English as a lingua franca (ELF) is the use of the English language "as a global means of inter-community communication"Seidlhofer 2016, p20 and can be understood as "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, p7 ELF is "defined functionally by its use in intercultural communication rather than formally by its reference to native-speaker norms"Hülmbauer, Cornelia et al. 2008 "Introducing English as a lingua franca (ELF): Precursor and partner in intercultural communication." Synergies Europe 3, 25-36. p.27 http://ressources-cla.univ-fcomte.fr/gerflint/Europe3/hulmbauer.pdf . whereas English as a second or foreign language aims at meeting native speaker norms and gives prominence to native-speaker cultural aspects.(cf. ibid 2008: 27-28)
English became the established global lingua franca in academia after the 1940s (until which French and German were of equal importance) and, by the end of the 20th century, partly by the cultural influence of the United States, had become the dominant lingua franca in all communication. While lingua francas have been used for centuries, what makes ELF a novel phenomenon is the extent to which it is used in spoken,Vienna Oxford International Corpus of English [VOICE]: FAQ written and computer-mediated communication. ELF research focuses on the pragmatics of variation which is manifest in the variable use of the resources of English for a wide range of globalized purposes, in important formal encounters such as business transactions, international diplomacy and conflict resolution, as well as in informal exchanges between international friends.
Globalization, geopolitics and ELF Major technological advances in the 21st century have enabled instant global communication. Due to the interconnection of the world, a shared means of communication like English fulfills the need for a global lingua franca. This is because it has spread to large areas of the world due to various factors such as: Spread of the Latin script; Colonisation, mainly by the British Empire, thereby making English into the language with the most countries recognizing it as an official language; The widespread teaching of English as a second or foreign language; The mutual intelligibility of dialects of English Spread of Christianity via Christian missions and Christianization; The development of the American research university, which enabled the United States to be one of the leaders of the world in the academic development of science, engineering, arts, and humanities; Americanization and American manufacturing and exports; Consumption and influence of core Anglosphere entertainment industries, including film, music and literature; American military and political hegemony over Western Europe due to the American and British victory in World War II, followed by the spread of English to many parts of Eastern Europe and former Eastern Bloc countries after the Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, with the subsequent enlargement of the European Union encouraging said spread of English; and The primarily American-British invention of the Internet, its initial widespread adoption in the United States and core Anglosphere, thus English becoming the most used language on the Internet.
Because of the use of English as a lingua franca in international trade and intercultural communication, native speakers of English are outnumbered by non-native speakers. A consequence of this is a sense of ownership of the language which is shared by different communities. For instance, international communication via ELF has facilitated exchange between China and the rest of the world, thus sustaining international trade. But once a language is appropriated by new communities, it is then adapted to their specific needs. Consequently, the English language is undergoing change, and this change is being brought about mostly by its non-native speakers.
Features of spoken ELF communication The way English is used as a lingua franca is heavily dependent on the specific situation of use. Generally speaking, ELF interactions concentrate on function rather than form. In other words, communicative efficiency (i.e. getting the message across) is more important than grammatical correctness,Cogo, Allessia. 2008. “English as a Lingua Franca. Form follows function.” English Today 95 (3), 58-61. provided that the grammar is good enough for the message to be intelligible. As a consequence, ELF interactions are very often hybrid.Firth, Alan. 2009. “The lingua franca factor.” Intercultural pragmatics 6: 2, 147-170. p.161-163 Speakers accommodate to each other's cultural backgrounds and may also use code-switching into other languages that they know. Based on the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE) and additional research, the following features of ELF lexicogrammar have been identified:Seidlhofer, Barbara. 2006. “Towards making ‘Euro-English’ a linguistic reality.” In: Bolton, Kinglsey; Kachru, Braj B. (eds.). World Englishes. Critical Concepts in Linguistics. Volume III. London: Routledge, 47-50.
shift in the use of articles (including some preference for zero articles) as in our countries have signed agreement about this invariant question tags as in you’re very busy today, isn't it? (and use of other similar universal forms) treating ‘who’ and ‘which’ as interchangeable relative pronouns, as in the picture who or a person which shift of patterns of preposition use, for example we have to study about preference for bare and/or full infinitive over the use of gerunds, as in I'm looking forward to see you tomorrow extension to the collocational field of words with high semantic generality, for example take an operation increased explicitness, for example how long time instead of how long exploited redundancy, such as ellipsis of objects/complements of transitive verbs as in "I wanted to go with..." or "You can borrow..." genderless and gender-inclusive language, such as the use of the word "they" as a singular pronoun following the pattern of other outer circle genderless languages
However, these features are by no means invariant or “obligatory”. Rather, these forms do not seem to compromise effective communication within an ELF setting when they do occur.
"Neutrality" of ELF
Although some researchers hold that English as a lingua franca is a neutral and culture-free tool,House, Juliane. 2002. “Developing pragmatic competence in English as a Lingua Franca.” In Knapp, Karlfried; Meierkord, Christiane (eds.). Lingua franca communication. Frankfurt am Main: Peter, 245-267.House, Juliane. 2003. “English as a lingua franca: A threat to multilingualism?” Journal of Sociolinguistics 7: 4, 556-578. others hold that it carries the culture and language of its speakers.Klimpfinger, Theresa. 2005. “The role of speakers' first and other languages in English as a lingua franca talk.” Unpublished MA Thesis, University of Vienna. http://www.univie.ac.at/voice/page/abstracts/klimpfinger_2005.pdf.Pölzl, Ulrike. 2005. “Exploring the third space. Negotiating culture in English as a lingua franca.” Unpublished PhD thesis, University of ViennaPölzl, Ulrike; Seidlhofer, Barbara. 2006. “In and on their own terms. The ‘habitat factor’ in English as a lingua franca interactions.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language 177, 151-17.Meierkord, Christiane. 2002. “’Language stripped bare’ or ‘linguistic masala’? Culture in lingua franca conversation.” In: Knapp, Karlfried; Meierkord, Christiane (eds.). Lingua franca communication. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 109-133. Recent linguistic discussions by ELF experts treat the interactants' cultural and linguistic background as a factor influencing language performance. For Hülmbauer, for instance, “it seems likely that the ELF users develop their own markers of identity (be they a common 'European' or 'international' nature or more individual ones which are created online, depending on the community of practice they are emerging in).”Hülmbauer, Cornelia. 2007. “'You moved, aren't?' The relationship between lexicogrammatical correctness and communicative effectiveness in English as a lingua franca.” Views 16: 2, 3-36. http://anglistik.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/dep_anglist/weitere_Uploads/Views/Views_0702.pdf In this view, ELF is multicultural rather than culture-free.
ELF and the native speaker Existing corpora of ELF (VOICE and ELFA, for example) tend to focus on interactions that involve primarily native speakers (Kimura, 2017). More recently, there have been attempts at creating corpora that include native speakers and systematically explore how they interact with non-native speakers.
In ELF interactions, the importance lies in communication strategies other than nativeness, which can lead to communicative situations where those English native speakers who are not familiar with ELF and/or intercultural communication are at a disadvantage because they do not know how to use English appropriately in these situations.Hülmbauer, Cornelia et al. 2008 “Introducing English as a lingua franca (ELF): Precursor and partner in intercultural communication.” Synergies Europe 3, 25-36. http://ressources-cla.univ-fcomte.fr/gerflint/Europe3/hulmbauer.pdf .Seidlhofer, Barbara. 2004. “Research Perspectives on teaching English as a Lingua Franca.” Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 24, 209-239.
Most data on ELF interactions has been drawn from the domains of business and higher education, and that in largely European contexts, perhaps factors accounting for the relatively rare instances of miscommunication. Studies of Medical English as a Lingua Franca (MELF) provide opportunities to investigate ELF interactions where communicative precision is critical, and the migration of healthcare practitioners across international borders (a phenomenon consistent with the "deterritorialisation" of ELF generally), has created conditions where MELF interactions are increasingly commonplace. A research study of MELF interactions where nurses negotiated a patient handover simulation indicated that areas of unintelligibility represented a potential threat to patient safety, through misrecognition of vocabulary related to medication, as well as other areas of lexical imprecision.
One study of a Japanese medical English as a lingua franca (MELF) context showed that student doctors made use of empathic accommodation and solicitation strategies to make interactions more intelligible. Applying nonverbal cues was seen as being of importance to encourage simulated patients to express concerns, because silence may be interpreted as a sign of potential problems. Empathic doctor-patient communication then means not only understanding and sympathizing but having the ability to bridge the gap when patients are not willing to talk.
An important issue when discussing ELF is the notion of speakers of ELF being active language users in their own right, who do not need to adhere to native speaker norms but use ELF to meet their communicative needs. Proponents of ELF thus reject the notion that it is a form of ‘deficient’ English, and describe ELF speakers as users of English, not as learners.Firth, Alan. 1996. “The discursive accomplishment of normality. On 'lingua franca' English and conversation analysis.” Journal of Pragmatics 26, 237–59, qtd. in Lesznyák 2002.Björkman, Beyza. 2008. “'So where we are?' Spoken lingua franca English at a technical university in Sweden.” English Today 94 (2), 35-41.
Attitude and motivation