Realization and unrealization of off-record indirectness in intercultural communication

English as a lingua franca (ELF) studies, intercultural communication research and English language teaching (ELT) have all been concerned with ideas of ‘successful’ communication and the competencies needed to achieve this. While all three fields have recognised the importance of language and culture in understanding communication, little agreement has been reached on how to characterise the relationship between language and culture or how this relates to ‘competent’ communication. This chapter will therefore investigate the convergences and conflicts among the fields of ELF studies, applied linguistics research in intercultural communication and ELT in their perspectives on language and culture. These issues are explored, firstly, through a discussion of how culture has been conceived of in ELT and a critique of the often essentialist manner in which this has been done. This is followed by an examination of intercultural communication studies as related to language teaching. A distinction is drawn between essentialist approaches and more recent dynamic characterisation of intercultural communication. How culture and intercultural communication have been conceptualised in ELF is then presented, highlighting features of the intercultural communication literature which have been drawn on, but also a number of points of difference. It is argued here that ELF studies add to the growing body of post-modernist thinking and research in applied linguistics that can inform intercultural communication research through underscoring the dynamic and fluid manner in which form, function and context are constructed in intercultural communication through English as a lingua franca. At the same time intercultural communication research can be of use to ELF studies through the extensive body of work exploring conceptions of intercultural communicative competence (ICC). Crucially, it is this focus on ICC and communicative competence that ELT, intercultural communication studies and ELF share. However, ELF research emphasises the importance of a conceptualisation of ICC in which language and culture are seen as emergent resources in intercultural communication which need to be approached critically. To this end the notion of intercultural awareness is proposed as a dynamic framework for intercultural competence. Such critical perspectives in understanding intercultural communication through ELF and associated notions of competencies have fundamental implications for ELT which have yet to be adequately taken up in theory or practice.

In intercultural communication, ELF (English as a lingua franca) speakers aim to be a more explicit and clear way to achieve shared understanding. Repair is a means of achieving clarity and mutual understanding in communication. This article will examine how self-initiated self-repair operates in ELF communication with a focus on self-repair for meaning with lexical modification. The data are based on naturally occurring ELF interactions among international students in a UK university and are analysed using the Conversational Analysis (CA) approach. The findings show that the ELF speakers in the data adeptly employed self-repair strategies and specifically showed frequent use of specification, synonyms, lexical insertion, and topic negotiation within the concept of self-repair. The speakers confirm what they have said by repeating the utterance with some lexical modification or replacement, and this dynamic of self-repair makes the meaning more explicit for the interlocutors. One prominent feature of self-repair shown in the data is that the ELF speakers employ self-repair practices with the ongoing goal pre-empting potential ambiguity without the interlocutor showing signs of misunderstanding. The use of pre-empting strategies for proactive self-repair can help speakers achieve more effective and successful communication in situations involving intercultural communication.

The phenomenon of English as a lingua franca (ELF), in other words English used among speakers who have different first language backgrounds, has existed since the British began to colonize parts of Asia and Africa in the late sixteenth century. However, it is only during the past thirty years that ELF has spread to the rest of the world, seen a dramatic rise in its number of users, and attained its current global status. Unsurprisingly, then, research publications on the ELF phenomenon are also relatively recent. Like the phenomenon that it explores, research into ELF has also grown, particularly since the start of the current millennium, in terms of the amount being published as well as an expansion in the areas of interest being reported. Thus, whereas the original research into ELF focused entirely on linguistic forms, particularly phonological and lexico-grammatical, current ELF research explores a host of domains from tourism to business to higher education, among many others, as well as a wider range of linguistic areas, including ELF pragmatics, metaphorical language, and morpho-syntactics, along with various other English language–related topics such as intercultural and transcultural communication, ELF in social contexts, humor in ELF interactions, assessment of ELF, and implications for teacher education. In addition, the first corpora of ELF use began to be collected, most notably Mauranen’s Corpus of English as a Lingua Franca in Academic Settings (ELFA) and Seidlhofer’s Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE), with Kirkpatrick’s Asian Corpus of English (ACE) following a few years later. Meanwhile the ELF phenomenon has been reconceptualized in line with the findings of its growing body of research. Nevertheless, ELF research is still in its infancy by comparison with most other areas of academic inquiry; therefore, to date there is only one overview publication, one journal, and no reference works, bibliographies, textbooks, or the like. This bibliography is therefore divided according to the key areas in which publications on ELF have focused up to now.

This study underpins the integration of an English as a lingua franca (ELF)-oriented approach into traditional English language teaching (ELT) to develop learners’ full intercultural awareness and intercultural communicative competence (ICC). The aim is to inform prospective and senior teachers as well as practitioners about the need for adequate preparation for learners to face any speech situations involving native and non-native English speakers. Using informal classroom observations from different Italian education cycles, this study adopts a multidimensional approach to traditional ELT, combining some main ICC and ELF pedagogy tenets. Our discussion indicates that a dual teaching model, including the native English speaker (NES) model for the structural section of language teaching and learning and the ELF intercultural competent communicator model for the intercultural section, can be attained by shifting conveniently from model to model. Therefore, this study offers a fresh perspective on an extensively addressed topic by clarifying and explicitly combining the underlying connections between the main ICC and ELF tenets. This study intends to encourage teachers and practitioners to change their attitudes, perceptions, and concerns towards integrating ELF-oriented approaches into traditional ELT to tackle today’s intercultural communicative challenges outside the classroom.

This chapter argues that that there is much potential for productive cross-fertilisation between intercultural communication and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) research. First, ELF is by definition a form of intercultural communication and so offers valuable data for intercultural research. Contemporary approaches in both fields typically adopt post-structuralist perspectives to a number of central concepts such as language, identity, community and culture. Furthermore, both fields are concerned with understanding and documenting multilingual and multicultural communication in which diversity, complexity and fluidity are the norm. ELF research can draw on much of the theoretical and empirical work in intercultural communication for expanded views of identity, culture, community and intercultural competence and awareness. At the same time intercultural communication research can benefit from the extensive empirical and growing theoretical work in ELF studies documenting the relationships between languages, communicative practices, identity, community and culture in the super-diverse and complex scenarios that are typical of intercultural communication through ELF.

In academic research on intercultural communication (IC), students’ perceptions and experiences regarding English as a lingua franca (ELF) have been central to the discussion because they form the basis for English teaching policies and practices in multilingual and multicultural environments. Substantial theoretical research on ELF has called for a paradigm shift from emphasizing the over-simplistic correlation between language and Anglophone cultures to recognizing the legitimacy of non-native English learners’ home culture in English teaching pedagogy. Nonetheless, little empirical research has been conducted to examine how ELF speakers understand their home culture in ELF communications. Relatively fewer studies have investigated to what extent ELF users’ perceptions of home culture influence their IC practices. To address these gaps, this study aims to explore Chinese international students in a liberal arts university in the United Kingdom and their understanding of Chinese culture in authentic ELF interactions. In addition, the perceived effects of Chinese culture on students’ IC were explored in great depth. This study adopts a mixed-method approach, including a student questionnaire (N = 200) and follow-up semi-structured interviews (N = 10). Following descriptive statistics and thematic analysis of the obtained data, the findings revealed that most participants lacked a thorough understanding of their home culture, while they considered home culture playing a significant role in ELF communications. The contribution of this study builds on work in English users’ awareness of home culture in IC to identify the significance of enabling the presence of English learners’ home culture in English language teaching (ELT) classrooms.

The increasing use of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) calls for substantial changes in the English Language Teaching (ELT) pedagogy both in Italy and elsewhere. This chapter illustrates an ongoing research project aimed to explore the dynamics of ELF discourse in the educational domain, and ultimately, to devise guidelines for developing cognitive-experiential practices that enhance ELF communicative competence in ELT classrooms. The study investigates ELF communicative strategies through naturally occurring discussions in which school-age learners – ELF users – talk about a challenging topic under unconstrained conditions, namely without the supervision of their English teacher and without English as a Native Language (ENL) requirements. This experimental activity was performed by observing and audio recording natural spoken ELF interactions among Italian students and students of ten different nationalities participating in intercultural exchange programmes in three upper-secondary schools. The qualitative data analysis is conducted within a conversation analytic framework by means of a protocol based on conversational moves. It focuses on the cooperative practices that school-age ELF users enact to achieve effective communication. The analysis reveals that participants (i) generally orient to their interlocutors, employing pragmatic strategies that are commonly used in ELF communication, and (ii) implement languaging and interactional skills that show their authentic involvement in the spoken activity as it was designed. These findings demonstrate that school-age ELF users put into play their language resources, but also themselves as individuals with their own identity, cultural background and experiences. The results of this study may be translated into teaching practices that enhance ELF-mediated communication, promoting language and intercultural awareness

The popularity of the internet enables people to communicate at a low cost. Moreover, as English continues to spread globally within educational systems in various countries, the language barrier between speakers of a different fist language is gradually fading. People of a different first language now use English as a lingua franca (ELF) to communicate with each other. In the past, most studies on intercultural communication involved native-speakers and non-native speakers of a language (Sharifian, 2009a, p.4). There was insufficient attention to intercultural communication in a lingua franca setting when both sides use a second language to communicate. This paper draws from the findings from five ELF intercultural projects conducted by the author to discuss how cultural frameworks in ELF settings influence students' online written communication. Students' email and forum records as well as their reflections of the experience participating in the project were qualitatively analyzed to identify communication gaps. Preconceptions derived from the students' own culture, stereotypes about their partner's culture, influence from the students' L1, and incongruent understanding of certain English words were found to play key roles in ELF intercultural communication. Issues in ELF intercultural communication and its implications for ELT in Taiwan are discussed.

This paper presents cultural conceptualisations of emotions on the basis of an intercultural Polish-Ukrainian anthology of texts. The texts are accompanied by intercultural tasks and are focused on Ukrainian and Polish cultures. The aim of this paper is to present cultural conceptualisations of emotions of pride and shame in the two cultures and to reflect on the initial assumptions of the Polish-Ukrainian project and its outcome. The authors assumed at the initial stages of the project that English as a lingua franca (ELF) could help them acquire a more critical attitude towards their own culture, leading to a raised awareness of cultural diversity and tolerance of the other culture, that is, become successful intercultural mediators. They became aware later that the use of English as a lingua franca was not sufficient to build up a community of English as a lingua franca users. It was concluded that in intercultural communication different cultural conceptualisations should be patiently clarified. In order to build up an intercultural community of non-native ELF users, both sides need to become aware of the underlying values of their partners’ cultures, involving their cultural conceptualisations of emotions. The self-conscious emotions of pride and shame belong to the most important cultural conceptualizations which should be analysed in the process of intercultural mediation.

This study identifies failed attempts at conversational humor that were either not appreciated or resulted in impoliteness as produced by English as a lingua franca (ELF) users from the Southeast Asian countries of Thailand, Indonesia, and Myanmar who were engaging in intercultural communication. Moreover, the factors that caused these failed attempts at conversational humor are discussed. Dyadic conversations using ELF that occurred in daily life were recorded by nine pairs of participants who had different linguacultural backgrounds, which were then analyzed using conversation analysis from the interactional sociolinguistic perspective. The results reveal that failed attempts at conversational humor occurred in these intercultural communication contexts. The conversational humor that the participants did not appreciate resulted from several different factors. First, the participants' limited English levels prevented their clear presentation and complete understanding of the conversational humor. Second, the individuals’ insufficient intercultural awareness and critical intercultural awareness caused the failed attempts at conversational humor. Third, teasing as a form of humor that included potential criticism and disparagement of the hearer's culture sometimes caused the hearer to not appreciate the humor or led to it being perceived as impoliteness. As individuals have different preferences regarding humor and impoliteness, teasing in humor should be used carefully in intercultural communication.

Through conversation analysis, this study analyzes the negotiation of pronunciation in English as a lingua franca (ELF) contexts among students at a Japanese university. Previous research has demonstrated that interactants in ELF contexts can repair segmental pronunciation so that they can maintain mutually intelligible pronunciation in situ (e.g., Matsumoto 2011; O'Neal 2015). The present study nevertheless claims that the phonetic negotiation of pronunciation in ELF interactions can at times go beyond the goal of restoring or maintaining mutually intelligible pronunciation. That is, phonetic negotiations can continue in ELF interactions even after the restoration or maintenance of mutual intelligibility is achieved. Although most ELF phonology studies (e.g., Deterding, 2013; Jenkins, 2000) have hitherto focused on the issue of intelligibility, interactants in ELF contexts might also orient to states beyond the maintenance of mutual intelligibility as an interactional goal. Namely, ‘transintelligibility’, or the negotiation of individually favored ways of pronouncing, can be an alternative aim of phonetic negotiations in ELF interactions. Based on the analysis, this study provides pedagogical implications regarding how to negotiate pronunciations for English language users in intercultural communication.

This textbook introduces current thinking on English as a global language and explores its role in intercultural and transcultural communication. It covers how English functions as a lingua franca in multilingual scenarios alongside other languages in a wide variety of global settings, and the fluid and dynamic links between English, other languages, and cultural identities and references. The implications for English language teaching (ELT), academia, business, and digital communication are explored. Contemporary research and theory are presented in an accessible manner, illustrated with examples from current research, and supported with discussions and tasks to enable students to relate these ideas to their own experiences, needs, and interests. Each chapter contains activities to help students orientate towards the topic, reflect on personal experiences and opinions, and check their understanding. Additionally, a detailed glossary of key terminology in Global Englishes and Intercultural Communication is provided. Exploring in depth the links between Global Englishes, Intercultural Communication research, and Transcultural Communication reasearch, this is key reading for all advanced students and researchers in Global or World Englishes, English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), and Intercultural Communication.

Accommodation is a natural and prevailing communicative behaviour in social interactions. It has been emphasised as a key factor for successful intercultural communication through English as a lingua franca (ELF). The aim of this study was to explore how accommodation might operate in ELF communication, focusing on convergent pragmatic strategies for efficient and cooperative interactions. The data were 12 hours of ELF conversations among international students in a UK university. Conversation Analysis (CA) was employed to analyse and identify sequential features of accommodation in ELF. Findings showed that participants frequently used convergent strategies such as echoing repetition, lexical replacement, and code-switching. The major purposes of convergent accommodation were mutual understanding and collaboration. For shared comprehension, speakers modified their speech to adapt to interlocutors’ linguistic capacity and cultural expectations and to be more comprehensible. The desire for mutual understanding was closely intertwined with collaboration, which showed alignment and built rapport. For successful ELF interactions, ELF speakers need to understand the pragmatic role of accommodation and use convergent and adaptive strategies to enhance flexibility and facilitate communication in ELF contexts.

This is a qualitative study of nonnative English speakers who speak English as a lingua franca (ELF) in their graduate student dormitory in the United States, a community of practice (Wegner, 2004) comprised almost entirely of second language users. Using a sequential analysis (Koshik, 2002; Markee, 2000; Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson, 1974; Schegloff, Koshik, Jacoby, & Olsher, 2002), the study investigates how these ELF speakers successfully manage their intercultural communication through accommodation strategies (e.g., Jenkins, 2000, 2006) used to address differences in pronunciation and familiarity with a range of ELF speech styles. Drawing on my own experience as a member of this community, I investigate how speakers display equality and legitimacy as English language users in the ELF community in face‐to‐face interactions when they negotiate understanding in spite of their different accents. ELF speakers exhibit a wide variety of pronunciations as a result of first language cross‐linguistic influence, and those phonological differences may hamper intercultural communication, more than any other linguistic feature. For this reason, I have chosen to focus on phonological issues for this study. I argue that sequential analysis of the interactions among speakers of English as a lingua franca may provide useful examples of successful communication among these groups. Data from such analysis should be included in English language teaching as a model of successful interaction strategies directed toward students who will face these situations. The analysis of this ELF data will also be useful as a model for the study of other languages that are often used as lingua francas.

Students’ experiences and practices regarding English as a lingua franca (ELF) have been central to the discussion in research on intercultural communication in academia as it provides the basis for English language policy and practices in the international university. To date, however, few previous studies have explored diverse factors for perceptions of ELF communication with a single framework. To fill this gap, this study provides the integrative research model for perceptions and behaviours regarding ELF communication in the international university context, using Theory of Planned Behaviour. It further explores the effect of those factors on actual intentions to engage in ELF communication. Data were collected from 232 questionnaires and seven interviews on the offshore campus of a Hong Kong university in mainland China. Findings showed that factors such as acceptance, social expectations, the sense of control over linguistic knowledge for intercultural communication, and self-esteem had significant effects on intentions. The study concluded that ELF speakers’ decision-making process to engage in ELF communication is not simply based on individual behaviour, but on social performance in academic communities of practice. This study suggests academic and educational implications for incorporating the ELF perspective into English language policy and practices in the international university.