Pre-sessional English: English as a Lingua Franca. Kachru's Circles

1. ELF
English as a Lingua Franca in the Global Academy
Greg Wells
University of Southampton

2. Introduction
 What is ELF
 The Inner, Outer and Expanding Circles
 A look at Indian English
 ELF in the Academic context
 Who teaches in English?
 Claims for standard English
 Accepting non-standard English?
 Researched Seminar Task

3. What is ELF?
 “English as a lingua franca’ (ELF) has emerged as a way of referring to
communication in English between speakers with different first languages…
Most, ELF interactions take place among ‘non-native’ speakers of
English.”(Seidlhofer, 2011)

4. ‘Standard’ Englishes??
‘non-standard’
Englishes
Foreign
Languages/
EFL
Most
ELF

5. Examples of Indian English
 You are soon going home, isn’t it?
 These mistakes may please be corrected.
 The Prime Minister greeted the presspersons with a ‘namaskar’ and a broad
smile
 (Wikipedia, 2015)

6. ELF at universities
 “How do we respond … to an academic culture that is becoming more and
more globalized, and the needs of students with diverse linguistic and cultural
background?”
 (Jenkins, 2014)

7. OECD and partner countries offering
tertiary programmes in English
Use of English as a language of
instruction
OECD
All or nearly all programmes in English Australia, Canada, Ireland, New
Zealand, UK, US
Many programmes in English Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands,
Sweden
Some programmes offered in English Belgium (Fl), Czech Rep, France,
Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Japan,
Korea, Norway, Poland, Portugal,
Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey
No or nearly no programmes offered in
English
Austria, Belgium (Fr), Chile, Greece,
Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico,
Russia, Spain
(OECD, 2010)

8. Calls for ‘standard English’
 “How can anyone learn [if] it does not matter how the words are spelt,
whether or not singulars are distinguished from plurals, and which syllables
are stressed in speech and which are not? Chinglish, Singlish or Schminglish:
take your choice.” (Harris, 2007) Oxford University
 “It cannot be left as a free-for-all in which anyone's version is as good as
anyone else's.” (Harris, 2007) Oxford University
 “Non-native speakers are generally unable to write an acceptable level of
English for academic purposes, even if they live in anglophone countries for
several years.” (Bloch, B. 2010) Munster University, Ireland

9. Survey of University Academic Staff
 The majority favoured communication over correctness in their students’
spoken English:
 Selected respondents comments
 “I do not consider conforming to native academic English is the most
important factor… most important is for them to express their understanding”
(Japan)
 “Accuracy mistakes, in so far as they do NOT interfere with communication is
irrelevant… English ability is not as important as understanding and
communication” (Korea)
 “There is no such thing as ‘native academic discourse’”
 (Jenkins, 2014)

10. Seminar Discussion
 Following further research, prepare for a seminar on the topic:
 Universities should accept non-standard English when grading students’
assignments in the same way they would for so-called ‘standard’ varieties of
English

11. References
 Bloch, B. (2010). ‘From where I sit - Trips and falls of the tongue’. THES.
 Harris, R (2007). ‘Mother Tongue Twisted by Drive for Global Gains’. THES.
 Jenkins, J. (2014). English as a lingua franca in the International University.
Routledge. Oxford.
 Kachru, B. B. (1997). World Englishes and English-using communities. Annual
Review of Applied Linguistics, 17, pp66-87
 OECD (2010). Education at a Glance 2010: OECD Indicators. Paris: OECD
 Seidlhofer, B. (2011). ‘English as a lingua franca’. English Language Teaching
Journal Oct 2005 59/4 p339–341.
 Wikipedia (2015). Indian English.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_English