Use Of English As A Lingua Franca Research Articles

Investigating English textbooks used in Taiwanese senior high schools from an ELF perspective

English textbooks are the major learning resources for Taiwanese students to gain access to the target language. This study examines the English textbooks used in senior high schools (Grade 10 to Grade 12) in Taiwan from the perspective of English as a lingua franca (ELF). To prepare students to use English for international communication, it is worthwhile to examine how English textbooks incorporate an ELF orientation. Through textbook analysis, I investigated the following questions: (1) how the English textbooks used in senior high schools in Taiwan integrate an ELF perspective, and (2) how ELF attributes are manifested in the textbooks through various subject matter, exercises, and activities. The study finds that the examined textbooks partially incorporated an ELF orientation, and the ELF attributes were manifested to different extents. The main ELF attributes in the textbooks were helping learners understand the use of ELF and encouraging English use in relation to learners’ experiences and localities. Additionally, the study reveals that the ELF attributes were displayed in various types of activities and exercises, while the subject matter of the textbook units covered a wide range of topics. In light of the findings, I make suggestions for the development of ELF-oriented textbooks at the senior high school level, such as helping English learners to understand the use of ELF by introducing English varieties, encouraging the use of intercultural communication strategies, taking into account of learners’ experience in learning English, and promoting learners’ awareness of ELF.

Vietnamese Teachers’ Attitudes Toward English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and Classroom EFL Teaching Practices

This paper reports high school teachers’ attitudes toward English as a lingua franca (ELF) and their classroom EFL teaching practices in a province in Vietnam. This mixed-methods study involved 109 high school teachers from 11 high schools in answering the questionnaires, and 22 of them were invited for semi-structured interviews. The findings indicated that high school teachers had positive attitudes toward ELF in three attitude components, including cognitive, affective, and behavioral attitudes. Additionally, they integrated activities for the promotion of ELF to their students in relation to eight sub-variables from cultural knowledge, vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar to four language skills of students. Although facing difficulties in designing activities for ELF promotion, high school teachers still tried their best to introduce the existence of ELF and help their students accessible to the use of ELF in language learning. This study featured some limitations, but it can be of reference for the research context and other similar ones.

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.

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.

The speech act of advising in teacher-teacher interaction

Abstract The current study aimed to examine how university teachers advise their fellow teachers with a focus on solicited advice. To this end, 60 university teachers who use English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) as the medium of their everyday communication completed 8 role-plays in which newly hired teachers sought the advice of their colleagues regarding work issues. The role-plays were recorded and transcribed in preparation for coding, which was conducted with the use of Martínez-Flor’s (2003) taxonomy of advising and Trosborg’s (1995) taxonomy of internal modifiers. External modifiers were also examined as they emerged in the data. The results showed that the participants mainly preferred the use of direct advising strategies while simultaneously attempting to cater for the interlocutors’ negative face. While the advising strategies were situation dependent, the effect of the social variables of the advisor’s gender/teaching experience and the advisee’s academic rank was minimal. The results are interpreted in light of the theoretical model of politeness and the literature on the speech act of advising and the use of ELF.

Telecollaboration as an ELF environment in the global age

The focus of this paper is telecollaboration as a remote-learning environment and a way of transcending the distance between two or more groups of learners from different cultures/nations, who use English as a lingua franca (ELF), via computer-mediated-communication (CMC). It is regarded in the light of the qualitative content analysis of numerous theoretical and empirical research, according to which: 1) basic notions concerning ELF and its pedagogical implications, including the issues of culture and identity, are provided; 2) then, telecollaboration in foreign language learning is introduced through a theoretical framework and its general principles; 3) mainstream features of the such virtual educational environment are considered from the global aspect; 4) moreover, the way telecollaboration could be applied for practising the use of ELF is presented, and, finally, 5) its benefits for becoming a competent ELF user are emphasized, as well as possible limitations and suggestions for further researches. Accordingly, the main point of this brief overview is twofold: 1) to promote the possibilities of telecollaboration as a contemporary educational way of virtual information exchange within the ELF paradigm and English language teaching (ELT) field in general, and, 2) to arouse the interest of other researchers in keeping the pace with the similar future educational trends.

In Search of the Essential Competences for Overcoming Language Barriers in Public Services

It is argued in the article that despite the relatively strong presence of English in Slovenia, the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) alone does not guarantee access to quality public services. To supplement the use of ELF interpreting support is needed, in particular in high-risk situations. A step in this direction was the certification of a national vocational qualification for community interpreters for Albanian in 2020. Since at the same time a new vocational profile for intercultural mediators was created, which also aims to assist the inclusion of migrants in the Slovene society, we investigated the differences between these two profiles by comparing the competences defined in both. The results show that despite some overlaps Slovene vocational standards for both professions differ significantly: while transfer and linguistic competences are central to community interpreter’s profile, conflict resolution and mediation competence figure more prominently in the intercultural mediator’s profile.

Teaching as narrative. The use of ELF in the IFL class in the migration setting of Southern Italy

This article illustrates the results of a three-year research project conducted in the migration setting of Southern Italy from 2015 to 2018 focused on: 1) theorising English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) as a “translingual practice” in migratory settings across the Mediterranean; 2) scrutinizing the possibility of a pedagogy of contact in the Italian as a Foreign Language (IFL) classroom; 3) highlighting issues of self-translation and reflexivity in teaching and learning practices in the migration setting. Considering teaching as a narrative phenomenon, the article explores the third phase of the project, which was based on a series of interviews with the IFL teachers, conducted in 2017–2018, aimed at highlighting such issues as the use of ELF as a co-learning language, of autobiographical elements and self-translation practice and of self-reflexivity and improvisation. Results show the extent to which approaching students, who are also beneficiaries in a national humanitarian project, required an effort to eliminate the ideal of linguistic purity, as well as all cultural and linguistic prejudices.

The impact of English as a Lingua Franca on emotions. The role of individuals’ native language vs. second language

This chapter aims to contribute to the current understanding of how languages impact the emotions elicited by textual messages. Grounding on the episodic trace theory – a theoretical framework originally developed in the field of cognitive psychology – we examine the role of ELF (English as a Lingua Franca) in affecting the emotional reactions of individuals having different linguistic backgrounds. Across two studies, we investigate the role of ELF in international communication by focusing on the dichotomy of native (L1) vs. second language (L2). Study 1, conducted online through the use of self-reported measures, shows that the use of ELF arouses more positive emotions among individuals having English as a native language (L1), rather than as a second language (L2). Study 2 employs an Automated Facial Coding (AFC) software, namely FaceReader TM , able to track human basic emotions, and confirms how textual messages in L1 produces a greater emotional reaction than L2. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of the findings, followed by some directions for future research.

‘No English, Korean only’: local students’ resistance to English as a lingua franca at an ‘English only’ university in Korea

ABSTRACT Studies of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in higher education institutions have focused on students' learning outcomes and intelligibility in ELF, but little attention has been given to local students' resistance to the use of ELF. Utilising the concept of language ideology and interactive regimes, I demonstrate the tensions and dilemma arising from the choice between English and the local language in the international university context where English has been adopted as an official language. This paper focuses on a specific institution in Korea, but the findings have broader implications for higher education's pursuit of internationalisation.

English as a lingua franca in the international university: language experiences and perceptions among international students in multilingual Hong Kong

ABSTRACT This paper presents findings of a qualitative inquiry into international students’ experiences and perceptions of their language use in an English-medium international university in multilingual Hong Kong, with particular attention to the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in relation to other languages. Based on data collected from in-depth interviews with a group of international students, the study found that the participants embraced a pluralistic conceptualisation of ELF. While they emphasised the importance of ELF for their academic and social integration in the university, the perceived resistance against the use of ELF by local students means that the language norms operating in the university cannot be pre-determined. It was also found that the participants expressed monolingual ideologies with respect to the use of ELF as a result of their concerns about social exclusion and linguistic disadvantage. Meanwhile, multilingual language practices and multilingual ideologies in relation to the use of ELF were also found in the participants’ accounts of language experiences and perceptions. The findings also point to the tensions arising from the language choice between ELF and the local language, as well as the co-existence of contradictory language ideologies concerning monolingualism/multilingualism in the international university context.

Syntactic complexity in English as a lingua franca academic writing

This study complements previous research on linguistic features of English as a lingua franca (ELF) from a syntactic complexity perspective. Specifically, the present study seeks to find out how ELF users express meaning relations in research articles using different syntactic structures. The same syntactic phenomena are also analyzed in comparable texts written in American English (AmE) to see in which way ELF writing is shaping research writing in English. Our findings show that the values of nine indices from four syntactic complexity dimensions in ELF research articles are significantly different from those in comparable AmE research articles. ELF authors use longer sentences to improve communication efficiency, and more coordinate phrases and complex nominals to enhance clarity and to increase explicitness. In addition, considering phrasal complexity, ELF research articles show greater reliance on nominal phrases in comparison to AmE articles. In other words, the convention of a nominal style is valued in ELF academic written discourse. These features of syntactic complexity illustrate writers’ handling of two competing goals, explicitness and conciseness, in the ELF academic writing. This study is significant in that it offers insights to the description of the emerging use of ELF in academic written discourse.

The use of English as a lingua franca in the Japanese second language classroom

AbstractDespite the growing interest surrounding the use and role of the first language in the second language classroom, the vast majority of research in the field has been conducted in classrooms where English is taught as a second language in English-speaking countries. Very little research has investigated the role of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in other language learning environments, such as those in which Japanese is learnt as a second language (JSL) in Japan. This paper investigates the purposes for which ELF is employed, and the perspectives of learners from multilingual and multicultural backgrounds on the use of ELF, in the JSL classroom. The findings show that English is employed to varying degrees in relation to proficiency level, and that learners themselves are generally welcoming of this use. The author suggests that learners seek security and comfort in what they already know, with ELF easing the gap between their L1 and their developing Japanese skills.

ELF in the English Classroom: Great Ideas and Burning Open Questions

Abstract – Research in the field of English as a lingua franca (ELF) has been inherently connected to studies in the broad areas of Applied Linguistics and English language teaching (ELT) ever since the unresolved academic controversy on the nature of English as a global language started, in the early eighties. So far, several research projects have been carried out to enhance ELF-informed pedagogy and incorporate the use of ELF into the English syllabus through innovative teaching/learning practices (Author 2013; Bowles and Cogo 2015; Gagliardi and Maley 2010; Vettorel 2015). However, even though a shift in perspective has been advocated in order to reconceptualise the traditional approach to ELT (Lopriore 2010), this transition poses challenging open questions for discussion, including: Should any native-speaker language model be provided in language education? How are ʽerrors’ going to be distinguished from creative forms of ELF? How are teachers supposed to behave when deviations from the adopted language model take place? How should teachers assess the use of ELF in the English classroom? The aim of this paper is to focus on these queries and stimulate a discussion to provide tentative answers.

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.

English as a lingua franca: A source of identity for young Europeans?

AbstractAs a result of globalisation and the European integration process, identity concepts of young Europeans are becoming more and more diverse and possibly heterogeneous. The factors that influence the development of identity formation and impact on identity constructions are complex – but language seems to be of central importance. It is generally accepted that language and identity are closely connected and that identities are shaped to a large extent through discursive practice. These interactions no longer take place in the mother tongue alone; they are increasingly affected by the wide use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in Europe or, Euro-English. This raises the question of whether European identity should be built upon linguistic diversity, as officially promoted by the European Union, or whether the use of ELF could help to fulfill this unifying function. Drawing on a questionnaire survey conducted at the University of Braunschweig with 1061 students, the article investigates the potential role of ELF in the formation of a common European identity.

ELF in international supervision: a nexus analysis approach

Abstract In the literature on professional international consulting, the use of a foreign language (such as English) is typically cast as problematic and as an obstacle to successful intervention. In this article, we present evidence to the contrary, showing that conducting a specific form of professional consulting called ‘supervision’ in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) can be beneficial rather than detrimental to the outcome. We analyze data of one international supervision event using the ethnographic framework of ‘nexus analysis’ (Scollon and Scollon 2004). Nexus analysis operates by investigating how macro-level societal discourses (e.g. professional discourses of supervision) and cultural tools (e.g. the use of ELF) interplay in and mediate local moments of interaction. In our case, using ELF in international supervision can slow down the process, which in turn is actually an important intervention strategy in supervision because it facilitates reflection work and is thus conducive to positive outcomes. We argue that nexus analysis is well poised to investigate the effects of such interplay of ELF use and societal (professional) discourses on the ground. Further, conducting studies that show the benefits of ELF use in supervision can ultimately engender more positive attitudes among professionals in this regard.

ELF and super-diversity: a case study of ELF multilingual practices from a business context

Abstract This article explores the link between English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and super-diversity in the multilingual business context of a small IT company, where English is used as a lingua franca and various linguistic resources play an important role in the company practices. The aim of the study is to examine the practices, orientations to and use of ELF and multilingual resources within an ethnographically-oriented approach, with data collected through observations, interviews, focus groups and recordings of naturally-occurring interactions. The findings show that the company's practices are highly multilingual, whereby ‘languaging’ is a common and positively valued phenomenon. Results also show that ELF is highly collaborative, both in spoken and written communication, and the staff's sociolinguistic repertoire is sensitive to the interlocutors' communicative resources.

Reimagining Communicative Context: ELF Interaction in Second Life to Learn EFL

Drawing upon a semiotic approach to English as a lingua franca (ELF), this study investigates English as a foreign language (EFL) students' interactions with international speakers of English in the real-time, multiplayer virtual world Second Life. The author integrated pedagogical strategies of classroom interactions, online conversations, and student reflections in an EFL course to facilitate students' understanding and use of ELF. Qualitative analyses of written conversations and reflective observations by some of the students showed distinctive features of ELF communication with regard to interactional resources and discourse strategies in international encounters. Student responses to post-task survey questions further reflected the benefits and challenges of connecting multiple proficiencies and identities in developing ELF across spaces and events. This article concludes with discussions on issues and recommendations for re-envisioning communicative contexts that are relevant to playful interaction as ELF practice.

English as a Lingua Franca: concepts, use, and implications

Sowden’s article raises a number of questions concerning English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and criticizes it as a simplified and culturally neutral means of communication. In this response, I address the issues concerning the conceptualization and use of ELF as well as the implications for ELT. I provide up-to-date evidence of ELF research and show the variability, richness, and creativity of ELF communication.