Die Sprache von Forschung und Lehre

2020 ◽  

International academic work teaches cultural tolerance, intellectual openness and curiosity in a particular way. It is undeniable that academia benefits from multilingual intercultural exchange. Nevertheless, as a lingua franca, English has dominated almost all strategically important areas of social thinking and behaviour for quite some time. Even in academia, other languages have disappeared from numerous disciplines. This unbalanced shift towards the English language may not only offer important opportunities, but could also pose considerable risks, among which are the limited acquisition of knowledge, reduced academic exchange, curtailed knowledge sharing in society and the promotion of purely market-oriented research interests. Against this background, this anthology addresses the question of whether and to what extent the growing dominance of business concepts in academia is related to the standardisation of academic expression and communication.

Author(s):  
THANGA PRASATH S

Nowadays, the English Language is mandatory for doing all kinds of work like Academic work, business work, etc. We must learn this language according to our requirements because it is a global language; thus, we cannot quickly satisfy our needs without this. English is considered a global lingua franca, is dominant in all areas. Alblawi, A.et al.(2017)As an academician, we must learn this because it's necessary to express our idea to others.


Author(s):  
Tsedal Neeley

This chapter documents the largely beneficial results of the lingua franca mandate on Rakuten over a period of five years, including the rise in international acquisitions, accelerated post-integration activities, centralized technical platforms, and knowledge sharing. An expanded and global talent pool changed hiring patterns within the Tokyo headquarters and worldwide, particularly in the engineering ranks. While many advances were made in the advent of the English language mandate, the chapter also highlights enduring challenges. In addition, it shows examples of Rakuten's influence beyond the confines of the organization. It chronicles how the prime minister of Japan tapped Mikitani to join a newly formed advisory body, the Industrial Competitiveness Council, to aid in developing a globalization agenda. A national language strategy was rooted in the actions that the council adopted. These activities demonstrate the role that companies can have in shaping societal growth and character.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-193
Author(s):  
Karin Reithofer

AbstractThis article aims at examining the topic of ELF intelligibility from the interpreters’ perspective. Therefore, the focus is put on listener factors affecting intelligibility in settings typical for interpreting i.e. monologic settings. Data from various intelligibility studies are compared with results from a study that tested an ELF user’s intelligibility in a conference-like ELF setting and examined the influence of listener variables such as background knowledge, familiarity with ELF use or proficiency in English. In this study, an Italian speaker gave an impromptu speech in English to participants who subsequently were asked to answer written questions on the topic. The results showed that listeners with more experience in ELF settings reached the highest score in the test, while participants with specialist knowledge were unable to profit from it. The participants’ English language skills played a rather subordinate role. The findings of this study may prove useful for considerations in interpreter training and can contribute to the development of concrete, evidence-based training methods for interpreters in the interpreting sub-skill of comprehension.


Author(s):  
Will Baker

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.


Author(s):  
Helene Zamor ◽  
Alicia D. Nicholls ◽  
Albert Christopher Lee

Language and culture play a critical role in international commercial relations. Since the 19th century, the English language has undeniably held the prominent position as the global lingua franca to facilitate communication between nations. However, China’s contemporary re-emergence as an economic superpower has expanded its global influence. Consequently, awareness of Chinese culture and language is becoming important not only globally, but also in the Caribbean, where China’s economic footprint has expanded considerably in recent years. This article conceptually explores the important role of language and culture within the growing Sino-Caribbean commercial relationship. Specifically, it discusses the potential impact of language on the trade and tourism sectors, which are two key industries that drive the economies of English-speaking Caribbean small island developing states. It does this by charting the development of the English and Chinese languages as dominant languages. It then briefly looks at the current level of Chinese engagement with the region in trade and, more contemporarily, the potential of greater Chinese tourism in the Caribbean. It discusses the value of deeper cultural and linguistic understanding in nurturing and expanding these relationships. Finally, the article concludes by providing meaningful recommendations on ways to mitigate cultural and linguistic barriers in order to promote deeper Sino-Caribbean trade and tourism.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Language and culture are two important factors in commercial relationships, especially trade and tourism.</li><br /><li>This article adds to the growing literature on budding Sino-Caribbean relations by exploring the importance of linguistic and cultural understanding to nurturing this relationship.</li><br /><li>It argues that Caribbean countries cannot take for granted that English will always be the lingua franca for Chinese-Caribbean relations given China’s expanding global footprint.</li><br /><li>The article makes recommendations on ways to mitigate linguistic and cultural barriers in order to deepen Sino-Caribbean commercial ties.</li></ul>


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-37
Author(s):  
Zahra Kazemi ◽  
Ahmad Jafari Samimi ◽  
Hamed Fazlollahtabar

One way to finance government expenditures is to collect taxes. Regarding to this financial source compared with other sources positive tax knowledge sharing amongst people or tax payers lead to effective investment. Unlike developing countries in developed countries - that taxes have little effects - almost all government expenditures is financed by taxes. One of the main challenges in the tax system is how to collect taxes due to tax evasion. The main reason is the uncertainty surrounding how government uses the taxes paid by the people. A major factor in the outbreak of the sense of failure to pay taxes, is the discussion and sharing the viewpoint of each other. If there is any positive tax effect prevalence of speech among people motivate them to pay more and if not, paying taxes is impaired. Therefore in order to avoid disorderliness in paying taxes that lead to a reduction in the development growth rate of investing taxes in industry and services sectors procedures should be designed so that taxes spread in speech with more quality. In this article five categories that people share their knowledge about them with each other, have been proposed. Defining risk structure and using data from surveying form the risk values of tax payment the results indicate that sharing tax knowledge amongst people have positive effects on tax payments.


Author(s):  
Joseph Sung-Yul Park ◽  
Lionel Wee

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.


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.


Paideusis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-34
Author(s):  
Peter Kovacs

Since the end of World War II, English has become the virtual lingua franca of the planet. However, this development carries significant ethical and educational questions: What are the consequences of the worldwide dominance of the English language? How has it affected and how will it affect the fortunes of other languages? What can and should we as educators to do to minimize or eliminate the harmful effects on some of the endangered languages of the world? This paper will invite educators into a philosophical discussion of the ethical complexities of teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document