Ian_Mackenzie_English_as_Lingua_Franca.pptx

IAN MACKENZIE
ENGLISH as LINGUA FRANCA
(ELF)
Chapter One: What is ELF?

________________IAN MCKENZIE: ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA___
How many forms of English are there?
Which form of English is English as a Lingua Franca
(ELF)?

Following Kachru (1985: 12), it has become conventional to talk about three circles
of English.
In the inner circle countries, English is used (by native speakers) as a primary
language. In the outer circle countries, mostly former British colonies in Africa and
Asia, English has an official second-language role in a mul-tilingual setting, and is
often used by an economic elite as a lingua franca for major intranational functions
(politics, administration, legislation, education, etc.). For many educated people in
these countries, even though English is not, chronologically, their first language, is it
their primary or dominant language‘ the one they use most, and perhaps are most
comfortable with and fluent in for many or even most purposes”
(Trudgill 1995: 314)

NATIONS WHOSE FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH

The term “English as a lingua franca” is used to refer
to 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: 7).

ELF is an alternative term for English as an
international/global/world language, and
International English (see Seidlhofer 2004: 210).
ELF is an applied linguists’ term; most users probably
just think they are speaking English

ELF is an applied linguists’ term; most users probably
just think they are speaking English

1. ELF refers to the use of the English language by
speakers who were born into a different language.

1. ELF refers to the use of the English language by
speakers who were born into a different language.
English becomes a chosen common medium for
communication among these people.

English as a Foreign Language
English as a Native Language

What is the difference in teaching English as a Foreign
Language and teaching English as English?

In Julian Barnes’ novel “Talking It Over”, an EFL teacher
discovers that the reason his former students can’t even buy a
bus ticket is that they were taught English as a Foreign
Language. “ Why don’t they teach English as English, that’s
what I want to know”? After all, who wants to learn to speak
English like a foreigner?

A decade or two later, some people would consider a
non-native English speaker (NNES) speaking like a
native English speaker (NES), or even attempting to do
so, to be a Bad Thing…. Why?

What is the main purpose of using English as a
Foreign Language or using English as a Lingua
Franca?
“Proper” English

What is the main purpose of using English as a
Foreign Language or using English as a Lingua
Franca?
“Proper” English Functional English

Many Non Native English Speakers (NNESs) use
English as a language of wider communication, or
as a lingua franca, largely in order to
communicate with other NNESs

Dell Hymes (1972: 286) described “communicative
competence” in terms of “the systematically possible, the
feasible, and the appropriate” but in relation to native
speaker (NS) norms; ELF speakers expand what is
possible, feasible, and appropriate

Widdowson (2004: 361): The ELF perspective is that the
modified forms of the language which are actually in use
should be recognized as a legitimate development of
English as an international means of communication. The
functional range of the language is not thereby restricted,
but on the contrary enhanced, for it enables its users to
express themselves more freely without having to conform
to norms which represent the sociocultural identity of other
people.

BUT….

As always…

…not everybody shares this perspective; for example,
conference interpreters, who – in general – view ELF
very negatively, often use the acronym BSE, for “bad
simple English”.
(Reithofer 2010: 144)

Formal Aspect (“Proper” English) Michael Swan (2012: 387)
The most appropriate conceptualisation of ELF is surely a negative
one. It is not that its speakers conform to identifiable ELF norms; it is
that, like the speakers of all foreign languages, they do not conform
to all NS norms; and this in various and largely uncodifiable ways.

Functional Aspect, “the Lingua Franca Factor”; Alan Firth
(2009: 150)’,
Intrinsic to ELF is not any specific language or discourse
forms, but rather “the inherent interactional and linguistic
variability that lingua franca interactions entail,” and a
“lingua franca outlook” on language that ELF users adopt.

“ELF should be functionally not formally
defined; it is not a variety of English but a
variable way of using it.”
Seidlhofer (2011: 77)

Jennifer Jenkins et al. (2011):
In line with increasing evidence of the fluidity and flexibility
of ELF communication, the focus of research has shifted
from an orientation to features and the ultimate aim of
some kind of codification (an aim which, nevertheless, has
not been dismissed out of hand), to an interest in the
processes; underlying and determining the choice of
features used in any given ELF interaction.

Fluent Non-Native Speakers of English (NNESs)
Fluent Native Speakers of English (NESs)
(see, e.g., Seidlhofer 2010: 366; and Jenkins 2007: 35)
Is there a difference?
What is the difference?

Mauranen (2003: 517) “MANIFESTO FOR ELF”
It is important for people to feel comfortable and
appreciated when speaking a foreign language. Speakers
should feel they can express their identities and be
themselves in L2 contexts…

… without being marginalized on account of features like
foreign accents, lack of idiom, or culture-specific
communicative styles as long as they can negotiate and
manage communicative situations successfully and fluently.
…

… An international language can be seen as a legitimate
learning target, a variety belonging to its speakers. Thus…

… Thus…

… deficiency models, that is, those stressing the gap
that distinguishes NNESs from NESs, should be seen
as inadequate for the description of fluent L2 speakers
and discarded as the sole basis of language education
in English.

YET…

….ON THE OTHER HAND…

NN ELF speakers do not share a cultural background
and what Seidlhofer calls “conventions and markers of
in-group membership” such as “idiomatic phraseology,
and references and allusions to shared experience”
(2011: 16)

… INSTEAD…

Luke Prodromou (2008: 88)
NNESs belong to the more disparate
and diverse culture of the global village.

Native speakers tend to get a bad press in work on
bilingualism and ELF. They also
regularly acquire scare quotes
–‘
native speakers.
’

Also… they are regularly referred to with scare
quotes:
‘native speakers’

Vivian Cook (1999: 185) complains that:
“It is often taken for granted that the only rightful
speakers of a language are its native speakers”

in fact… the only thing that can be taken for granted
is that the only native speakers of a language are its
native speakers, because most of the other claims
for NSs do not stand up to scrutiny…

Cook summarizes characteristics of NSs, according to
various sources (Stern1983; Davies 1996; Johnson and
Johnson 1998). Apart from being brought up in a
specific speech community, NSs are said to have:

(i) a subconscious knowledge of rules,
(ii) an intuitive grasp of meanings,
(iii) the ability to communicate within social settings,
(iv) a range of language skills,
(v) creativity of language use,

(vi) an identification with a language community,
(vii) the ability to produce fluent discourse,
(viii) knowledge of differences between their own
speech and that of the ‘standard’form of the
language, and
(ix) the ability to interpret and translate into the L1 of
which they are a native speaker.

YET AGAIN

Cook also points out that:
1. some NSs function poorly in social settings; they may be far from fluent
in speech, for mental or physical reasons;
2. they may be unaware how their speech variety or dialect differs from
the standard form;
3. they are free to disassociate themselves completely from their L1
community without thereby giving up their native speaker status; and
4. they can only interpret and translate if they know at least one other
language.

English is not only used by NESs and ELF speakers.
English is also by many millions of speakers as a
second language (ESL), or indigenized World English.

“World English”, or “New English” share a number of
characteristics:
1. They often have high status, and are used in the
education system as both a subject and a
medium of instruction, as well as for a range of other
purposes (Plattet al. 1984: 6)

2. They have undergone focusing and become nativized by
developing characteristic local features of grammar, lexis,
phraseology and pronunciation, frequently induced by
transfer from local L1s.

Predictions concerning stable varieties of ELF, free from
exogenous NES norms, appear to underestimate the
participation of both the ‘small minority’ of NESs
(Jenkins, 2006a: 161) in global English use [375 million of
them alive today, quite apart from all those who have left
their mark on the language in the past] and the speakers of
indigenized outer circle varieties.
Seidlhofer (2009b: 237)

Chinua Achebe’s (Nigerian novelist ) “The African Writer and the
English Language” (1975: 6162) :
I feel that the English language will be able to carry the
weight of my African experience. But it will have to be a
new English, still in full communion with its ancestral
home but altered to suit its new African surroundings.

Ian_Mackenzie_English_as_Lingua_Franca.pptx

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