ELF Interactions Research Articles

The cognitive saliency of word associations of verbs of speech in English as a Lingua Franca interactions

AbstractBuilding on the theoretical insights into the socio-cognitive approach to the study of interactions in which English is used as a lingua franca (ELF)), this paper reports on the idiosyncratic phenomenon that ELF speakers do not adhere to the norms of native speakers, but instead create their own particular word associations during the course of the interaction. Taking the verbs of speechtalk, say, speak, andtellas examples, this study compares word associations from three corpora of native and non-native speakers. The findings of this study reveal that similar word associative patterns are produced and shared by ELF speech communities from different sociocultural backgrounds, and these differ substantially from those used by native English speakers. Idiom-like constructions such assay like, how to say, andspeakinare developed and utilized by Asian and European ELF speakers. Based on these findings, this paper concludes that ELF speakers use the prefabricated expressions in the target language system only as references, and try to develop their own word associative patterns in ELF interactions. Moreover, the analysis of the non-literalness/metaphorical word associations of the verbs of speech in the Asian ELF corpus suggests that ELF speakers dynamically co-construct their shared common ground to derive non-literal/metaphorical meaning in actual situational context.

Designing ELF-aware lessons in high-stakes exam contexts

AbstractIn ELT contexts, the concept of ELF awareness has been proposed as a means of developing the skills, strategies, and overall outlook that learners require to competently participate in ELF interactions. Depending on the teaching context, this can be a demanding process. We discuss the ELF-aware instructional interventions carried out by two practitioners working in high-stakes exam preparation contexts in Greece. These contexts are predominantly Standard English oriented. The interventions described an attempt to put into practice the principles of ELF-aware pedagogy, namely awareness of language and language use, awareness of instructional practice, and awareness of learning. The innovative aspect of these interventions is that they do not run contrary to the curriculum of these high-stakes exam preparation classes. On the contrary, they complement the courseware used in these contexts with authentic audiovisual materials and original metalinguistic activities that boost learners’ self-confidence as ELF speakers and as candidates of these exams.

ELF interactions in English-medium engineering classrooms

Abstract At many universities, English serves as a lingua franca (ELF) between teachers and students for whom English is not their L1. Despite the spread of English-medium instruction (EMI), empirical research on the nature of teacher–student interactions in EMI classrooms remains limited. This study examines the use of ELF in EMI engineering classes at a university in Turkey to explore how teachers and students use code-switching as a communicative strategy in classroom interactions. Data were collected and analysed using a qualitative approach. Nearly 14 hours of classroom observation data were collected from three lecturers and analysed according to patterns of classroom interaction and language use. The findings suggest that teachers and students prioritize communicative efficiency over an adherence to monolingual, NS norms in classroom interactions. Pedagogical implications are discussed for ELT specialists tasked with preparing students for academic study in English and supporting content lecturers in EMI settings.

Systematicity in linguistic feature selection: Repair sequences and subsequent accommodation

AbstractThis study examines linguistic feature selection and its relationship with repair sequences in a longitudinal corpus of Japanese–Filipino business ELF interactions. In the corpus, Japanese employees communicate once a month with Filipino employees via computer software to confirm infrastructure status at a Filipino company’s factories. Comparative constructions frequently appear in the corpus because of the nature of the interactions, but the kinds and frequencies of comparative constructions change month to month. This study demonstrates that early in the corpus, the speakers utilized a multitude of comparative constructions, but after 12 months, the speakers have settled on one preferred comparative construction. Furthermore, the preferred construction emerged from repair sequences, which suggests that repair is significantly related to linguistic feature selection. Accordingly, this study hypothesizes that repair sequences do far more than just resolve an interactional problem; repaired linguistic features are more likely to be selected again the next time a similar linguistic feature is relevant to the progression of the interaction.

Communication strategies employed by low-proficiency users: Possibilities for ELF-informed pedagogy

AbstractELF research has demonstrated that English users employ various communication strategies (CSs) to achieve mutual understanding and deal with uncertainty in ELF conversations. Thus, implementing various CSs is said to be important for learners in ELF interactions. Although a list of CSs might indicate which strategies English learners may ultimately need, it is not necessarily helpful for low-proficiency English learners as they may not be able to use many CSs due to a lack of English language resources. This study attempts to identify CSs that 20 Japanese low-proficiency English users employ in talk-in-interaction with English language instructors. CSs investigated in this study were not restricted to those examined from second language acquisition perspectives but included pragmatic and collaborative strategies identified in various ELF studies. Investigating CSs from the perspective of ELF helps to form a more sensitive analysis of how low-proficiency English users work to achieve successful L2 communication with interlocutors. Results revealed that the students, who were not given prior instruction in strategies, collaboratively employed various CSs to cope with communication breakdown, promote message conveyance, and co-construct a meaningful interaction with their interlocutors. These findings provide insights into how low-proficiency users might manage to achieve successful communication in various ELF settings. Analysis of the data helps to inform teachers which CSs low-proficiency learners may utilize more easily and those for which they may require more intensive practice.

Laughter and humour in high-stakes academic ELF interactions: an analysis of laughter episodes in PhD defences/vivas

AbstractThis study investigates the uses and functions of laughter and humour in a corpus of nine PhD defences/vivas. The data include the PhD defences in their entirety, including monologic and dialogic talk by participants from a variety of research cultures. The defences were video-recorded and transcribed, and laughter episodes analysed according to who laughed, who the source of “the laughable” was, what the reason for laughing was and at what point laughter occurred. The analysis reveals that a majority of laughter was non-humorous, produced by one person, and had the function of mitigating face threats to speakers and others. Humorous laughter was usually produced by more than one person and had the function of relieving tension, creating a non-adversarial atmosphere and building a community. These results are connected to the communicative purposes of the participants; the participants’ mutual aim is to examine an academic work and confirm the candidate’s membership in their chosen specialisation, which requires cooperation from all parties. Furthermore, although the participants come from different research cultures where humour can have a different presence and function, this study shows that laughter and humour are frequent and fill an important function in ELF interactions in high-stakes academic situations.

Transient international groups (TIGs): exploring the group and development dimension of ELF

AbstractIn the past years, it has become generally accepted that the social dynamics of ELF cannot be captured by the notion of a speech community. Instead, the concept Community of Practice (CoP) has gained widespread currency in ELF research. While applications of the CoP framework have given rise to valuable insights, even ELF scholars who work with the concept often acknowledge its limitations. Since factors like situationality and ad hoc negotiation are seen as particularly important in ELF interactions, many ELF researchers have recently emphasized the transient and dynamic nature of the social clusters in which ELF communication typically takes place, especially in light of the multilingualism and language contact. This paper offers a first sketch of how the social dimension of ELF might on many occasions be conceptualized as involving Transient International Groups (TIGs) rather than more stable CoPs. Building on the idea that the Individual Multilingual Repertoires (IMRs) of ELF speakers make up a Multilingual Resource Pool (MRP) in each ELF interaction, the paper argues that ELF theory-building and descriptive work would benefit from exploring the group and the development dimension of ELF more thoroughly than has been done so far. In support, the paper provides a qualitative case study of a TIG in the leisure domain of VOICE. This case study illustrates how an in-depth micro-diachronic analysis of multilingual practices and instances of explicit reference to languages, countries, places, etc., can make visible the group’s development of shared translingual and transcultural territory.

ELF in Model United Nations Simulations. When East meets West

Abstract – 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.

World Englishes and creative idioms in English as a lingua franca

ABSTRACTAlthough language contact is usually long‐term and extensive in the postcolonial contexts of world Englishes, it also takes place in situations where English is used as a lingua franca (ELF) for international communication. The particulars and conceptualization of this transient type of language contact in ELF are the focus of the present paper. Building upon previous studies on the creative use and variation of idioms in ELF, this paper looks at creative idioms in ELF interactions as emblematic instances of such transient language contact and multilingual creativity.

Zero Marking in English as Lingua Franca Interactions: Corpus IST-Erasmus

<em>This study introduces the marking system for 3<sup>rd</sup> person present tense in English as Lingua Franca interactions. It is a corpus study which is compiled as part of a PhD study to investigate the lexico-grammatical characteristics of ELF. The corpus, Corpus IST-Erasmus, consists of 10 hours 47 minutes of recorded ELF interactions. It is compiled by means of 54 speech events with the participation of 79 Erasmus students in Istanbul, representing 24 diverse L1s. The focus of this paper is to present whether there are variations from standardized ENL forms with respect to the 3<sup>rd</sup> person present tense marking, as proposed in previous ELF research. The results indicate that the use of 3<sup>rd</sup> person zero in place of 3<sup>rd</sup> person -s is becoming an emerging pattern in ELF interactions.</em>

Identification of a dominant vocabulary in ELF interactions

Abstract This paper reports on several studies whose common theme is the elicitation of the lexical preferences of speakers of English in localized and globalized settings. Findings from analyses of various corpora show that there exists a relatively small set of preferred words that speakers of English rely on regardless of where the interaction takes place, with whom they are interacting, and what the purpose of the interaction is. Results also show that these lexical preferences are consistently prevalent to the extent that it is possible to advance the hypothesis that a relatively stable dominant vocabulary dynamically emerges out of ELF speaker interactions in order to serve certain communicative functions.

Deterding, David: Misunderstandings in English as a Lingua Franca. An Analysis of ELF Interactions in South-East Asia

Review of David Deterding, Misunderstandings in English as a Lingua Franca. An Analysis of ELF Interactions in South-East Asia.

Segmental repair and interactional intelligibility: The relationship between consonant deletion, consonant insertion, and pronunciation intelligibility in English as a Lingua Franca in Japan

This is a qualitative study of the relationship between consonant deletion, consonant insertion, and the pragmatic strategies that maintain mutual intelligibility in English as a Lingua Franca (hereafter, ELF) interactions among university and exchange students at a Japanese university (Jenkins, 2000; Matsumoto, 2011; O’Neal, 2015). Some ELF research claims that consonant deletion attenuates mutual intelligibility in ELF interactions, especially if the consonant deletion occurs in word-initial and word-medial consonant clusters or in consonant clusters in syllable onsets and codas (Jenkins, 2000, 2007; Deterding, 2013). This study assesses the effect of consonant deletion and consonant insertion on the mutual intelligibility of pronunciation in ELF interactions in Japan. Using conversation analytic methodology to examine a corpus of miscommunications among ELF speakers at a Japanese university, within which miscommunications are defined as repair sequences, this study claims that consonant deletion can attenuate mutual intelligibility, and that the insertion of a deleted consonant into a word can help restore mutual intelligibility. Furthermore, this is true regardless of deviance from or approximation to a native speaker pronunciation standard. This study concludes that segmental repair is an effective strategy with which English speakers can maintain mutual intelligibility.

An analysis overlapping questions in casual ELF conversation: Cooperative or competitive contribution

This paper examines how international students from diverse lingua-cultural backgrounds utilize overlapping questions to actively contribute to the development of ongoing interactions on social occasions in British university settings, where English is widely used as a lingua franca (ELF). The data consist of five recordings of elicited casual conversations among friends, and they were analyzed by using a conversation analytic approach. Overlapping talk is frequently reported as a demonstration of active involvement in ELF interactions (e.g., Cogo and Dewey, 2012). Yet little has been explored about overlaps that claim for the turn space. This paper investigates this type of overlap, focusing on overlapping questions. The analysis has shown that an overlapping question results from the simultaneous application of rules 1b (a next speaker self-selects) and 1c (the current speaker continues) of turn-taking by two speakers, although the actual production is sometimes delayed (Murata, 1994). With the overlap, the interactants neither treat the overlap as interruptive nor competitive (Bilmes, 1997; Schegloff, 2000, 2002). Rather, they cooperatively move the talk forward without clinging to the overlap. Their use, resolution, and response to overlapping questions are appropriate in interactions, and consequently, they are successful in achieving mutual understanding and developing interpersonal relationships.

Misunderstandings in English as a Lingua Franca. An Analysis of ELF Interactions in South-East Asia * English as an Academic Lingua Franca: An Investigation of Form and Communicative Effectiveness

Misunderstandings in English as a Lingua Franca. An Analysis of ELF Interactions in South-East Asia * English as an Academic Lingua Franca: An Investigation of Form and Communicative Effectiveness

Your language or mine? or English as a lingua franca? Comparing effectiveness in English as a lingua franca and L1–L2 interactions: implications for corporate language policies

For multinational corporations, the need for efficiency and control has motivated the choice for a corporate language. However, increasing internationalisation has forced corporations to rethink their language policies to cater to the changing demands of the multicultural and multilingual workplace. This paper explores two related issues. First, it addresses the influence of mode of communication (English as a Lingua Franca [ELF] vs. L1–L2 interactions) on task efficiency. Second, it investigates the use of communication strategies in the different types of interactions (ELF vs. L1–L2). In a within-subject experimental design, the present study explores the effectiveness of language use in dyadic, computer-mediated communication between non-native speakers of English (ELF) and native and non-native speakers of German and Dutch (L1–L2). In three consecutive chat sessions, 60 participants performed a problem-solving task in English, German or Dutch. Findings indicate that in L1–L2 interactions, the participants were more effective in realising communicative goals than in ELF interactions, and that participants made use of different communication strategies in L1–L2 interactions than in ELF interactions. Consequently, international organisations which implement a corporate language may benefit from condoning multilingual practices on the work floor.

“Maybe just things we grew up with”: linguistic and cultural hybridity in ELF couple talk

Abstract This paper investigates the use of ELF in interactions between people in a romantic relationship (couples) and explores to what extent cultural factors are involved in the process of establishing and maintaining intimacy through ELF, with the main focus on the hybrid forms in their talk. The data (audio recordings of domestic ELF interactions, questionnaires, interviews) came from four European couples representing four different first-language constellations. The data suggest that ELF couples do not conform to conventionalized ENL linguistic and cultural norms. This allows for a creative pragmatic process of hybridization and acculturation of English into the partners' private space, whereby ELF couples will accommodate the language by drawing upon any available resources, and re-load it with their own cultural values for the pretextual purpose of achieving the desired effect of mediating comity.

“I just wanted to give a partly answer”: capturing and exploring word class variation in ELF data

Abstract English as a lingua franca is generally viewed as a user language in which the formal characteristics are adapted to meet the communicative needs of its speakers, inherently resulting in linguistic innovation and variation. In the part-of-speech (POS) tagging of the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE), many cases were encountered whereby ELF users go beyond the commonly assumed boundaries of word class categories in Standard English by the process defined as word class change. Word class change is understood as a change of word class category, or syntagmatic function, without alternation of the morphological form. In this paper, it is demonstrated how forms which were used in a non-codified function were dealt with in the tagging procedure. Reviewing concepts commonly used to explain word class change, namely conversion and multifunctionality, it is argued that a number of presumptions inherent in these concepts cause difficulties when applied to ELF data. In a case study, the most frequent types of word class shifts or variation (terms which are considered more suitable for ELF data) in VOICE are exemplified, analysed, and discussed with regard to the forms which are shifted, the directionality of these shifts, as well as the environment in which the shifts occur. It is shown that word class shifts in ELF interactions follow clear tendencies and thus a reconceptualization of the concepts of conversion and multifunctionality with regard to ELF is proposed. Finally, it is argued that if tagging practices attempt to display, rather than disguise, initial “problems” arising in the tagging process, this can help to gain useful insights into the nature of the data.

Express-ability in ELF communication

Abstract In ELF research, ample evidence has been collected to show that communication in (dialogic) ELF interactions works and that it does so in intriguingly creative ways. In a questionnaire survey and an in-depth interview study, simultaneous conference interpreters present a less optimistic view with regard to (monologic) mediated multilingual settings, which are increasingly shaped by a growing number of non-native English-speaking participants. Moreover, the interpreters put the adverse effects of ELF speaker output on their cognitive processing down to the speakers' restricted power of expression. This is paralleled by empirical evidence from ELF speakers in TELF (the Tübingen English as a Lingua Franca corpus and database), who put into perspective their general feeling that they can cope in ELF interactions (which is in line with the ELF study findings mentioned above) by voicing dissatisfaction with their restricted capacity of expressing what they want to convey with the required or desired degree of precision. In a theoretical discussion, the Express-ability Principle is introduced to capture the nature of the human effort for expression (complementary to Bartlett's effort after meaning). In the subsequent presentation, sociocultural and psycholinguistic research sheds light on express-ability in the context of ELF by applying Slobin's Thinking for Speaking (TFS) hypothesis to second-language contexts. It reveals the interface between verbal (L1) thinking and externalized (L2) speech and explains expression-related problems in terms of transfer effects in connection with age of acquisition and linguistic environment. This directs further ELF research into the nature of express-ability towards an examination of production processes, developmental and procedural aspects in early and late bilingual ELF speakers, a shared languages benefit to compensate for cross-linguistic transfer and the (relative) effectiveness of unmediated and mediated ELF communication.

Intonation as a pragmatic resource in ELF interaction

The investigation of pragmatic strategies in ELF interaction is a relatively new area of research. This paper examines intonation as a pragmatic resource in ELF interaction. There is considerable research pointing to the critical role played by intonational structure in NS-based discourse to establish a state of informational and social convergence (Brazil, The communicative value of intonation in English, Cambridge University Press, 1997; Chun, Discourse intonation in L2, John Benjamins, 2002; Hewings, International Review of Applied Linguistics 33: 251–65, 1995; Pickering, TESOL Quarterly 35: 233–255, 2001; Wennerstrom, Music in everyday speech, Oxford University Press, 2001). The question of whether similar practices can be identified in ELF interaction remains open. In this paper, I review current understanding of the role of intonational structure in NS-based interaction and then examine data from ELF interactions. Using a model of intonation in discourse (Brazil, The communicative value of intonation in English, Cambridge University Press, 1997) to interpret these data, I argue that both pitch movement (tone choice) and relative pitch level (key choice) contribute to intelligibility and interactional success in ELF interaction. Participants appear to orient to pitch cues both as a signal of a possible trouble source and as a means to indicate that negotiation or repair sequences have been accomplished successfully.