English As A Lingua Franca Communication Research Articles

The Intelligibility of Korean-Accented English in the Lingua Franca Context

This study aimed to establish an empirical basis for prioritizing English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) instruction by evaluating the importance of “intelligibility” in communication with accented English speakers. It specifically examined the claims surrounding the Lingua Franca Core (LFC) features as the minimum requirements for intelligibility in ELF contexts. The experiment focused on the intelligibility of Korean-accented English (KoE) and general American English (AmE) to Korean-Speaking Learners (KSLs) and Japanese- Speaking Learners (JSLs). The findings indicated that AmE was more intelligible to both non-native English speaker groups. In contrast, KoE’s intelligibility was hindered by non- LFC features such as the pronunciation of the dark /l/ sound and specific vowel qualities. These results challenge the LFC proposal and suggest the need for a modified set of LFC features in ELF teaching and learning. The implications of this study are significant for English language education, highlighting the necessity of considering different accents and non-LFC features in ELF communication. By incorporating these aspects into instruction, teachers can better prepare learners for real-world interactions in diverse linguistic contexts. This approach enhances learners’ confidence and proficiency in understanding and being understood by individuals from various linguistic backgrounds, fostering successful intercultural exchanges.

Factors influencing English as a lingua franca communication: A case of an international university in China

English as a lingua franca (ELF) communication has gained growing attention in globalized higher education (HE), as it reflects the pluralistic nature of English in international universities. However, diverse factors influencing ELF communication in HE have been less thoroughly investigated. To address this gap in the literature, this study examined the sequential relationships between second language (L2) students' perceptions (intrinsic and extrinsic L2 motivation, acceptance of local and other English varieties, and native English speaker ideology) and ELF communication intention. Survey data collected from 172 university students at the international university in China showed that extrinsic motivation had the highest mean scores, followed by native English speaker ideology and the acceptance of other English varieties. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that the acceptance of local and other English varieties were influential predictors of ELF communication intention. English-major students displayed a higher level of intrinsic motivation and NES ideology while non-English-major students demonstrated more positive perceptions of their local English. The findings suggest that ELF-based EMI education should consider students’ L2 motivation in international contexts and English varieties awareness to engage them in ELF communication on multilingual campus.

Chinese students' multilingual identity constructions after studying abroad: A multi-theoretical perspective

Given the recent development of globalization, the focus of research on identity in the field of applied linguistics has shifted to investigating multilingual identity among students studying abroad. Studying abroad can be regarded as an authentic setting of English as a lingua franca (ELF) that has an impact on students' multilingual identity construction because they experience ELF communication with people from different lingua-cultures. Thus, this study aimed to map Chinese university students' multilingual identity constructions in relation to their overseas experiences before, during, and after studying abroad to explore multilingual identity construction from an ELF perspective. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight university students to report their learning and use of English before, during, and after their study abroad experiences to determine if their experiences, evaluations, and emotions had an impact on how multilingual identity is constructed. The findings suggest that there are meaningful differences in constructing multilingual identities before, during, and after the participants' study abroad sojourn, and revealed the opportunities ELF communication provides to develop multilingual identity negotiation and construction. Thus, this paper calls for the need to incorporate an ELF-informed and multilingual pedagogy into language education.

Towards conceptualizing linguistic identities in English as a lingua franca communication: the experiences of multilingual international students in a Hong Kong university

This paper contributes to our conceptualization of linguistic identities in English as a lingua franca (ELF) communication by analyzing a group of multilingual international students’ narrativized accounts of their ELF communication experiences in an international university in Hong Kong. The findings of the study indicate that despite their status as L2 speakers, the participants considered themselves as legitimate speakers of English when interacting with others through ELF. Moreover, they oriented to their national cultural identities and personal identities indexed through their accents in ELF communication. Their frequent use of ELF with other students from diverse linguacultural backgrounds also prompted them to identify positively with a local ELF-using community and envision their imagined identities as members of a global ELF-using community. The findings further reveal that the participants’ ELF communication experiences opened up a space for them to take on new and alternative L2-speaking personal identities which they perceived to be markedly different from and more desirable than their L1-based selves. Overall, the analysis provides empirical support for applying a tripartite model of linguistic identity for understanding ELF communication experiences and calls attention to the multidimensional nature of linguistic identities and the interrelatedness between different dimensions of linguistic identities in ELF communication.

Exposure to Englishes in Listening Classrooms: The Perspectives Of Indonesian ESL Learners

Due to the global scale of English use, English as a lingua franca (ELF) is at play. Given this reality, exposes to different varieties of English rather than a single variety of English, preparing second language learners to Englishes is paramount for readiness to involve in ELF communication. This paper reports on the classroom instruction of exposing college listeners with Englishes via TED talks using a portfolio to find out how they see these varieties and what they can learn from them. Data were from records of portfolio and questions at the end of the instruction. Using general inductive analysis, there were three lessons learned from the instruction. Acknowledgement of many models of English, Englishes can be the ‘right’ English, and Englishes as a marker of identity were lessons observed to appear from the Englishes exposure. The exposes to Englishes also brought about complexities of wholehearted adoption to Indonesian accent. Pedagogical implications for classroom instructions are also made.

Exposure to Englishes in Listening Classrooms: The Perspectives Of Indonesian ESL Learners

Due to the global scale of English use, English as a lingua franca (ELF) is at play. Given this reality, exposes to different varieties of English rather than a single variety of English, preparing second language learners to Englishes is paramount for readiness to involve in ELF communication. This paper reports on the classroom instruction of exposing college listeners with Englishes via TED talks using a portfolio to find out how they see these varieties and what they can learn from them. Data were from records of portfolio and questions at the end of the instruction. Using general inductive analysis, there were three lessons learned from the instruction. Acknowledgement of many models of English, Englishes can be the ‘right’ English, and Englishes as a marker of identity were lessons observed to appear from the Englishes exposure. The exposes to Englishes also brought about complexities of wholehearted adoption to Indonesian accent. Pedagogical implications for classroom instructions are also made.

Socioenvironmental affordances of an English-medium instruction international university specializing in English as a lingua franca communication: An exploratory study of L2 student voices

Previous studies show that international universities that adopt English-medium instruction (EMI) policies provide multilingual environments where students can engage in the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF). Drawing on affordance theory, this study is an exploration of how socioenvironmental factors of the EMI international university affect second language (L2) students’ use of ELF for intercultural communication. Interviews with 15 students on the offshore campus of a Hong Kong university in mainland China revealed an inventory of ELF-related affordances of the international university in four categories: 1) existing affordances (i.e., EMI, multilingual, and ELT-by-NEST affordances), 2) perceived affordances (i.e., English use and intercultural communication affordances), 3) affordance engagement and agency (i.e., ELF communication practices), and 4) affordance actualization (i.e., perceived development of ELF communication skills and confidence in ELF use). In comparison, native English speaker (NES) ideology—associated with the ELT-by-NEST affordance—may constrain ELF communication, particularly when students were obsessed with English as a native language. The findings indicate that L2 students’ agentive engagement in practicing ELF-related affordances of an EMI international university may have helped them develop pragmatic skills for ELF communication. Educational implications from the socioenvironmental perspective are suggested.

International students’ perceptions of multilingual English-medium instruction classrooms: a case study in Taiwan

Abstract Many English-medium instruction (EMI) classrooms in non-Anglophone countries adopt a multilingual stance, using English alongside the host country’s local language(s). However, the perceptions of such multilingual practices held by students remain under-researched. Given many Asian countries’ current drives to internationalize and diversify their student bodies, a clear understanding of international students’ perspectives on multilingual EMI classrooms is long overdue. Through semi-structured interviews with international students from developing countries and the theoretical lens of language ideologies, this study investigates their perceptions of multilingual EMI classrooms in Taiwan. Most expressed a belief that their multilingual EMI classrooms, saturated with non-standard varieties of English, were not a legitimate pathway to acquiring their desired linguistic capital, i.e., standard English. These findings differ sharply from those of previous research, which has painted international students as holding positive attitudes towards English as a lingua franca (ELF). Moreover, the participants resisted the English-Mandarin translanguaging practices in their classrooms. As such, the findings highlight the need to understand the language ideologies of international students in Asia. Further investigation of learner resistance to multilingual EMI practices should also be conducted, with the wider aim of helping advanced English-language learners from developing countries accept different English accents, and accommodate ELF communication.

Changing views of English through study abroad as teacher training

Abstract As English has become an essential international language, some universities in countries where students learn the language mainly in the classroom have started to send teachers overseas as part of English teacher training. Study abroad (SA) is perceived as one effective way to improve teachers’ intercultural communication ability in English because it is believed that studying with culturally diverse others using English as a lingua franca (ELF) could help them to develop English proficiency and intercultural understanding. This study focuses on one group of Japanese pre-service English teachers who undertook SA as teacher training and looks into whether this contributed to the development of views of English for intercultural communication. The study found that their changes in ideas about English were brought about by their intricate understanding of ELF communication. This result addresses the need for teachers to learn sociolinguistic aspects of intercultural communication before undertaking SA.

Pragmatic Accommodation Strategies in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) 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.

You know and I think in English(es) in Zanzibar

This paper provides an analysis of discourse markers in English(es) spoken by Zanzibaris, using data from sociolinguistic interviews. The focus is on you know and I think. In English as a lingua franca (ELF), both have been shown to be used differently than by ‘native’ speakers, especially marking subjectivity or speaker-centeredness. The data show similarities with ELF communication, that is the markers express subjectivity in highlighting or evaluating part of the discourse, and convey speaker-centeredness as ‘fumbling devices’. Thus, the paper raises the question as to whether these and similar sociolinguistic interviews applied for the documentation of New Englishes should be analyzed as lingua franca communication.

Enhancing Explicitness Through Self-Repair Practices in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) Communication

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.

Translanguaging for intercultural communication in international higher education: transcending English as a lingua franca

ABSTRACT This article seeks to explore intercultural communication among a group of students with diverse linguistic and sociocultural backgrounds in an English-medium transnational university in China, focusing on multilingual students’ practices and perceptions of English as a lingua franca (ELF). Informed by an expanded understanding of translanguaging from a spatial perspective, this study explores multilingualism, multimodality, and spatiality in linguistic practices related to ELF in an international education context. Drawing upon multiple data sources including ethnographic observations, interviews facilitated by language portraits, recordings of interactions, and policy documents, findings of the study show that ELF communication was understood and practiced by multilingual students as a translanguaging act based on (partially) shared repertoires and beliefs about language and communication. It is also found that the monolithic and monolingual model of language policy in English-medium higher education ran counter to the students’ daily communicative practices and language development needs. Implications are suggested for how international universities can account for translanguaging in fostering linguistic diversity and preparing students for the practical realities of a multilingual world.

A study of cognitive-experiential practices for promoting ELF communicative competence in Italian 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

Disagreement Strategies used by Speakers of English as a Lingua Franca in Business Meetings

Numerous studies have attested to the consensus-orientation and cooperative nature of English as a lingua franca (ELF) interactions. However, limited attention has been given to moments of disagreements in ELF communication, with most of the little existing work focusing on disagreements in ELF academic or informal contexts. Consequently, little is known about how ELF users display disagreement in real-life business contexts. For this reason, this study examined disagreement expressions in five ELF business meetings drawn from the VOICE corpus to understand the nature of disagreement in ELF interactions. Following the identification of disagreement instances, the study used Stalpers’s (1995) framework to investigate whether the disagreement was accompanied by a mitigation strategy that reduces its impact. It was found that the examined ELF business speakers express their disagreement in both mitigated and unmitigated forms with a marked preference for using mitigated expressions, indicating that the appropriate linguistic choice for expressing disagreements in a between-company business meeting is a mitigated disagreement form. Another main finding is the frequent use of disagreement utterances, suggesting that ELF speakers do not merely seek consensus, but they also raise objections and state their different opinions. One implication of these findings is that ELF encounters might not be as consensus-seeking and mutually supportive as suggested in previous works. Taken together, the findings of the present study extended the existing body of work on ELF disagreement and, in general, added further to our understanding of ELF interaction.

Thai hotel undergraduate interns’ awareness and attitudes towards English as a lingua franca

The study examines twenty-eight Thai undergraduate hotel interns’ attitudes towards the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in terms of its varieties of spoken English. Drawing upon the questionnaire, semi-structured interview, and verbal-guise test based on the eleven recorded voices whose accents obtained were from native and non-native speakers, the findings reveal that the students reflected the most positive attitudes towards American and Hong Kong accents while the Korean one was rated rather negatively. However, the students were well aware of the lingua franca status of their spoken English; and thus, the non-native accents were tentatively accepted. This study suggests that Thai leaners’ awareness and positive attitude towards varieties of English must be promoted in both English classes and on-the-job training. English teachers and trainers of hotel staff should also be aware of the significance of exposure to accents and introduce undergraduate interns to varieties of English in order to enhance mutual intelligibility for effective ELF communication at work.

Experiences and practices of English as a lingua franca communication in the international university: An integrative view of student voices

Abstract 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.

Language learning and learning strategy use in international university students’ English as a lingua franca communication

English as a lingua franca (ELF) has received wide interest in the past decades from researchers, teachers, and users of English in general. The present study investigates whether or not speakers of English approach ELF contexts not only as contexts for communication, but also as contexts for language learning. Interview data was collected from 12 international university students in Czechia and Hungary to explore if indeed they believe they are using ELF communication for their own language learning, and if so, what learning strategies they use. Results show that these English speakers are indeed learning in these contexts and employ a variety of strategies to do so. Implications for how secondary school English language instruction might prepare students for learning while using English as a lingua franca are discussed

MY English: a social constructivist perspective on ELF

AbstractIn this article, I address issues, concepts and empirical insights that have profoundly shaped my view of English as a lingua franca (ELF) and of the pedagogical lessons to be learned for English Language Teaching (ELT). Starting from discrepancies in my ELF identity as a speaker of English with ELT roots in a German secondary school, I argue for the social constructivist concept of MY English as a basis for understanding ELF competence development and the tensions surrounding the relationship between ELT and ELF. Continually shaped by speakers’ participation in ELF communication, relevant dimensions of their MY English profiles include linguistic-communicative-communal repertoires and requirements of performance, individual and social identity orientations, and confidence in their ELF creativity. Against this backdrop, I discuss topics I consider relevant for a much-needed pedagogical reconciliation of ELT with ELF. Special attention is given to teachers’ ELF apprehension and the distinction between a “strict” (quasi-behaviouristic) and an “open” (social constructivist) target language orientation, speaker satisfaction as a criterion of success in ELF communication, and teaching towards ELF competence from awareness raising to comprehension, production and interaction to non-native speaker emancipation. Successful ELF implementation in both ELT practice and ELT teacher education requires extensive and authentic involvement of students and teachers in ELF communication. Intercultural telecollaboration provides innovative means for creating a space for ELF communication in the ELT classroom. Pedagogical case studies about video and text chat conversations strongly support the assumption that using their common target language as a lingua franca significantly enableslearnersof English to develop an emancipated non-native speaker identity and thus to becomespeakersof English in their own right. And what is more, the pedagogical lingua franca approach can be successfully transferred to other foreign target languages as well. I conclude my article with a brief contextualization of the MY English concept in relation to translingual practice and ELF languaging.

Investigating perceptions of English as a lingua franca in Hong Kong: The case of university students

English as a lingua franca (ELF) has received a great deal of attention in the field of applied linguistics in the last decade or so (Jenkins, 2007, 2014; Mauranen, 2012; Seidlhofer, 2011). As is currently conceptualized, ELF refers to the common language of choice among speakers from different lingua-cultural backgrounds (Jenkins, 2007; Seidlhofer, 2011). ELF does not imply a single, unified variety of English but primarily refers to language inusein contexts where multilingual speakers are involved (Cogo, 2010). In other words, ELF can be understood as social practice, with an emphasis on meaning-making processes. Much of the earlier research focused on identifying linguistic features characteristic of ELF communication (see Jenkins, 2000; Seidlhofer, 2001). But with the increased recognition of the variability and fluidity associated with the use of ELF, researchers have recently turned their attention to investigating communicative strategies which multilingual speakers employ to achieve mutual understanding and negotiate meaning in ELF interactions (see Cogo & Dewey, 2012; Jenkins, Cogo & Dewey, 2011). Furthermore, there exists a growing body of research into attitudes and perceptions of ELF communication (see Cogo, 2010; Jenkins, 2007; Kaloscai, 2009), given the impact of ELF perceptions on ELF-related communicative practices, especially with respect to issues relating to (non-) conformity to native-speaker norms.