2. Interculturalities of English as a Lingua Franca: International Communication and Multicultural Awareness in the Greek Context

This paper draws on two policy documents, the “International Campus of Excellence Initiative” and the “University Strategy 2010-2015” to assess the level of internationalisation of the Spanish university system as portrayed by the international campuses of excellence (ICEs). It sets out to identify the role and use of English as a lingua franca with academic purposes across Spanish ICEs and the initiatives developed based on the use of English as a communication tool in this academic context. The investigation draws on textual data gathered from the websites of two Spanish-based ICEs, such as Ceimar (ICE on Marine Science) and Iberus (ICE of the Ebro Valley). The website analysis shows that these two ICEs rely on English to implement issues of internationality in their academic offer and articulate a diversity of actions and programmes in which English is used as the lingua franca for international communication and academic teaching as well as for the dissemination of research activities.

Download Full-text

English as an academic lingua franca

Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses ◽

10.14198/raei.2010.23.02 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 19 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Pamela Faber

Keyword(s):

Native Speakers ◽

International Communication ◽

Minority Languages ◽

The European Union ◽

Lingua Franca ◽

Linguistic Integration ◽

National Boundaries ◽

International Knowledge ◽

The Many ◽

National Languages

In today’s world, the European Union is searching for a delicate balance between linguistic integration and diversity. Thanks to international knowledge transmission and exchange as well as co-operation and mobility beyond national boundaries, English has now become the preferred option for linguistic unity. It is a language that allows native speakers of different languages to communicate. However, the use of English as a lingua franca should not (and does not) threaten plurilingualism in Europe, as reflected in the many national languages in Europe and the relatively peaceful coexistence of national and minority languages in many European countries. In fact, English, as used for international communication purposes, complements and supplements national languages.

Download Full-text

Miscommunication in Using English as a Lingua Franca

Journal of Contemporary Educational Research ◽

10.26689/jcer.v4i11.1651 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (11) ◽

Author(s):

Ruoyan Cui

Keyword(s):

Empirical Studies ◽

Communication Strategies ◽

International Communication ◽

Mutual Understanding ◽

Cultural Backgrounds ◽

Lingua Franca ◽

Communication Breakdowns

English is now widely used as a lingua franca in international communication. Communication is a collaboration of all its participants. Although mutual understanding is commonly assumed during interaction, miscommunication is inevitable. ELF communication, with its interactants from diversified lingua-cultural backgrounds, is assumed to be susceptible to communication breakdowns. To verify this assumption, some empirical studies on ELF miscommunication are reviewed. It is found that miscommunication is infrequent in ELF communication and ELF interactants proactively employ communication strategies to preempt and repair understanding problems to ensure mutual understanding.

Download Full-text

The English-as-a-lingua-franca approach

Language Problems & Language Planning ◽

10.1075/lplp.34.3.01fie ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 34 (3) ◽

pp. 201-221 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Sabine Fiedler

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Foreign Language Learning ◽

International Communication ◽

Artificial Language ◽

Lingua Franca ◽

Learning And Teaching ◽

Number Of Factors ◽

The World

English has spread so widely around the world that its native speakers are now outnumbered by its non-native speakers. Recent publications have shown that the dominance of English has led to severe disadvantages for non-Anglophones. Several options of language policy have been presented to find fair and democratic approaches to international communication. Their scope includes different variants of multilingualism, the limitation of the number of languages used in international communication, restriction to receptive skills, the introduction of a system of compensation, initiatives to revive an ancient language (e.g. Latin), and the use of an artificial language. The model English as a Lingua Franca, the idea that the English spoken by non-native speakers is a variety in its own right whose norms are established by its users instead of native speakers, is among these proposals. The paper discusses the extent to which this approach seems to be feasible. Despite its appeal among learners and speakers of English as a foreign language, a number of factors seem to hamper its chances of realization. These factors involve a complexity of issues, such as traditions in foreign language learning and teaching, the heterogeneity of lingua franca communication and psychological reservations.

Download Full-text

WHICH ENGLISH PLEASES YOUR EAR? AN ATTITUDE STUDY ON ACCENTS IN TIMES OF ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA (Que inglês lhe soa agradável? Um estudo atitudinal sobre sotaques em tempo de Inglês como língua franca)

Estudos Linguísticos e Literários ◽

10.9771/2176-4794ell.v2i48.14537 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2 (48) ◽

Author(s):

Juliana Souza da Silva

Keyword(s):

Spoken Language ◽

International Communication ◽

Lingua Franca ◽

Inherent Value ◽

The World ◽

English As Lingua Franca

From the second half of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, English has become the most widely spoken language for international communication in the world. It connects people with varied lingua-cultures who otherwise would not be able to communicate, functioning as a global lingua franca. Since the majority of the speakers are non-native, we need to ask ourselves why there are so many people struggling to sound native-like in English. About the repercussions of an accent, Mcnamara (2001) states that we not only evaluate people by how they speak, we also evaluate their speech by our sociocultural connotations of the group they belong to. Reflecting on this issue, this is an attitude study on accents of English as lingua franca (ELF) interactions through the analyses of the answers to a questionnaire applied to students of English in Salvador (BA). The ponderations are based on paramount sociolinguistic themes like the “inherent value” granted to hegemonic varieties, as well as in the attempt understand the participants’ attitude toward accents of English in international settings. It aims, among other things, to raise the awareness of how much work still needs to be done to legitimize non-hegemonic Englishes.

Download Full-text

Emerging vocabulary: the influence of English on medical Spanish

Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses ◽

10.14198/raei.2009.22.19 ◽

2009 ◽

pp. 327 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Alicia Ricart Vayá ◽

Miguel Ángel Candel Mora

Keyword(s):

English Language ◽

Native Language ◽

Academic Research ◽

International Communication ◽

Academic Life ◽

Morphological Adaptation ◽

Lingua Franca ◽

Medical Language ◽

New Concepts ◽

The Impact

This paper discusses the influence of the use of English as a lingua franca in the field of academic research in medicine and its effects on the Spanish medical language, as evidenced after an in-depth revision of the existing literature. The study has been based on the analysis of a medical corpus made up of 311 Conclusion sections of Spanish articles, which correspond to the specialties of Cardiology, Paediatrics and Psychology. Upon justifying the decision of using the English language as essential for academic life and international communication, the discussion focuses on the impact of the specialized literature on professionals whose native language is not English and the inclusion of new vocabulary sometimes justified as the result of a need on the part of scientists to explain new concepts. The massive incorporation of vocabulary has led researchers to deal with the different ways in which neologisms are introduced in the Spanish medical language analyzing the corresponding results, which include: words from other languages which are slightly modified; words from other languages added with or without morphological adaptation; addition of suffixes or prefixes; the use of “false friends” and the use of certain words not registered in the dictionary.

Download Full-text

English as a lingua franca: Attitudes of Polish interpreting students

Beyond Philology An International Journal of Linguistics, Literary Studies and English Language Teaching ◽

10.26881/bp.2020.1.02 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 35-71

Author(s):

Aleksandra Szymańska-Tworek ◽

Joanna Sycz-Opoń

Keyword(s):

Mass Culture ◽

American English ◽

International Communication ◽

Lingua Franca ◽

Standard American English ◽

Conservative Attitude ◽

Major Factors ◽

The Cost ◽

Frequent Exposure ◽

Insufficient Knowledge

Recent decades have witnessed the growing presence of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in international communication, which has emerged as one of the major factors influencing the interpreting profession. What follows is the debate concerning presence of ELF in interpreter training. However, before any curricula modifications are introduced, what needs to be taken into consideration is the perspective of interpreting students – their expectations and preferences concerning the variety of English they want to work with during their studies. The present study is an attempt to investigate attitudes displayed by English philology students enrolled in translation and interpreting programmes towards native and non-native English. The research tool was a questionnaire. The results suggest that the students might not necessarily welcome frequent exposure to ELF at the cost of Standard British or Standard American English during practical classes, including interpreting. However, it is hypothesized that the respondents’ conservative attitude is not the result of a thorough understanding of ELF, but rather the reflection of insufficient knowledge and uncritical embrace of the stereotypical mass-culture narration that tends to romanticize certain varieties of English while dismissing others

Download Full-text

Teacher perceptions of teaching and learning English as a lingua franca in the expanding circle: A study of Taiwan

English Today ◽

10.1017/s0266078416000146 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 33 (1) ◽

pp. 2-11 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Wen-Hsing Luo

Keyword(s):

Teacher Perceptions ◽

English Learners ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Native Speaker ◽

International Communication ◽

Lingua Franca ◽

English Teaching ◽

Teachers Perceptions ◽

L2 Learners ◽

Expanding Circle

This study examines Taiwanese English teachers’ perceptions of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in relation to English teaching in classrooms. The definition of ELF is: English used as a lingual medium of communication among people of different linguacultural backgrounds (Jenkins, 2009: 200). Concerning the use of English, Taiwan is regarded as a country of ‘the expanding circle’ (Kachru, 1985, 1992), where English is not an official language, but is learned as a foreign language (EFL) at school and is considered essential for international communication. In Taiwan, English has been traditionally taught as a school subject and learners rarely have opportunities to use English outside the classroom, whereas the design of English pedagogy and curricula in Taiwan, following an EFL approach, is based on native-speaker (NS) norms with the aim of helping learners achieve native-like competence (cf. Suzuki, 2011). Due to the global spread of English, the majority of users of English for international communication are non-native speakers (non-NSs) (Crystal, 1997; Graddol, 1997, 2006); non-NSs of English now outnumber their native-speaker counterparts. In the global context, second language (L2) learners of English will mostly encounter non-NSs, whose ‘Englishes’ might deviate from NS English usage. Traditional EFL approaches to English teaching, which favor NS norms, may not ‘adequately prepare’ L2 learners of English to effectively interact and communicate with speakers ‘from other English-speaking contexts’ (Matsuda & Friedrich, 2011: 332). It has become important that English curricula and instruction are designed to prepare English learners to cope with international communication in which English variations are evident.

Download Full-text

Varieties of English and Kachru’s Expanding Circle

Russian Journal of Linguistics ◽

10.22363/2687-0088-2020-24-3-523-550 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 24 (3) ◽

pp. 523-550

Author(s):

Zoya G. Proshina ◽

Cecil L. Nelson

Keyword(s):

International Communication ◽

World Englishes ◽

Controversial Issues ◽

Lingua Franca ◽

International Language ◽

The World ◽

Expanding Circle ◽

Empirical Material

In this overview article, we present the motivations for compiling this issue of RJL and summarize the major premises of the World Englishes (WE) Paradigm. The focus is on the relations between the WE school of thought and the paradigms that branched from it, i.e. English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and English as an International Language (EIL). The statuses of Englishes in the Kachruvian Expanding Circle that function mainly as lingua francas in international communication is one of the most controversial issues in sociolinguistics. We discuss the misconceptions regarding the Expanding Circle Englishes. Finally, we give a brief survey of the articles contributed to this issue, which develop theoretical and empirical material for the WE paradigm.

Download Full-text