Volume 10, Issue 1

This paper scrutinizes language alternation practices in different settings where English is predominantly used as the lingua franca (ELF). Data from different interactional contexts are examined: academic interactions from the ELFA corpus, doctoral defense discussions (also from the ELFA corpus), and informal family interactions. Corpus, discourse and conversation analytic methods and ethnographic information are used in analyzing these spoken data. I argue that translanguaging in lingua franca contexts is not only affected by speakers’ repertoire or the linguistic setting, but that there is a complex web of individual, interpersonal, group-related, and discourse environmental aspects which play their part in whether and to which extent speakers alternate languages in spoken ELF communication.

Factors of globalization have led to a constant rise of English as an academic lingua franca (ELFA). This is evidenced not only by the increasing use of English in scientific publications, but also in the attraction held by Anglophone countries as destinations of high-achieving international students and the rise of English-medium instruction (EMI) outside of Anglophone institutions. While ongoing research in ELF has shown that the native-only norms are being challenged through the changed realities of English use, little attention has so far been paid to how similarly or differently ELFA is conceptualized and practiced across academic disciplines within the same international Anglophone University. For this end, this work presents data on the English for Special Purposes/English for Academic Purposes and content teachers’ perceptions on English and how this, in turn, shapes their classroom discourse as a shared practice among members of the same academic discipline in a highly international UK-based university. Findings suggest that ELFA is characterized with its versatility and volatility as part of the dynamic nature of disciplinary norms for meaning-making and knowledge-construction practices.

This article explores how translanguaging is perceived by a group of international students at a Korean university where not only different first languages (L1) and English (L2) are involved in the students’ daily lives but also the local language (L3) holds an important role in the community. Using ethnographic methods, four participants from Japan, Lithuania, Malaysia and South Africa were regularly observed and interviewed in-depth during one academic semester. The findings reveal that the participants had conflicting views towards translanguaging pertaining to their underlying ideologies, that is, whether they considered it as a struggle to use a language or as something natural, fun and cosmopolitan. However, it has been confirmed from this study that whether the participants were positive or negative about translanguaging, it inevitably happened in their daily lives which tells us that the multilingual phenomenon in the field of ELF is worth researching further.

As with any proposal for a change in pedagogy, the starting point for implementation is teacher education. Suggestions have been put forward for an approach to English language teaching (ELT) which takes into account the lingua franca function language can fulfill. Frameworks for how teachers might adopt a pedagogy of English as a lingua franca (ELF), however, are inconsistent with current policy guidelines for student teacher learning. This concerns most notably those directives provided in the European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages (EPOSTL), which is used in a growing number of teacher formation programs. This paper examines the ‘can-do’ statements which the EPOSTL proposes should represent the required methodological competences of language teachers. Using discourse analytic methods, the article explores what the EPOSTL portrays that prospective teachers need to know about language and how to teach it. It is argued that the language education policy represented by the EPOSTL is based on a conceptual perspective that can only impede the development of a genuinely reflective approach to the education of English language teachers and the implementation of an ELF pedagogy. Zusammenfassung Wie bei jedem Konzept für pädagogischen Wandel, ist die Lehrendenbildung der Anfangspunkt. Ansätze für den Englischunterricht, welcher die Funktion von Sprache als Lingua Franca berücksichtigt, wurden bereits vorgeschlagen. Modelle, die zeigen wie Sprachlehrende eine Pädagogik für Englisch als Lingua Franca (ELF) einführen können, stellen sich allerdings als unvereinbar mit aktuellen sprachpolitischen Richtlinien heraus. Dies betrifft ganz besonders jene Vorgaben im Europäischen Portfolio für Sprachlehrende in Ausbildung (EPOSA), das in einer steigenden Anzahl von Programmen der Sprachlehrendenbildung eingesetzt wird. Dieser Artikel befasst sich mit den Kann-Beschreibungen, welche dem EPOSA zufolge die für Sprachlehrende erforderlichen methodischen Kompetenzen abbilden sollen. Mit dem Einsatz von diskursanalytischen Methoden untersucht der Artikel, was das EPOSA darstellt, dass zukünftige Sprachlehrende über Sprache wissen müssen und wie sie unterrichtet werden soll. Es wird argumentiert, dass die vom EPOSA repräsentierte Sprachbildungspolitik auf einer konzeptuellen Perspektive basiert, die sich für die Entwicklung eines genuin auf Reflexion aufbauenden Ansatzes zur Ausbildung für Englischlehrende und der Implementierung einer Pädagogik für ELF als hinderlich erweist.

There are few studies on backchannels in ELF and none concerns computer-mediated conversations. Backchannelling has been associated with good listenership and enhanced cooperativeness, an intrinsic feature of ELF. They would also play a key role in computer-mediated communication, maintaining a sense of affective equilibrium among participants and compensating for medium-related limitations. We analyze backchanneling in an ELF conversation between a Spanish female and a German male student from the Corpus of Video-Mediated English as a Lingua Franca Conversations (ViMELF). Backchanneling seems to be particularly intense in the opening and closing sections of the exchange, where interpersonal work is the most needed. While significant idiolectal differences are observed between the two participants, both show a marked preference for and a tendency to concentrate realizations on a few weak backchanneling forms, conferring the exchange a general impression of monotony and emotional flatness. Some backchanneling features in the exchange may be described as typical of ELF: backchannels tend to occur in moments when speakers sense that understanding may be compromised and are frequently complemented by supportive material reinforcing the speaker’s point. The analysis also reveals some characteristic awkward usage, with tokens which are clearly “overdone,” while others are too weak and disappointing or behave disruptively by occurring in unexpected positions and interrupting the flow of the conversation. Research on ELF video conversations is particularly timely given the recent surge in videoconferencing propitiated by the COVID pandemic, a tendency which is likely to stay in post-pandemic times. Resumen Son pocos los estudios que existen sobre el uso de los llamados backchannels o turnos de apoyo en inglés como lengua franca (ILF) y ninguno sobre su uso en contextos de comunicación por ordenador. El backchanneling se suele asociar con una actitud constructiva y cooperativa por parte del oyente en la conversación, un rasgo inherente al inglés como lengua franca. También es un rasgo común en la comunicación por ordenador, donde contribuye a mantener el equilibrio afectivo entre los participantes y a compensar las limitaciones del medio. En este estudio, analizamos la naturaleza de estos turnos de apoyo en una conversación entre dos estudiantes, una española y un alemán, extraída del Corpus of Video-Mediated English as a Lingua Franca Conversations (ViMELF). Los turnos de apoyo son especialmente frecuentes en las secciones inicial y final del evento, donde más se precisa el trabajo interpersonal. Si bien se observan diferencias idiolectales entre los dos participantes, ambos muestran una marcada preferencia por expresiones débiles que repiten una y otra vez, lo que confiere a la conversación un aire de monotonía y falta de emoción. Algunos de los rasgos observados podrían ser característicos de los backchannels en ILF: tienden a aparecer en contextos donde el hablante manifiesta dudas sobre la calidad del mensaje y suelen ir acompañados de material de apoyo adicional con el que se refuerza la intención comunicativa del hablante. El análisis también revela algunos usos problemáticos, incluyendo formas que resultan demasiado fuertes o débiles en su contexto de aparición, o bien interrumpen el fluir natural de la conversación. El estudio de las videoconferencias en inglés como lengua franca reviste un especial interés en estos momentos, dado el espectacular aumento de este tipo de intercambios propiciado por la COVID-19, una tendencia destinada a perdurar tras la pandemia.

The present study examined the degree of situational and interactional authenticity in Hong Kong’s listening examination papers throughout the history of colonisation and globalisation (1986–2018) with reference to world Englishes and particularly English as a lingua franca (ELF) research. By means of a detailed content analysis, the evaluation of situational authenticity was based on the context of language use (e.g., speech event type, nature of interaction, identity and accent of interlocutor) in the audio samples, while the evaluation of interactional authenticity centred on the speaker’s use of communicative strategies. Our findings suggest that the speech samples generally reflected the changing situations of language use over time by increasingly adopting dialogue (rather than monologue) and locally/globally relevant language use contexts, but only included native-speaker and (from 2012) Hong Kong English accents as speech models. Despite the lack of non-standardness and speakers of different cultures in the speech samples, there were numerous instances of explicitness strategies relevant to ELF interactions throughout the sample, probably owing to the intent of the listening examination to highlight key information for the candidates. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these trends in listening paper design for the future development of English language teaching from an ELF perspective.