scholarly journals English as a Lingua Franca: Lessons for language and mobility

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Sung-Yul Park ◽  
Lionel Wee
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Fluid Dynamic ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Considerable Difficulty ◽  
Core Set ◽  
Linguistic Backgrounds

Greater mobility of people in the globalising world foregrounds the inherent problemsof an ideology of language as a bounded entity and the unequal relations of powerthat shape experiences of mobility. In this paper, we consider how these problems canbe interrelated in research on language and mobility through a critical evaluation ofcurrent research on English as a lingua franca (ELF), particularly what we refer to asthe ‘ELF research project’, exemplified by the work of Jenkins and Seidlhofer. TheELF project aims at a non-hegemonic alternative to English language teaching byidentifying a core set of linguistic variables that can facilitate communication betweenspeakers of different linguistic backgrounds. We provide a critical examination ofthe project by problematising its narrow conceptualisation of communication asinformation transfer and its inability to address the prejudices that speakers may stillencounter because they speak the language ‘differently’. In our discussion, we arguethat investigation of language in the context of mobility requires serious rethinkingon the level of both theory and political stancetaking: a theory of language that doesnot take account of the fluid, dynamic, and practice-based nature of language willhave considerable difficulty in proposing a cogent critique of social inequalities thatpermeate the lives of people on the move.

WE- and ELF-informed classroom practices: proposals from a pre-service teacher education programme in Italy

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Vettorel
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
English Language ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Education Programme ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Trainee Teachers

AbstractThe long-standing research in World Englishes (WE) and, more recently, in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) has greatly contributed to problematizing several areas in connection to English Language Teaching, highlighting in particular the importance of teacher education as a first and fundamental step towards a more “inclusive” and “realistic” approach in ELT. A WE- and ELF-informed teacher education can indeed play a pivotal role in promoting awareness of the sociolinguistic and cultural changes brought about by the pluralization of English on the one hand, and of its function as a lingua franca on the other hand, and contribute to fostering a critical evaluation of ELT approaches, and materials, traditionally based on an Anglo-centric monolithic view of language and culture, taking account of different viewpoints in connection to the current modified reality of English. This paper will illustrate findings from an ongoing research study aimed at investigating trainee teachers’ beliefs concerning ELT pedagogic practices inclusive of the current pluralization of English. The study has been carried out with trainee teachers of English attending pre-service TFA (

scholarly journals Culture and complexity through English as a lingua franca: rethinking competences and pedagogy in ELT

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Baker
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Language Pedagogy ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Meaningful Category

AbstractEnglish as a lingua franca (ELF) research highlights the complexity and fluidity of culture in intercultural communication through English. ELF users draw on, construct, and move between global, national, and local orientations towards cultural characterisations. Thus, the relationship between language and culture is best approached as situated and emergent. However, this has challenged previous representations of culture, particularly those centred predominantly on nation states, which are prevalent in English language teaching (ELT) practices and the associated conceptions of communicative and intercultural communicative competence. Two key questions which are then brought to the fore are: how are we to best understand such multifarious characterisations of culture in intercultural communication through ELF and what implications, if any, does this have for ELT and the teaching of culture in language teaching? In relation to the first question, this paper will discuss how complexity theory offers a framework for understanding culture as a constantly changing but nonetheless meaningful category in ELF research, whilst avoiding essentialism and reductionism. This underpins the response to the second question, whereby any formulations of intercultural competence offered as an aim in language pedagogy must also eschew these simplistic and essentialist cultural characterisations. Furthermore, the manner of simplification prevalent in approaches to culture in the ELT language classroom will be critically questioned. It will be argued that such simplification easily leads into essentialist representations of language and culture in ELT and an over representation of “Anglophone cultures.” The paper will conclude with a number of suggestions and examples for how such complex understandings of culture and language through ELF can be meaningfully incorporated into pedagogic practice.

Teaching of English as an International Language in Various Contexts: Nothing is as Practical as Good Theory

RELC Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seran Dogancay-Aktuna ◽  
Joel Hardman
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Good Theory ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
International Language ◽  
Pedagogical Decisions ◽  
The World ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
English Language Classrooms

Despite the proliferation of publications on teaching English as an international language (EIL) or a Lingua Franca (ELF), the diffusion of these concepts into the world of English Language Teaching has been slow and incomplete. There is some wariness among educators about the teaching of ELF and EIL, with no consensus regarding appropriate pedagogy. In this article we look at some of the research on the integration of global Englishes into English language classrooms and discuss issues concerning a model of language to guide pedagogy when there are multiple Englishes. We maintain that it is by relying on theoretical understandings of concepts underlying the development and use of global Englishes and basing pedagogical decisions on contextual needs, rather than on prescriptions for practice, that teachers can make realistic decisions about integrating Englishes into their own classroom pedagogy. We refer to a model of teaching English that is based on a vision of situated teacher praxis and show how one component of this model, meta-culture, can be used to teach language-culture connection in the era of global Englishes.

English as a lingua franca: From theory to practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan-shan Chen ◽  
Wei Ren ◽  
Chih-Ying Lin
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Annual Conference ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Major Focus ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Book Series ◽  
Theory To Practice ◽  
Academic Settings ◽  
First Languages

English as a lingua franca (ELF) refers to ‘any use of English among speakers of different first languages for whom English is the communicative medium of choice, and often the only option’ (Seidlhofer, 2011, p. 7*). ELF research started relatively recently. It was only discussed occasionally in the last century. Landmark changes were the publications of Jenkins (2000*) and Seidlhofer (2001*). These works inspired more research into ELF, as witnessed by a dramatically increased interest in ELF since then, resulting in a large number of journal articles, monographs, edited books (e.g. Mauranen & Ranta, 2009*) and large corpora (e.g. the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English, the Corpus of English as a Lingua Franca in Academic Settings, and the Asian Corpus of English). In addition, ELF researchers have launched the annual conference series (International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca), the Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, and the De Gruyter book series Developments in English as a Lingua Franca. These publications move from an initial understanding of ELF as a ‘variety’ or ‘varieties’ to a later conceptualisation of ELF as a dynamic, fluid and variable phenomenon. ELF has become a major focus of discussions and activities among both applied linguists and English language teaching professionals (Jenkins, Cogo, & Dewey, 2011).

Rheme and reason: Why is English always the Theme rather than the Rheme in our acronyms?

English Today ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan James Runcieman
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
English Speaker ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Native English Speaker ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Leading Role

The position of ‘E’, for English, has always been at the forefront of all the acronyms of language learning and descriptions of world trends in English language teaching and acquisition, EFL, ESL, ELT, ESP, EIL, ELF, or second only to ‘T’ for teaching, TEFL and TESOL. We have become so used to seeing the letter ‘E’ out there in front, the Theme rather than the Rheme, that we do not even seem to question that position anymore. Despite developments in the study of World Englishes (Kachru, 1985, 1990, 1991, 2005; Jenkins, 2003; Bolton, 2005, 2006; Canagarajah, 2006, 2007, 2009) and a supposedly secondary role for so-called Native English and the Native English speaker, we continue to place the ‘E’ at the front, as though we have no option but to accept its primacy in every concept. If we always place ‘E’ at the beginning though, as the defining Theme, surely we are giving both it and its origin England a leading role in all conceptual beginnings. The Theme after all is always the principal actor, the familiar, whilst the Rheme is the unfamiliar and undefined object (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004), but what English is now, in its global context, is exactly that, the unfamiliar and undefined object. In the following article I will argue for a rethinking of our terminology, particularly regarding the use of the acronym ELF (English as a Lingua Franca), and how perhaps we should be thinking more carefully about our choice of acronyms in order to be more precise about our approach to the study of English in the changing world.

scholarly journals Situating English Language Teaching in Indonesia within a Critical, Global Dialogue of Theories: A Case Study of Teaching Argumentative Writing and Cross-Cultural Understanding Courses

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ribut Wahyudi
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Practices ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Argumentative Writing ◽  
Curriculum Policy ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Cultural Understanding

<p>This dissertation aims to critically examine lecturers’ discursive statements in interviews and English Language Teaching (ELT) classroom practices in Indonesia, primarily in the teaching of Argumentative Writing (AW) and Cross Cultural Understanding (CCU) courses at two universities (Multi-Religious and Islamic University) in Java. This study uses poststructural and interdisciplinary lenses: Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA); Connell’s (2007) ideas of Southern Theory, Kumaravadivelu’s (2006b) Post Method Pedagogy, and Al-Faruqi’s (1989) and Al-Attas’ (1993) Islamisation of knowledge, as well as the critiques of these theories and other postcolonial voices. The critical examination of ELT practices through poststructural and interdisciplinary lenses in an Indonesian context is urgent, as teaching practices at present are subjected by competing regimes of ‘truth’ including Western, neoliberal, Southern, and Islamic discourses. The data were collected from curriculum policy documents, semi structured interviews, stimulated recalls and classroom observations from seven lecturers. The data were then transcribed and analysed primarily using FDA and also discussed in relation to other interdisciplinary theories, the critiques of these theories, and other relevant postcolonial literatures. Within the analysis there is a particular focus on how ELT Methods and World Englishes are enacted, negotiated, or resisted by lecturers.  This study strongly suggests that Western discourses have dominated other regimes of truth, as evidenced in the privileging of process and genre approaches, global Northern structures of AW essay, as well as an emphasis on American and British English in AW courses and the privileging of those two dominant English varieties in CCU courses in most contexts. The study also suggests there are tensions between religious discourse and emerging neoliberal discourses in national policies and university documents and some lecturers’ language. Southern discourses seem to have been marginalised and seem to be only resorted to support the use of Western discourses in the classroom teaching. The use of FDA and interdisciplinary lenses, along with their critiques and other postcolonial voices, are underexplored in current studies of ELT practices. Therefore, this study extends scholarship in the ELT field and makes a case for exposing lecturers to counter discourses, such as Southern and Islamic discourses, in order for them to be able to critically negotiate or appropriate Western and neoliberal discourses in their teaching practices.</p>

scholarly journals REPENSANDO O ENSINO DE LÍNGUA INGLESA NO BRASIL: POR UMA PERSPECTIVA TRANSLÍNGUE | RETHINKING ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IN BRAZIL: TOWARDS A TRANSLINGUAL PERSPECTIVE

2017 ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Diogo Oliveira do Espírito Santo ◽  
Robson Ribeiro da Silva
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Bilingual Education ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Cultural Relations ◽  
Lingua Franca

<p>Este artigo discute pressupostos e implicações dos termos translingualimo ou práticas translíngues (CANAGARAJAH, 2011, 2013; GARCÍA, 2009, 2014) e ensino bilíngue (GARCÍA, 2014; WEI, 2013) em contextos de ensino de língua inglesa no Brasil. Na primeira parte, serão discutidas algumas nomenclaturas conferidas ao <em>status</em> do inglês ao redor do mundo, como World Englishes (WE), Inglês como Língua Internacional (ILI) e Inglês como Língua Franca (ILF). Em seguida, serão tecidas considerações sobre as definições de sujeitos bilíngues que mais se adéquam aos objetivos deste artigo. A discussão será finalizada com o debate sobre os desdobramentos da perspectiva translíngue no ensino, como forma de problematizar as relações linguístico-culturais que os sujeitos aprendizes de língua inglesa desenvolvem em cenários cada vez mais multilíngues.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Abstract:</strong> <em>This article discusses the premises and implications of translingualism (translingual practices) (CANAGARAJAH, 2011, 2013; GARCÍA, 2009, 2014) and bilingual education (GARCÍA, 2014; WEI, 2013) concepts in English Language Teaching (ELT) contexts in Brazil. In the first section, we will review some of the labels that have been attributed to the current status of the English language worldwide, such as World Englishes (WE), English as an International Language (EIL) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). Moreover, we will approach different definitions of bilingual subjects. Finally, we will consider the debate about the unfolding of the translingual perspective in order to reflect on the linguistic and cultural relations that English language learners develop in ever more multilingual settings</em><em>. </em></p><pre><em> </em></pre><p>Keywords<em>: English; </em>Translanguaging<em>; Bilingual Education. </em></p><p> </p><p>Palavras-Chave: Língua inglesa; Translingualismo; Práticas translíngues; Ensino bilíngue.</p>

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