The eye of the beholder: Is English as a Lingua Franca in academic settings a monolingual or multilingual practice?
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Iris Schaller-Schwaner,
Iris Schaller-Schwaner is a lecturer in EFL at the Language Centre and the Department of Languages and Literatures, Multilingualism Research and Foreign Language Teaching Studies Unit, of the University of Freiburg/Fribourg, Switzerland.
Abstract
This paper derives from an ethnographically oriented study of the emergence of English in innovative disciplinary speech events at a French-German bilingual university in Switzerland. From the outside viewed as dissent from the university's brand bilingualism, the use of English as a lingua franca enabled the multilingual ‘agents of change’ to achieve their own goals. In one context, English was the only common language. It enabled the community of practice to function in its international composition and to manage the disciplinary socialisation of doctoral students. In another context, English was a new common denominator that permitted members of a formerly linguistically segregated department to sustain disciplinary communication beyond the language boundary and to build a visible community of practice through and for the use of English.
While ten years of burgeoning research have made English as a Lingua Franca a descriptive reality it is still seen by some as dissent from multilingual ideals instead of as mediating multilingualism. This contribution explores what ‘agents of change’ themselves have to say about their use of English as embedded in institutional bi- and individual multilingualism. Do users of English have a (self-critical or confident) ELFA (English as a Lingua Franca in academic settings) awareness? How do they position themselves as multilingual users of English? Are there differences between those who have already established ELFA as part of their repertoire and those that are beginning to do so? Supported by theoretical arguments and some circumstantial evidence, a case is made for regarding ELFA as a multilingual practice.
About the author
Iris Schaller-Schwaner is a lecturer in EFL at the Language Centre and the Department of Languages and Literatures, Multilingualism Research and Foreign Language Teaching Studies Unit, of the University of Freiburg/Fribourg, Switzerland.
©[2011] by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Approche systémique de l'innovation pour l'apprentissage en Centre de Langues
- Tensions entre politique du changement et stabilité : une dynamique nécessaire pour l'innovation dans les centres de langues universitaires
- From politics to policy: Rethinking the relationship between language centres and Modern Foreign Language departments
- Quality through networking – from reactive administration to proactive cooperation
- The student voice in quality assurance
- A comprehensive placement test tool for language centres
- Evaluating and improving informal assessment in the university language classroom
- Learning environments in university language centres: Transferring support to learners
- My Pronunciation Coach: Improving English pronunciation with an automatic coach that listens
- Effective writing tasks and feedback for the Internet Generation
- Communicating the cultural richness of Finnish hiljaisuus (silence)
- The eye of the beholder: Is English as a Lingua Franca in academic settings a monolingual or multilingual practice?
- Attitudes and motivational factors behind Finnish business students' choices of foreign languages
- A new LSP educational experience in Nebrija University
