Volume 4, Issue 2 -

This paper sets as its aim to show that ELF research is not uniform in its fundamental theoretical assumptions. While one wing of ELF scholars follows a classical Saussurean tradition with its notions of langue and parole , the other is distinctly usage-based. This is not presented as a problem but rather as a matter to be taken into consideration because the views are not easily reconcilable, if at all. Naturally, this divergence of view is clearly visible in data analysis and leads to different interpretations of the underlying processes. I will illustrate my point by the case of phraseological patterning. It is well-known that multi-word units occurring in ELF use are not quite the same as in standard varieties. In SLA the discrepancies are traditionally labelled as errors, a stance ELF researchers do not generally agree with since the conflicting usages do not seem to lose their communicative successfulness. The question at which ELF researchers look differently is whether not quite nativelike phraseological patterning in ELF is a result of analytic or holistic – although fuzzy – processing, in other words, creation or approximation. The answer to this question has profound implications for our understanding of second language processing.

Drawing on an analysis of ELF data, this article deals with the characteristics and complexities of turn-taking in interactions involving three or more participants. Sacks et al.’s (1974) often quoted framework for turn-taking in conversations, which can still be regarded canonical reading in the conversation analytic literature, serves as a starting point for this investigation. The aim of this paper is to scrutinize the applicability of the turn-taking model for group interactions. A key concept in this regard is the notion of a party : the conversation analytic model for turn-taking posits that turn-taking does not take place between individual speakers, but between parties (hence the term multi-party conversation ) which can potentially consist of several speakers (cf. Schegloff 1995: 32–33). In group interactions it is thus possible that overlap occurs among co-incumbents of the same party. This kind of simultaneous speech, however, has not yet been subject of systematic empirical analysis. The present paper offers a preliminary account of this aspect of turn-taking in multi-participant interaction by discussing data extracts from an ELF workplace meeting of seven speakers and suggests possible avenues for further research on the phenomenon.

Innovative usage of noun phrases is among the most widely reported features of new varieties of English throughout the world and also in discourse in ELF settings, but its effect on intelligibility has not been extensively investigated. In an attempt to remedy this, ten conversations in English between Bruneians and people from elsewhere were recorded, and a total of 153 tokens were identified in which the non-Bruneians did not understand the Bruneian speakers. In twenty of these tokens, the grammar of a noun phrase may be one factor in giving rise to the misunderstanding, involving added or absent articles, innovative use of plurals, and the unexpected gender of a pronoun. Further analysis suggests that non-standard grammar was probably the main factor in just four of these tokens, two involving an added article before a proper noun, one with a spurious -s on the end of other , and one in which she was used to refer to a male. There were many instances of non-standard grammar in noun phrases throughout the conversations, but this rarely caused a problem, which suggests that the innovative structure of noun phrases seldom impacts on the intelligibility of Brunei English in ELF settings.

This paper reports on a qualitative inquiry that investigated a group of Hong Kong university students’ perceptions of their linguistic identities in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) communication. The participants of the study were proficient second language (L2) speakers of English who reported to have participated in intercultural ELF communication on a regular basis. By analyzing data gathered via two rounds of in-depth interviews, the study revealed that these participants did not evaluate their “non-native” status negatively but embraced their identities as legitimate and empowered speakers of English in ELF interactions. In addition, they validated their identities as multilingual, multicompetent, and translingual speakers of English with the ability to draw upon a diverse set of multilingual resources flexibly in ELF contexts. The analysis also found that these participants’ linguistic identities were constructed and negotiated in relation to the perceived linguistic competence of other ELF speakers, especially L2 speakers of other cultural/national backgrounds. This paper sheds light on the complexity of linguistic identities in ELF contexts and contributes to the growing ELF research in the Asian context.