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A complete introduction to the theoretical nature and practical implications of English used as a lingua franca. Explore the theories and principles of English as a Lingua Franca with leading expert Barbara Seidlhofer
Gives a clear explanation of the theories and principles underlying ELF studies and how they relate to other areas of research, such as second language acquisition, sociolinguistic variation, and World Englishes Accessible and relevant to a wide range of readers: applied linguists (especially sociolinguists), master's students, teacher trainers and teachers, and anybody with an interest in the English language and how it is used worldwide. The author is a leading authority in ELF and the book addresses and brings up to date many aspects of her thinking and research in this field. The book is grounded in practical research. The author is founding director of the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE), the first freely-accessible computer-corpus of interactions in English as a lingua franca. Reference is made to this data throughout. Includes a final chapter addressing the potential practical implications of work on ELF for English language teaching.
English as a lingua franca has become a hot topic in Applied Linguistics and English Studies. While it has been a subject of controversy for some time, linguistic observations on actual use have largely been missing out of the debate. This is now changing fast, and the study of English as a lingua franca has become a vibrant research field. This book reflects achievements in the growing field; it presents a good selection of empirical findings, thus providing substance to arguments. It comprises contributions from pioneers and established scholars in the field, along with reports from substantial ongoing research projects. The papers offer insights into the workings of English as a lingua franca in different contexts—conversational, academic, professional, and business situations. They tackle essential theoretical issues, analyse linguistic and interactional features of ELF, and discuss attitudes towards ELF. The studies are firmly anchored in analyses of authentic language in social interaction, some also using survey and interview data. Many papers also touch upon debates on language policy and linguistic ideologies. This collection of papers from the key areas of current ELF research will be of interest to English linguists and applied linguists, graduate and undergraduate students of English, educational and language planners, and teachers of English.
This volume examines the role of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) in education in Europe. Following the implementation of the Bologna process, English has assumed a central role in European education offering institutions the opportunity to cater to the needs of an internationalized student body and increase their competitiveness. On the other hand, the increased use of ELF has become an issue of concern, often perceived as a threat to other languages, tilting the scale towards linguistic inequality and stressing the urgent need for the development of new language policies. Both aspects of ELF are at the center of discussion in the proposed volume, which consists of a variety of papers examining ELF in different parts of Europe (Eastern, Central and Western) and different levels of education. The volume makes a substantial contribution to the lively and controversial debate about what is recognized as a central topical concern of language education policy in Europe and beyond.
The Routledge Handbook of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) provides an accessible, authoritative and comprehensive introduction to the main theories, concepts, contexts and applications of this rapidly developing field of study. Including 47 state-of-the art chapters from leading international scholars, the handbook covers key concepts, regional spread, linguistic features and communication processes, domains and functions, ELF in academia, ELF and pedagogy and future trends. This handbook is key reading for all those engaged in the study and research of English as a lingua franca and world/global Englishes more broadly, within English language, applied linguistics, and education.
English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) research has become central in current debates in linguistics and is commonly referred to in conferences dealing with other sub-fields of sociolinguistics. This volume collects ten papers that testify to the great scope of ELF research currently being carried out through the analysis of different kinds of data in a variety of contexts and domains. The three chapters in the first part of the volume tackle computer-mediated communication, a medium that currently accounts for a great proportion of human communication. The four contributions in the second section differ with regards to the domains under investigation, and all touch upon social issues that have an impact on how language is used: from Vietnamese university students negotiating their identities in the UK to a Pakistani migrant making efforts to be understood by Italian officials. Finally, the three papers in the final part are an example of the many ELF-oriented pedagogical initiatives that have emerged in recent years across educational levels and all over the world. The introduction to the volume also situates ELF research in its current transition to a third phase in which more attention will be paid to the multilingual nature of ELF users. The proposal put forward in the introductory chapter holds that ELF has two well established fronts where more quality work will surely be carried out, and that ELF could benefit from establishing connections to other approaches to multilingualism and languaging, but without forgetting what the E in the acronym stands for. This collection of papers will be of interest to teachers and language practitioners who are curious about the ELF paradigm; researchers in ELF and in sociolinguistics and applied linguistics in general; internet linguists and computer-medaited communication experts; educational policymakers; and undergraduate and postgraduate students taking courses in areas such as applied linguistics, English studies, multilingualism and plurilingualism, and intercultural communication, amongst other fields.
English as a Lingua Franca: Theorizing and Teaching English examines the English used among non-native speakers around the world today and its relation to English as a native language, as well as the implications for English language teaching. Challenging and incisive, this book analyses positive and negative accounts of English as a lingua franca, and its linguistic features, within the context of: native and World Englishes multilingualism and intercultural communication sociolinguistic issues including accent and identity classroom teaching and learning English as a Lingua Franca is a useful guide for teachers and trainee teachers, and will be essential reading for advanced students and linguists concerned with multilingualism, language contact, language learning, language change, and the place of English in the world today.
Using a corpus of data drawn from naturally-occurring second language conversations, this book explores the role of idiomaticity in English as a native language, and its comparative role in English as a lingua franca. Through examining how idiomaticity enables first language learners to achieve a greater degree of fluency, the book explores why idiomatic language poses such a challenge for users of English as a lingua franca. The book puts forward a new definition of competence and fluency within the context of English as a lingua franca, concluding with an analysis of practical implications for the lingua franca classroom. This in-depth study of English language learning using corpus data will be of interest to researchers in applied linguistics and corpus linguistics and to teachers of English as an international lingua franca.
The aim of this edited volume is to examine how current theories and principles underlying English as a Lingua Franca studies contribute to research on present pedagogical practices in ELF contexts. The book provides useful insights into pedagogical practices in different ELF settings and knowledge on the pedagogy-policy relationship in terms of ELF.
English as a lingua franca (ELF) has become ubiquitous in today's globalised, mobile and fast-changing world. It is clear that it will have an unprecedented impact not only on how we communicate but also on our understanding of language use and change. What exactly ELF brings to our life and to language theory is a question which requires an interdisciplinary take. This book gathers together leading scholars from world Englishes, typology, language history, cognitive linguistics, translation studies, multilingualism, sociolinguistics and ELF research itself to seek state-of-the-art answers. Chapters present original insights on language change, based on theoretical approaches and empirical studies, and provide clear examples of social, interactional and cognitive changes that ELF instigates. The picture which unfolds on the pages of this book is complex, dynamic and makes a convincing case for the importance of English as a lingua franca on language change at a global scale.
