The document discusses the status and use of English as a lingua franca globally. It begins by defining lingua franca and explaining the historical origins and spread of English as the dominant global lingua franca due to British imperialism and American influence. It then outlines Kachru's model of inner, outer, and expanding circles of English use. The bulk of the document focuses on English as a lingua franca (ELF) in the expanding circle, including how it differs from English as a foreign language (EFL). It provides examples of ELF use and discusses research on ELF phonology, lexicon, and situations. In conclusion, it argues that as more people learn English, it is evolving into a variety

1. The Expanding Circle:
the Status of English as a Lingua Franca
by Ersilia Serretiello
18th of April, 3rd English Course

2. Contents
 What does Lingua Franca mean?
 When and why did English become the global Lingua Franca?
 Kachru’s circles model (1985) explains the World Englishes extension
 The Expanding Circle: ELF
 The Expanding Circle: ELF or EFL?
 Nowadays ELF dominion
 ELF in the EU
 ELF situations: research and example
 ELF situations: phonetics and phonology
 ELF: lexical ambiguity
 In conclusion…
 References, links and web articles

3. What does Lingua Franca mean?
 It indicates a vehicular language spoken by
communities whose native speeches are
different. It works like ‘a multilinguistic and
multicultural bridge’ for commercial purposes.
 Historical Roots: It literally derives from
Frankish language and dates back to 1619. This
term is referred to an old tongue used around
the Eastern Mediterranean Sea route, created
by merchants for trading and diplomatic affairs.
 Frankish because all the Europeans were called
Franks by Arabs. Its structure is a sort of
simplified Italian version in combination with
Spanish, French, Greek, Arabic and Turkish
words so that embrace the whole Mediterranean
basin.

4. When and why did English become the global Lingua
Franca?
 19th century Britain ruled the
world shipping so English
became the Lingua Franca
of traders and sailors while
English Pidgin was used for
interacting with indigenous.
 20th century American
imperialism and the
resolution of the Two World
Wars increased the use of
English in the global market
and diplomatic issues
e.g. in Asia and in Africa
German missionaries used
ELF before learning local
languages.
It is all around POWER
British hegemony led to the spread of English as the Lingua Franca (ELF)
beyond European borders. At present the ELF even occurs in zones where
Britain or US does not have any authority.

5. Kachru’s circles model (1985) explains
the World Englishes extension
Figure credit: Kachru’s circles model (1985)
 Inner circle: people who speak English as
first language (UK, USA, Canada,
Australia, NZ, Caribbean)
 Outer circle: people who use English as
ESL (English as a second language)
INSIDE the country (India, ‘anglophone’
Africa, Philippines, Singapore,
Bangladesh) for business, politics and
secondary education. This type of English
diffusion happened in the postcolonial era.

6. The Expanding Circle: ELF
 In circle above, people non-native speakers
interact with other non-inner circle participants
OUTSIDE the country (e.g. European and East
Asian territories) in order to handle multicultural
situations in which this variety of English
acquires the status of a Lingua Franca (ELF).
 Especially ELF for communication in business,
financial market, education, law, etc.
 Due to globalisation and migration phenomena,
since the beginning of the 21st, some sub-
varieties are being developed such as China
English and Euro English.

7. The Expanding Circle: ELF or EFL?
DO NOT CONFUSE ELF with EFL!
Inside the expanding circle, as well as ELF, exist other
status of English identified as EFL.
EFL is the acronym for ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN
LANGUAGE. It prototypically occurs during interactions
where native participants play the role of tutors as a
way of guiding their partners who are non-native and
they are considered like potential learners.
For example: when in the street an Italian tourist asks
information to a Spanish speaking the first language of
that country or, in the opposite case, with American
tourist , on holidays in Italy, but he doesn’t speak Italian
so the non-expert Italian person tries to communicate in
English with him.

8. Nowadays ELF dominion
 Exchange students
 Most immigrants
 International organisations
 International diplomacy
 Business negotiations
 Informal situations
and so on…

9. ELF in the EU
Today in the EU there are 24
national languages with 28 member
states, the last accession was
Croatia on 1st July 2013. Brexit is
scheduled on 29th March 2019.
‘The first official language policy of
what was then the European
Community identified Dutch,
French, German, and Italian as the
official working languages of the
EU. Since then, as more countries
have become part of the EU, the
number of official and working
languages has increased.’
(EU Commission 2017)
Image credit: EU Commission (2014)

10. ELF in the EU
 For these reasons Europe appears
more conservative than other
expanding circle countries such as
Asia that has formally adopted ELF
in most institutional bodies. As a
result that EU is strictly linked to its
multilingualism policy but it seems
indeed a question more formal than
real because as Seidlholfer
stated…

11. “
”
English has become the de
facto extraterritorial lingua
franca throughout Europe.
ELF IN THE EU
(Seidlhofer 2010:355)

12. ELF situations: research and example
 Some researchers classify linguistic exchanges according to various
level of users’ proficiency. The successful not depends if speakers are
native or not but contribute so many factors like intelligibility and
egalitarian stance (Melchers, Shaw 2011:42) in particular in the ELF
multicultural environment where the strict observance of norms is, in the
most of cases, not an effective strategy.
 Example of Australian/Italian/Slovenian conversation (Allan James 1999)
A: I don wanna drink alcohol
B: Me too
C: I also not

13. ELF situations: research and example
 Critique:
Indeed the participant A uses a nonstandard English “I
don wanna drink alcohol” ; Users B and C answer in a
very short way because maybe in order to avoid
possible misunderstandings, they are unable to say all
they would wish to  distinctive level of ELF
competence.
 in this typical ELF example above we can observe an
imbalanced data transmission on the basis that they are
speakers of different mother tongue. By the way the
communication is possible because it works.

14. ELF situations: phonetics and phonology
 According to Jenkins’s ELF investigation (2000) most of features
that cause misunderstandings occur with pronunciation rather than
lexis or syntax. She realised a list of target pronunciation that is
far from British or American models imposition.
 Avoiding the reduced vowels (inner-circle pattern)  create
confusion between words
 Learn to manage these prerequisites that often generate
breakdown: vowel-length distinctions, word stress placement and
aspiration of unvoiced stops.
(Melchers,Shaw 2013:199)

15. ELF: lexical ambiguity
 Jenkins (2000) argued that the second cause of breakdown in the
ELF conversation was the choice of unintelligible words causing
ambiguity.
 It is recommended to use general English lexis and avoid local
lexicalisations and foreignisms  speakers have to select the term
which it is considerably closer to the environment of the interlocutor,
if not they are able to explain “with other words” what it means.
 As a consequence, learners should be enrich their vocabulary and
focus on most common collocations.
(Melchers,Shaw 2013:200)

16. In conclusion…
Figure credit: Graddol (1997)
What is the future of English?
 As we can observe in Graddol (1997) the EFL
speakers are many more than the inner and
outer-circle because the spread of English is
incessant due to globalisation and migration
phenomena, also important role had the social
networking. Thus “foreigner speakers” are not
considered foreigners anymore. English in
particular has been evolving to ELF, a variety
that is widely known so there currently is an
open debate about how to teach it, how make
English “globish”. It focuses on functional
vision, less academic patterns, main features of
pronunciation that are the first cause of
breakdown in ELF situations.

17. References
Graddol, D. (1997) ‘The Future of English?’, London: The British Council.
Jenkins, A. (2000) The Phonology of English as an International Language, Oxford: OUP.
Kachru, B. (1985) 'Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: the English language in the
outer circle'. In English in the World: teaching and learning the language and literatures, edited by R.
Quirk & H. G. Widdowson, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press for The British Council.
Melchers ,G. & Shaw, P. (2013), ‘World Englishes’, (2nd ed.), Abingdon:Routledge.
Seidlhofer, B. (2004) 'Research Perspectives on Teaching English as a Lingua Franca', Annual
Review of Applied Linguistics 24: 209-239.
Seidlhofer , B. (2010), ‘Lingua franca English: the European context’. In A. Kirkpatrick, (ed.), The
Routledge Handbook of World Englishes, Abingdon: Routledge, 355-71.

18. Useful links and web articles
Definition and history of Lingua Franca, Merriam-Webster dictionary, https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/lingua%20franca [accessed 15 April 2017]
EU Commission (2017), ‘Official languages of the EU’, European Commission Education and
training - Supporting education and training in Europe and beyond,
http://ec.europa.eu/education/official-languages-eu-0_en [accessed 18 April 2017]
EU (2017), ‘The 28 member countries of the EU’, European Union official website,
https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/countries_en [accessed 18 April 2017]
Hunt, A. & Wheeler, B. (2017) ‘ Brexit: all you need to know about the UK leaving the EU’, BBC
News Service website, http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-32810887 [accessed 18 April 2017]