF communication. The current findings support the idea that domestic students already see themselves as users of ELF, with important practical implications for ESL (English as a Second Language) and EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teaching. Such results can help us better understand the various student profiles and their needs in foreign language acquisition, as well as to deepen our understanding of the relationship between students' proficiency in English and their views on what is "required", "proper" or generally defined as desirable in language production. The author discusses potentials of implementing strategies to reflect such insights into English language teaching.
CHALLENGING THE INTERLANGUAGE HYPOTHESIS The convergence of EFL and ELF in the English classroom
Lingue e Linguaggi, 2020
University presented the findings of their three-year study in a panel session entitled: English as a Lingua Franca: challenges and new paradigms for native and non-native teachers, insights from the language classrooms and implications for teacher education. 1 One of the main aims of this article is to show how possible it is to find a convergence between English as a foreign language (EFL) and English as a lingua franca (ELF) in second language education, by means of the learner's performance. This assumption is based on the author's critical analysis of the interlanguage hypothesis in English language teaching (ELT), seen through the lens of ELF theory. One of the fundamental tenets of this study is that today's plurilithic dimension of English as a global language entails a reconceptualization of the second-language learner's 'errors', which challenges the prescriptive role of standard English. Given the dynamics of English as a contact language, it is assumed that a more effective pedagogical approach should take into consideration the sociocognitive processes connected to language variability and the learner's linguacultural identity.