Seminar discussion

1. Culture and English as a Lingua Franca
Week 7
Warm-up Activity
1. Go to: pollev.com
2. Enter: ichenh435

2. 1. The data seems to show that participants didn’t recognise culture as a major
influence on communication within their relationships. Do you think the results
might be different if the research included participants from a broader range of
linguistic and cultural backgrounds?
2. Do you think that cultural assumptions associated with the pragmatics of your L1
influence the way you use English? If you are an L1 English speaker, do you find it a
challenge to communicate politeness or friendliness through an L2?
3. Within ELF paradigm, personal actions and beliefs are as prominent as national
cultural characterization in intercultural communication. To what extent do you
agree with this stance? What is the teaching implication for your context?
4. Think about the textbooks you use in your context. How is the link between English
and cultures represented? What are the cultural assumptions embedded in
textbooks?

3. • 2 couples: Finnish – Dutch (Indo-European language family)
• 2 couples: Finnish – Icelandic (Indo-European language family)
• 1 couple: Senegalese – Finnish (Indo-European language family)
• 1 couple: Luxembourgish – Malaysian (Indo-European + Sino-Tibetan)