scholarly journals Code-switching and plurilingualism in English-medium education for academic and professional purposes

Author(s):  
Maurizio Gotti

AbstractIn the process of internationalization of their teaching programmes many universities all over the world are now offering courses in English. This is a typical English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) situation in which both lecturers and students – although they are not native speakers of English – use this language as a common means of communication and instruction. This article examines communicative interactions taking place in such contexts. The data are taken from “international” courses in specialized disciplines offered by the University of Bergamo. In particular, the article examines the role of code-switching and the use of other languages employed by lecturers to explain the main specialized terms and technical concepts concerning the specific courses they are teaching. The methodology employed for the analysis of the data is mainly qualitative and is based on selected pieces of the lectures recorded. The data presented show that code-switching and the recourse to words belonging to other languages play a relevant role among the main strategies employed by both lecturers and students in the realization of their communicative efforts, and increases the degree of cooperativeness on both sides so as to guarantee a successful outcome of the specialized communication in which they are involved.

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 96-104
Author(s):  
Samar Alharbi

English language considers a global language spoken by a majority of people around the world. It is a language used mainly for communication, trades and study purposes. This widespread of English language being wildly spoken lead to different varieties of English as a lingua franca (ELF) means that non native speakers of English still be able to communicate with each other. Using ELF as a legitimate variety of English in language classrooms is questioned by some researchers. This paper will provide an overview of the concept of ELF. It will also present implications and limitations of using ELF in Saudi English as foreign language classrooms.


English Today ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raja Ram Mehrotra

English has been established in India for well over two centuries, and is now both its major lingua franca and ‘window on the world’. Some Indianisms are however little known beyond South Asia and are liable to be regarded by native speakers of English as ‘deviant’ in various ways. Here, a project is described in which a set of distinctive and representative Indian English expressions was shown to a group of native English speakers who were asked to comment on them. The list includes both distinctive words (such as face-cut, freeship, and weightage) and distinctive senses of universally used words (such as chaste, see, and tempo). The responses are discussed and a summarizing conclusion presented.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-87
Author(s):  
Nataša Gajšt

In our era of globalisation, English is at the top of the languages used in international business. A vast majority of business communication in English is carried out by non-native speakers of English. In a cross-cultural exchange of information, the sender and the recipient come from different cultural backgrounds. The patterns of communication vary across the globe and non-native speakers tend to apply their native language patterns when communicating in English. This paper thus focuses on the concept of spoken communication and dimensions of culture and how they are reflected in communication patterns in different business situations. It also addresses the teaching of Business English as a lingua franca and the role of Business English teachers in helping learners develop their communicative and intercultural competence in order to communicate effectively in a multicultural work environment.


Author(s):  
علاء حسنى المزين (Alaa Hosni)

كان من أهم الآثار الإيجابية للصحوة الإسلامية التى عمت العالم الإسلامى بشكل ملحوظ منذ أوائل السبعينيات فى القرن العشرين زيادة إقبال الشعوب الإسلامية على تعلم اللغة العربية، وبدأ الاهتمام الحقيقى لجامعات العالم الإسلامى بتوفير مساقات متخصصة لهذا الغرض منذ أوائل الثمانينات، وكانت الجامعة الإسلامية العالمية بماليزيا التى أسست سنة 1983 من أنشط الجامعات فى هذا الصدد، وهو نشاط استلفت نظر الباحث إذ وجده يستحق الرصد والتوثيق العلمى، والمراجعة إذا اقتضت الضرورة لا بهدف الإشادة بالتجربة بل رغبة فى الإفادة والاستفادة من قبل المختصين من المهتمين بهذا الميدان الحيوى من ميادين خدمة اللغة العربية بل خدمة الإسلام، وحضارته نظرا للارتباط الوثيق بين اللغة العربية وهذا الدين الحنيف باعتبارها لغة كتابه الخالد، والمعلم الرئيس من معالم الهوية الإسلامية المميزة والصمود الحضارى.*****************************************************One of the most positive effects of the Islamic awakening since the early seventies, in the twentieth century, which spread across the Islamic world in a significant manner, has been the increased Muslims’ interest in learning the Arabic language all over the world. There began a real interest in the universities of the Muslim world for the Arabic language by providing specialized courses for this purpose since the early eighties and  the International Islamic University Malaysia established in 1983 has been the most active university in this regard. And this activity of the university drew the interest of the researcher who found it worthy of investigation and scientific documentation as well as of revision, if necessary, not in order to pay tribute to the experience, but for taking advantage and learning from specialists interested in this vital field of the fields of Arabic language service which is actually service of Islam and its civilization considering the strong connection between Islam and the Arabic language, the language of the Qur’Én , the most distinctive feature of Islamic identity and resilience of Islamic civilization.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 193-197
Author(s):  
Alan Glasper

In light of the emergence in China of COVID-19, the novel corona virus, emeritus professor Alan Glasper, from the University of Southampton discusses the role of the World Health Organization and other public health institutions in responding to potential new global pandemics and deliberates on the role of NHS staff in coping with infectious disease in clinical environments.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris Schaller-Schwaner

AbstractThe role of English at European universities outside English-speaking countries has recently been so dynamic and complex as to merit elaborate acronyms and frameworks of comparison to capture the actual diversity involved in each case of using English, for example in what Dafouz and Smit (Dafouz, Emma and Ute Smit. 2014. Towards a dynamic conceptual framework for English-medium education in multilingual university settings.Applied Linguistics37[3]: 397–415) subsume under English-medium education in the international university. This contribution, however, looks at ELFFRA, English as a lingua franca in academic settings at the bi- and multilingual University of Fribourg, Switzerland. When English first became officially acknowledged as an additional academic language in 2005, being preceded by a period of “unruly” emergence, it was often the marked case, even in and for its local disciplinary speech events. Its current use at UFR as the default in some English-medium study programmes is by no means uniform or monolingual either. Meanwhile in the promotion of bilingualism in French and German, English is mostly “included” – reminiscent of the semiotics of the 2005 nonce coinage of “bi(tri)lingualism.” This contribution will revisit ideas about the “edulect” role of ELFFRA (Schaller-Schwaner, Iris. 2017.The many faces of English at Switzerland’s Bilingual University: English as an academic lingua franca at the institutionally bilingual University of Freiburg/Fribourg – a contextual analysis of its agentive use. Vienna: University of Vienna doctoral thesis) but look for it in unusual and under-researched places where it is indeed “included” viz. in beginners’ university language courses teaching the local languages French and German. First explorations will be shared and discussed with a view to what this might mean for ELF(A) and edulect.


Educação ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Evandro Coggo Cristofoletti ◽  
Milena Pavan Serafim

The economic and political changes in the world, from the 1970s, changed the political education of the Public Institutions of Higher Education in the world. The direction of these changes was clear: the university approachedthe market and the company and created interaction mechanisms that did not exist. The article therefore reviews the academic literature that interprets the relationship between university and market/company from two perspectives: approaches that positively position of interactions, exposing their motivations, interests and forms of interaction, especially the notions on Knowledge Economy and Entrepreneurial University; approaches that observe this interaction critically and reflectively, exposing the problems of interaction, its negative aspects and the reflection of the true role of the public university from the perspective of Academic Capitalism.


2018 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 02002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo J. S. Cruz ◽  
Miguel Azenha

The University of Minho (UMinho) is aware of the relevant role of higher education institutions in the global challenge of sustainability. The integration of sustainability values into its strategy encompasses all the fields of its activity. Taking into account the growing importance of shared knowledge resources as a reliable basis for decisions during infrastructures life cycle, the UMinho is currently undergoing an important process of implementing a ‘Building Information Modelling’ framework (BIM). This paper briefly describes the implementation steps that are current towards such a goal, in particular in terms of facilities management aspects.


2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Emilia Wąsikiewicz-Firlej

This paper aims to contribute to the discussion on the new directions in ESP education and revisit the concepts of the native speaker and lingua franca as seen from the lay perspective. It reports the results of a research study – an analysis of narratives of ten Polish professionals working for international organizations who share their experiences and tell stories on communicating and using English in the workplace. The narrative approach adopted in the study gives an insight into individual perspectives, facilitating an in-depth, holistic understanding of the studied matters. The fi ndings have shown that native English is still deemed to be the main point of reference by the participants of the study and the notion of lingua franca appears unfamiliar and diffi cult to accept, especially in the educational context. Variations in individual preferences concerning communication with native or non-native users of English and declared comfort related to such interactions have been observed and correlated with the level of profi ciency in English. In most cases, more profi cient users have reported to feel more comfortable in interactions with native speakers of English. They have also demonstrated certain language awareness, which stands in a sharp contrast to the participants less profi cient in English, whose perception of language is very simplifi ed. As regards pedagogical implications, the study has signalled a need for sound cultural preparation of professionals working in international environment and a greater emphasis on developing communication skills for socialising – an essential aspect of business communication.


Author(s):  
Rennie Naidoo

The purpose of this article is to stimulate debate about the developing paradoxes and dilemmas facing the university academic. This article argues that academics are increasingly being steeped in an inauthentic existence due, at least partly to, egocentrism and sociocentrism. A modest transdisciplinary- existential analytical framework is applied as an intellectual method to reflect on the prevailing monological perspectives stifling the role of academics, in working towards building a more sustainable future. Using concepts such as the subject, facticity and transcendence, the article investigates the dialectical tensions between some of these monological perspectives and proposes avenues to create new possibilities to progress the role of the academic. The article argues that the multilogical perspectives of transdisciplinary thinking and the empowering perspectives of existential thinking can provide academics with the necessary conceptual tools to transcend egocentrism and sociocentrism. While it is likely that new contradictions will emerge as a result of this synthesis, open-minded academics are urged to ignite their imaginative powers and take up the challenge of creating and acting on new possibilities. A transdisciplinary-existential dialectical approach can provide a richer understanding of present dilemmas in academia and the world, and suggest more satisfying paths to a sustainable future.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document