English as a lingua franca (ELF) Research Papers (original) (raw)

- by and +1
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- Sociolinguistics, Applied Linguistics, English as a Lingua Franca, Internationalization

This is a Position Statement prepared by Cliff Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka for the Symposium “Global English, Minimal English: Towards better intercultural communication”, to be held at Australian National University, Canberra, 2-3 July... more

The demand for English as a lingua franca (ELF) around the world is inextricably linked to the global economy and the so-called global village. International communication is more than just big business; it is an economic, political, and social necessity. This larger world economy is itself a product of the availability of cheap fossil fuel which has led to the replacement of small, local trading networks with much larger international corporations where things are produced in all corners of the globe cheaply through economies of scale. For example, many of the books we use in our
classrooms might have been flown in from other countries where it is cheaper to print them. The necessity of having one common language that people across the globe can use for international business is the reason we have now, for the first time in recorded history, a language with more L2 than L1 speakers.

- by Richard S Pinner
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- Globalization, Sociolinguistics, TESOL, Applied Linguistics

The purpose of this article is to examine the personal, academic, and professional experiences of five Japanese university students who did short-term academic internships in three southeast Asian nations. Since students in Japan often associate international opportunities with inner-circle English-speaking countries (e.g. the United States of America or the United Kingdom), this article highlights the perceived benefits of choosing Southeast Asia as an educational destination. In limited published studies, researchers have revealed that Japanese students may gravitate towards Southeast Asia for multilingual language learning opportunities, lower perceived discrimination, and reduced financial costs. This article provides additional insight into the discerned advantages and disadvantages. Data for this qualitative exploratory study include weekly written reflections from students who were in southeast Asian countries from late 2018 to early 2019, followed by a focus group and individual questionnaires in the months following the participants’ return to Japan. Based on thematic analysis of self-reporting, results suggest that the participants found value in their experiences due to the (a) proximity and costs involved, (b) comfort with using a non-native variety of English, and (c) development of intercultural competences and soft skills. More specifically, participants felt that their experiences were less financially burdensome on parents, compared to similar experiences in inner-circle destinations. Also, participants reported feeling comfortable using English as a lingua franca, despite communicating in lower-context environments. This, in turn, contributed to the development of their adaptation, negotiation, and communicative skills. If higher education stakeholders and recruiters can better promote the educational experiences of Japanese university students in Southeast Asia, such as those featured in this article, then it is possible that access and participation may increase in the future.

MUN simulations can be considered a community of practice since they possess Wenger's (1998) three criteria-mutual engagement, a negotiated joint enterprise, and a shared repertoire. House (2003) argues that ELF too can be considered a community of practice since "its diffuse alliances and communities of imagination and alignment fits ELF interactions well because ELF participants have heterogeneous backgrounds and diverse social and linguistic expectations" (p. 573). Speaking English as an L1 offers no guarantee of an ability to interact successfully with a wide variety of interlocutors; there are many varieties of English, many of which are mutually incomprehensible (Ur 2010) and similarly, native speakers of these many varieties of English are not guaranteed to be successful interlocutors with users of ELF (Litzenberg 2013). Indeed, English native speakers are in especially acute need of training to adjust to a lingua franca world (Carey 2013). This short paper will report on observations of ELF-speaking MUN delegates from Japan and Germany to get a sense of some of the shortcomings that native speakers display when communicating with ELF speakers in the context of MUN simulations and will make recommendations for their training. The speaker must choose a comprehensible [verständlich] expression so that speaker and hearer can understand one another. (J. Habermas (1979) cited in: W. Ulrich (1983), Critical heuristics of social planning, p. 123).

- by Donna Tatsuki
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- Global Citizenship, English as a Lingua Franca, Negotiation, Global Leadership

This chapter provides an overview of research into the implications the global spread of English as a lingua franca (ELF) has had for conference interpreting over the past decade, during which the subfield of ITELF (interpreting, translation and English as a lingua franca) has evolved. It details the complete list of empirical studies carried out so far and outlines the consequences for central topics in conference interpreting, namely interpreting quality, cognitive demands, interpreting strategies and capacity management, interpreters’ self-concept and interpreter training. It also addresses preliminary insights into how conference interpreting under ELF conditions could be rethought. It concludes with a table summarizing the changes in the parameters and premises that characterize the new paradigm of interpreting input from a majority of non-native English speakers.

Studies of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) suggest that some speakers of ELF are willing to mark their (national) identity in their ELF pronunciation, while others want to strive for native models (e.g. Jenkins 2009). A recent study (Stanojević and Josipović 2010) confirms this, suggesting that liberalism vs. non-liberalism towards ELF among Croatian university students is based on their major. In this paper we show that there may be a more pervasive process at play behind the liberal vs. non-liberal attitudes to ELF, namely identity construction. Based on the results of a questionnaire conducted among secondary school pupils, university students and employees of a company, we show that different attitudes to one’s own accent, the accent of one’s collocutors and teaching models primarily hinge on belonging to different groups of participants: learners vs. speakers of ELF. Our results support a non-monolithic, stratified ELF model, which changes along with the needs and identity construction of its speakers.

- by Višnja Smojver and +1
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- Sociophonetics, Language Attitudes, Identity Construction, English Pronunciation

This PhD research study looks at meaning-making practices in interactions of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). In particular, two research questions are investigated: Which wordings and features of discourse are characteristic of interactions in contexts where English is used as a lingua franca, and how do they contribute to meaning-making? To what extent do successful ELF interactions require competencies, skills and practices which are additional to those already described in the literature, and how can they best be described and accounted for? The data comprised naturally occurring spoken discourse from international students who were holding meetings in order to establish an international student society at the University London, and were analysed qualitatively drawing eclectically on the analytic traditions of ethnography and conversation analysis. In the first analytical chapter, it was found that the students were making specific meaning through translanguaging, and this contributed to the achievement of the pragmatic functions ‘filling in a lexical gap’ and ‘using some more precise lexis’. In the second chapter, it was shown that the students were again translanguaging setting out to be polite by achieving the pragmatic functions ‘displaying discursive sensitivity through avoiding profanity in English’ and ‘increasing politeness through showing awareness of the interlocutor’s linguistic background’. In the third analytical chapter, it was yielded that the students negotiated the meaning of culturally contested expressions, and thus the functions ‘refining the culturally contested elements of an expression’ and ‘replacing a culturally contested expression altogether’ were achieved. Finally, in the fourth analytical chapter, what was argued was that there were instances in which the students were attempting to manage the relational and build rapport with their interlocutors with word play through the functions ‘making an idiomatic expression more relevant to the rest of the in-group’ and ‘making an idiomatic expression more relevant to a wider audience’. Subsequently, the implications of the findings were discussed from the perspective of their significance regarding revising communicative competence and related models of competence, reconceptualising language functions and social semiotics, and reappraising the practice of translanguaging in superdiverse contexts. Finally, it was shown that these findings could be pedagogically useful for English language planning and policy from the particular perspective of curriculum and syllabus design, coursebooks and materials development, teaching approaches and methods, and testing and assessment.

The global spread of English as a lingua franca (ELF) has caused a fundamental change to translation and interpreting (T&I). Translation and interpreting used to revolve around bilingual mediation between native speakers and native listeners. In interpreting, in particular, more often than not, source speeches are now produced by non-native English speakers. The impact of this development has the potential to uproot our traditional understanding of T&I. This article sets out to describe how ELF or, more specifically, input produced by nonnative English speakers under ELF conditions, differs from the native-speaker input, translators and interpreters used to be dealing with. It gauges the consequences of these differences for translation and interpreting and examines how fundamental a change it is navigating between non-native speakers and listeners, as compared to the traditional situation of mediating between speakers and listeners operating in their respective first languages. This culminates in an exploration of the question as to whether there is reason to speak of a paradigm shift in translation and interpreting studies.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the
fieldwork of a current doctoral thesis to
investigate the influence of a pronunciation
syllabus based on the Lingua Franca Core (LFC)
in improving the intelligibility and comprehensibility
of Arab learners. The paper will introduce
a sample of how this syllabus has been designed
based on a Contrastive Analysis (CA) between
the LFC and the phonology of Modern Standard
Arabic (MSA). It will then present a workable
example of how the pronunciation elements of
the LFC syllabus can be integrated in adopted
textbooks and discuss the classroom practice
which the LFC necessitates.

The advancement of English as an instrument for the internationalization of higher education has foregrounded English as an academic lingua franca (EALF), and the case of China is no exception. This study focuses on the process by which EALF has been interpreted and negotiated across university policies and local practices in China’s internationalized higher education. Drawing upon nexus analysis and multisource data, the study traced the discursive (re)location of EALF across different scales of social activity related to multilingualism at an English-medium transnational university in China. Our analysis illustrates the tension between English and other co-existing languages, as presented in educational language policies and as perceived and practiced by multilingual students in the local communicative context. The findings also show an interactive policymaking process through which students and university administrators opened ideological and implementational spaces that linguistically and semiotically pluralized communicative scenarios at the internationalized university in focus.

The English language has been established as the Lingua Franca used in many realms of the professional world. As such a comprehensive study is needed to thoroughly assess the English skills of the resort employees of Greece, one which would rigorously examine the deficiencies currently present within the resort employees understanding and functional application of the English language. From this examination, a needs analysis would be drawn. This needs analysis would cover the specific deficiencies noted in the primary investigation and specifically tailor a learning curriculum towards addressing the needs of the resort staff. This is the nature of the ensuing report.

The legitimacy of the many postcolonial Englishes in the world necessitated an imperative to explore their use in the classroom. This pedagogic imperative in many cases has collided with many problems because of deeply entrenched ideologies in educational systems around the world. This configuration of issues surrounding the sociolinguistics of Englishes has resulted in the burgeoning of scholarly investigations into constraints and possibilities of World Englishes (WE), English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), and English as an International Language (EIL) in classrooms around the world. In this paper, I will argue that Englishes as a pedagogical problem is partly a construction or creation of such investigations and, in many ways, is disconnected from the daily challenges of English language teachers. What is the place of Englishes as an academic pedagogical issue among the myriad of problems teachers face every day? This paper draws on a 3-year localization project in ELT curriculum development in several institutions in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. In particular, it tracks the stories of three teachers in each of the last three countries, to give substance to the paper's argument that the current line of inquiry in the pedagogical "implications" of the sociolinguistics of Englishes is unequal, and usually treats the teacher and the classroom as a recipient, not a co-constructor, of knowledge in the field. Keywords World Englishes • English as a Lingua Franca • English as an international language • Localization • English teacher R. Tupas () English Language and Literature

This article examines translation into English as a lingua franca through the theoretical lens of fan translation. The phenomenon of scanlation is here taken into consideration as a case study of informal translation practices into English for an international readership. This article focuses in particular on the translation of the Japanese graphic narratives known as manga into English, and the negotiations that take place between scanlators and their readers. The article first explains the practice of scanlation and the policies that scanlation groups have adopted with regard to the recruitment of translators and proofreaders. Actual examples of scanlated manga are then analysed, with a focus on the translation of social deixis and honorific suffixes. Finally, the article presents the readers’ point of view through an analysis of the results of an opinion poll on the topic of scanlation.

English language teaching (ELT) practice in Japan has almost invariably been on the defensive, criticized from both inside and outside of the country for its Anglo-American, native-speaker-centered textbooks, persistence in yakudoku, or translation-based methods, reportedly less-qualifi ed teachers, and other reasons. Increasing recognition of the term 'world Englishes' (WE) in recent years has provided yet another ground for those calling for an overhaul of the materials, teaching personnel, and pedagogy. With its emphasis on recognizing the validity and legitimacy of varieties of English around the world, WE challenges the longstanding tradition of Japan's ELT, which almost exclusively focuses on the native-speaker, or more precisely, Ameri-can, model and gives scant attention to users and the use of Eng-lish elsewhere. Such criticism, however, seems to disregard an important fact of ELT in Japan: that there are a plethora of teaching materials produced locally, teaching personnel educated and trained locally, and teaching methodologies developed locally. In other words, the appropriation and localization of ELT, which the framework of WE aims at, seems to have already been achieved to the extent that the local culture and language are well involved in the teaching practice. In light of this concern, this paper, after briefl y reviewing the theoretical framework of WE, critically examines the pedagogical implications of the WE framework for ELT in general and in Japan in particular. Analyzing the viability and scope of the proposed options for incorporating the WE perspective into ELT in the Japanese context will reveal that many of the proposals seem to regard the concept merely as further support for the increasingly popularized communicative-oriented pedagogy, thereby paradoxically reinforcing the Anglo-American orientation of Japan’s ELT. Recognizing the significance of the WE perspective, this paper will argue that a better appreciation of the locally developed ELT practice would be more consistent with the framework, which originally aims at ELT with an ‘endonormative’ rather than an ‘exonormative’ model.

Previous research (Harrington & Roche, 2014) showed that the Timed Yes/No Test (a measure of vocabulary size and response speed) is an effective tool for screening undergraduate students at risk of failure in English-as-a-Lingua-Franca (ELF) university settings. This study examines how well performance on the test predicts grade point averages across different academic disciplines in one of those contexts, an ELF university in Oman. First year students (N= 280) from four academic disciplines (Humanities, IT, Business and Engineering) completed Basic and Advanced versions of the Timed Yes/No Test. The predictive validity of word recognition accuracy (a proxy for size) and response time measures on GPA outcomes were examined independently and in combination. Two patterns emerged. Word accuracy was a better predictor of academic performance than response time for three of the groups, Engineering the exception, accounting for as much as 25% of variance in GPA. Response time accounted for no additional unique variance in the three groups after accuracy scores were accounted for. In contrast, accuracy was not a significant predictor of GPA for the Engineering group but response time was, accounting for 40% of the variance in academic performance. The findings are related to the use of the Timed Yes/No Test as a reliable and cost-effective screening tool in Post Enrolment Language Assessment (PELA) applications in ELF settings.

It has been suggested that continental European varieties of English with their own endonormative standards may be emerging. We surveyed more than 4,000 Dutch and German respondents on their degree of acceptance of ‘Dutch English’ and ‘German English’, respectively. German respondents were found to be significantly more open than Dutch respondents to the notion of a local English variety. Multivariate regression analysis showed that lower acceptance was associated with higher proficiency levels, a more positive orientation towards English, a stronger belief in the importance of English and greater exposure to English in higher education. Interaction effects were found between nationality and both proficiency levels and positive attitudes, whereby the most proficient and English-oriented Dutch respondents were more strongly oriented towards native varieties than their German counterparts. The findings have implications for the development of targeted interventions to raise awareness of the diverse forms of English in Europe and around the globe.

- by Alison Edwards and +1
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- Teaching English as a Second Language, Teaching English As A Foreign Language, English language teaching, Expanding Circle

The fact that in the last few decades English has become the internationallanguage of scientific communication has brought with it an increasing pressure on non-Anglophone academics to disseminate their research internationally in English. Some disciplinary areas, such as Sociology, which have traditionally been dominated by Anglophone writers, are witness to an increasing number of non-native academics publishing in their most prestigious journals, hosted either in the United States or in Great Britain. This may have implications for the way academic texts are being written. This paper focuses on the evolution of the prestigious journal Social Science Research since it was launched in 1972. My research hypothesis is that the fact that an increasing number of non-Anglophone writers are contributing to the journal may be modifying the rhetorical level of the research article abstracts. The analysis carried out in this study identifies processes of evolution in terms of simplificationof the conventional rhetorical structure used for abstracts, and hybridization, which in fact involves a higher degree of textual complexity. The new, hybrid, patterns identified here may be the result of processes of contact and
evolution, reshaping old forms into new forms that model English conventional patterns in innovative and creative ways. Further enquiry is needed to test the preliminary results yielded by the present study.
Keywords: written academic English, EAL, ELF, research article abstract, sociology, rhetorical structure, simplicity, hybridity

- by Rosa Lorés
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- Academic Writing, English as a lingua franca (ELF)

The study seeks to add to the current debate on English as a lingua franca by analysing the role of the native speaker in English in intercultural Business negotiations and attempting to answer two questions: what are the differences in the production of communication strategies in business negotiations between native speakers of English and lingua franca speakers of English? And do native speakers of English effectively accommodate lingua franca speakers in intercultural negotiations? The data, gathered from a sample of 14 native English speakers and 13 non-native English speakers, consist of interaction data collected through a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) and the participants’ a self report on their language use in the format of a short questionnaire. The results showed that the native speakers in this sample used a wider range of linguistic devices than the non-native speakers. The majority of the native speakers attempted to accommodate non-native speakers, but there was significant variation in the way that individual participants chose their strategies and approached accommodation. The most striking finding was the imbalance between the native speaker's understanding of the issues of intercultural communication, and their inability to effectively accommodate non-native speakers. The implications are discussed.

Negli ultimi anni le popolazioni sono sempre più strettamente in contatto e i mezzi di comunicazione, i social network, le tecnologie avanzate ci hanno messo spesso a confronto con popolazioni che parlano lingue diverse dalla nostra. Pensiamo in ambito lavorativo quante volte in sede di riunione con managers e tecnici, ci si deve confrontare per trovare le soluzioni di produzione che un’azienda deve pianificare. Per questo ed altri motivi, una lingua su tutte, l’Inglese, è determinante nell’unificare gli intenti di tutte quelle persone che devono interloquire in differenti ambiti che possono essere legati a settori quali la didattica, il mondo social, la medicina ecc… L’inglese funge sempre più spesso da lingua franca di comunicazione al di là di confini linguistici, nazionali e geografici come tradizionalmente concepiti. Pensiamo solo alle possibilità offerte dall’espansione di internet: le giovani generazioni soprattutto, tramite i social network, blog, Skype o forum di discussione hanno la possibilità di comunicare con persone che parlano lingue diverse, situate in qualsiasi altra parte del mondo, ed è l’inglese che nella maggior parte dei casi rappresenta l’unico codice condiviso, fungendo quindi da lingua franca di comunicazione.

Kachru [World Englishes, 9, 3-20 (1990)] observes that studies in English as a non-native language are dominated by either 'deficit' or 'deviational' approaches. What is lacking, he notes, is an inferucfionul approach, i.e. one which considers how language is used interactively to accomplish social goals. This paper attempts to develop the theme of an 'interactional approach' and discusses its theoretical underpinnings. The proposed method entails the adoption of ethnomethodological perspectives on social knowledge, combined with conversation analytic interests in detailing the locally managed character of spoken interaction. The setting of international (trading) negotiations, conducted in 'lingua franca' English, provides the focal point for discussion. The term 'lingua franca' English is introduced to describe the language used exclusively by and among non-native speakers. A distinction is made between: (1) intranational lingua franca, and (2) international lingua franca. Finally, the notion of 'internationalization' of negotiating behaviour and language use is discussed.

This article begins with background information on English language attitudes and education in the Japanese context, from both an historical and a present-day perspective. It then considers the value of ELF-informed views for the Japanese context: both from educational and business/professional perspectives. From the educational aspect, existing efforts to promote ELF-informed programs are investigated, with analysis of their success and future prospects for growth. Areas of continued resistance to ELF and other pluralistic paradigms in Japan are also explored. From a professional standpoint, the article will outline the actual need for ELF among Japanese working people, and the extent to which ELF comes into play in actual interactions, both in Japan and overseas. I will conclude with a consideration of challenges which remain to be faced for ELF in Japan. 60

AWEJ Volume.5 Number.2, 2014 Pp.167... more

The increasing number of non-native English speakers in the world has led to the use of varieties of English. Today, the number of speakers of English in the expanding circle has exceeded the number of speakers in the outer and inner circles. This has given rise to the scrutiny of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). In this regard, the research and studies in this particular area have increased over the last decades. The purpose of this action research was to build awareness of World Englishes (WEs) among preparatory students at a private university in Turkey. The study was mainly concerned with acquainting the group with the term and raising consciousness about this subject matter. The research was conducted in a private university in İstanbul, Turkey to 20 preparatory students aged 18-21 with A2 level English proficiency. Adapted EFL materials including videos, dialogues, reading and listening texts were utilized. The data were collected through questionnaires and reflective essays. With regard to the results, the students had an idea about the concept of WEs and they became aware of the varieties of English to some extent; specifically, they displayed consciousness about the status of English across the world and sympathy toward WE.

As foreign language learners of English in higher education area have very few opportunities to practise English for their academic and daily purposes in the society, students consider several methods to bring advantage to improve their English language proficiency. In this respect, Erasmus programme comes to light and creates the opportunity of going abroad. Even if the programme contains within itself the countries where English is not spoken as a foreign language. However, students need to communicate mainly by means of English as a lingua franca. In this context, to examine the importance of Erasmus Programme in improving Erasmus students’ English language proficiency, a survey study was conducted. Quantitative data were collected by means of a questionnaire in addition to specific open-ended questions. Questionnaires were administered on Turkish outgoing students in order to gather outgoing students’ views of the programme. The data were analysed through SPSS version 20.0. In the light of the results of this study, it is revealed that Erasmus experience contributes to English language proficiency substantially. Although the results cannot be generalizable, they may contribute the further research by providing a general picture of the recent case.

Meta-analyses of research show that notetaking enhances listening, active learning, and recall (e.g., Kobayashi, 2006). Unsurprisingly, taking notes leads to better performance than not taking notes (e.g., Fischer & Harris, 1973). However, the notion of what constitutes " good " notes remains unclear, particularly from the perspective of EAP teachers. Various methods for evaluating the quality of student notes have been proposed by teachers and researchers, including total notations, content words, information units, and test answerability (e.g., Crawford, 2015; Dunkel, 1988). Some teachers also give grades for student notes, and focus on aspects such as legibility and organization. This paper considers the benefits and drawbacks of several methods for evaluating notes. It then promotes the notion of " information unit " (IU) as arguably the most relevant method for teaching EAP. The paper illustrates how notes can be evaluated through IU analysis using excerpts from a TED Talk and samples of an EAP student's notes. Other methods are also applied to the note samples in order to demonstrate that IU analysis is a more useful measure of lecture comprehension. This analysis also describes why certain entries in student notes may or may not qualify as IUs, thereby illustrating the concept in practice.

Uruguay is quickly emerging as one of the most innovative countries in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) by delivering thousands of lessons weekly in public schools via interactive videoconference in a project called Ceibal en Inglés. This article provides a comprehensive look at the history of ELT practices in Uruguay that both necessitated this bold approach and provided the infrastructure to implement it nationally. Special focus is paid to the public school system with historical changes in ELT and teacher preparation. This overview article discusses the many challenges faced in 'democratizing' English language instruction in Uruguay and the new practices, policies, and proposals that support this new national objective.

Over the past decades, English language teachers have become familiar with several terms which attempt to describe the role of English as a language of international communication. Presently, the term English as a lingua franca (ELF) seems to be one of the most favoured and adopted to depict the global use of English in the 21 st century. Basically, the concept of ELF implies cross-cultural, cross-linguistic interactions involving native and non-native speakers. Consequently , the ELF paradigm suggests some changes in the language classroom concerning teachers' and students' goals as far as native speaker norms and cultures are concerned. Based on Kachru's (1992) fallacies, this article identifies thirteen misconceptions in ELT regarding learning and teaching English varieties and cultures, suggesting that an ethnocentred and linguacentred approach to English should be replaced by an ELF perspective which recognizes the diversity of communicative situations involving different native and non-native cultures and varieties of English.

This book brings together theoretical and empirical approaches to second language (L2) fluency and provides a state-of-the-art overview of current approaches to the topic. The strength of the volume lies in its interdisciplinary approach: the chapters approach fluency from non-traditional starting points and go beyond disciplinary boundaries in their contributions. The volume includes chapters approaching fluency from L2 perspective and integrates perspectives from related fields, such as psycholinguistics, sign language studies and L2 assessment. The book extends the common foci and approaches of fluency studies and offers new perspectives that enable readers to evaluate critically existing paradigms and models. This encourages developing more comprehensive frameworks and directs future L2 fluency research into new areas of L2 learning and use.

- by Pekka Lintunen and +1
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- Second Language Acquisition, Translation Studies, Sign Language, Applied Linguistics

This chapter discusses the implications of the NNEST lens in the context of teacher education programs in TESOL. In particular, it focuses on a discussion of two key issues: avoiding the monolingual bias in describing languages and language variation; and, avoiding a monolingual bias in developing teaching methods. In discussing the first issue, the chapter identifies some of the limitations in how language and grammar are often described in limited ways and how this can be expanded by using an NNEST lens. The chapter describes the three dimensional framework of language variation in some detail and discusses its implications for language teaching. The chapter then discusses why local languages are not included in much of the theorisation and practice of TESOL and argues that there are historical as well as theoretical reasons why local languages have been excluded in TESOL. The chapter describes one way in which teachers can consider integrating local languages in their classrooms.

The paper discusses the challenges and opportunities that the English as a lingua franca (ELF) paradigm raises for ESOL teacher education. I argue that one of the prominent implications of the ELF paradigm for ESOL teachers is the need to review and ultimately change their convictions about key aspects of foreign language teaching, such as normativity, the role of native/non-native speakers, and the function of teacher feedback in the foreign language classroom. I review evidence from the ELF literature that supports such a perspective and discuss the kind of reflective reviewing that teachers need to engage in. I argue that, while the critical approach is certainly the right way to go, it is not enough. What is necessary is a more rigorous approach that would go beyond merely ex- posing teachers to the principles and criteria of ELF and prompt them to critically consider and ultimately transform their deeper convictions about these issues. I present a framework for such a transformative perspective that aims at educating the ELF-aware teacher.

- by Nicos C. Sifakis
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- Transformative Learning, Teacher Education, Critical Pedagogy, TESOL

The unprecedented spread of the use of English in business worldwide has been accompanied by an increasing number of studies looking at the use of English as a Business Lingua Franca (BELF) (Louhiala-Salminen & Kankaanranta, 2011) among non-native English speakers, mostly in Europe but also in Asia. Research thus far has focused mainly on analysis of texts and discourses produced by BELF users, whereas in-depth research investigating users’ sense making of their use of English has been limited. In order to fill this gap, this thesis places BELF users at the centre of the research by listening to their narratives, to explore their subjective views on their experiences of language use in global business contexts.
The focus of the study is on Japanese business people who had relatively low exposure to English before they started using English at work, with the aim of illustrating the ways in which they perceive and make sense of their experiences as BELF users. The participants are 34 business people who were born and educated exclusively in Japan, and have accumulated a range of experiences using English in a global business context.
Thematic analysis of their narratives reveals that participants share certain challenges such as attending and contributing in multinational meetings, dealing with lower productivity and avoiding mistakes in various communicative situations. Common approaches among the participants to negotiate such challenges include continuously developing the English skills needed to perform their business goals, as well as other means such as gaining power in communication through developing the quality of information and utilising stronger economic relations. Their stories also highlight that their use of English is characterised by the coexistence of English and Japanese, owing to the ‘monolinguistic’ nature of Japanese business communication. Finally, it is revealed that they change their perception towards using English as they progress through their career. Their perceptions are influenced by various factors such as their career paths, the organisations they belong to, and the interlocutors they have dealt with.
To conclude, this thesis provides insight into the emic view of non-native English users when they are trying to achieve their professional goals in business contexts. By offering an alternative angle to existing BELF studies, the thesis contributes towards a more holistic and multi-dimensional understanding of this increasingly complex phenomenon.

- by Miyuki Takino
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- Globalization, Pragmatics, Multilingualism, TESOL

This paper presented an overview of some of the thinking that I perceived as missing, or at least underemphasised, from accounts of English as a lingua franca. The main focus is on considerations of what 'English', and therefore 'language', is and how this sociocultural, dynamic and fluid 'object' of study ought to be approached in terms of description and implications (e.g. for classroom practices). It argues that many anti-ELF positions are making valid points, but are, to some extent, chasing shadows, as most commentators have been addressing issues already discussed in the field (often in more depth), but these discussions have been poorly represented in research.

- by Robert D Baird
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- Global Englishes, English as a lingua franca (ELF)

Due to the idiosyncrasy of human psychology, the way of learning varies from person to person. Therefore, irrespective of what method it is, one single method cannot randomly teach all persons. So, to produce the most effective result, the Informed Eclecticism is the best approach to teach the English language as much as generally all subjects. Under this approach, the teachers must, first, evaluate the specific context to identify what technique it requires and, then, pick and choose technique(s) from the existing ones or, if not available, then invent one to apply to that context. Thus, the approach requires the teachers to know:
1. all the existing approaches and methods, and
2. how to evaluate the demand of any unpredictable context.

- by ARCHER BISHOP
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- Languages, English Literature, Teaching and Learning, English for Specific Purposes

The aim of this book is to propose a preventive psychopedagogic approach in English teaching for adults that look for specialized courses (ESP) with complaints of “not learning”. In order to develop this study we divided this work into three important segments. In the first part a general conceptual panel is made on English learning and English teaching in Brazil (mainly for adults). We introduce some cornerstone concepts on the field of English teaching. In the second part we place psychopedagogy in the context at first showing a brief historical study and the role of psychopedagogy in Brazil at the present moment. In the third part we show the results of the research made to generate questions on the psychopedagogic praxis and also to show how the field can conceive new ways of thinking.

- by Christopher J Hall
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- TESOL, Ontology of Language, English as a lingua franca (ELF)