Volume 6, Issue 2 -

This article describes naturally occurring interactions drawn from three disparate English as a lingua franca (ELF) settings, all in Japan but involving diverse multinational groups of users, each bringing with them repertoires of experiences, skills, strategies, and linguistic features. Adaptations were observed in the language practices, including well-attested strategies and non-selections, but also distinct and hybridised patterns (e.g. question–response exchanges, address-reference forms). Although these features can be explained in terms of the improvisational stances of the users, in light of the wide disparities in proficiency, strategies, degrees of success, and of the hybrid forms that came to be locally preferred, a more satisfactory explanatory framework was sought in the broader study of historical language contact and change, especially in Mufwene’s recent re-interpretation of creoles as situated cases of language restructuring. The observed ELF practices are explained as the result of cooperative restructuring, by means of fitness-based selections from the feature pool, or virtual capacity, fed by the diverse repertoires of the participants. Such an approach foregrounds functional interpretations of ELF, and creates an inclusive framework wherein the variables that define different contact situations can be discerned.

Previous studies have identified Japanese negative attitudes towards their English and ambivalent attitudes towards the language (e.g. Jenkins 2007, English as a Lingua Franca: Attitude and identity . Oxford: Oxford University Press; Matsuda 2003, The ownership of English in Japanese secondary schools. World Englishes 22(4). 483–496; McKenzie 2010, The social psychology of English as a global language: Attitudes, awareness and identity in the Japanese context . Dordrecht: Springer). The current research targets Japanese university students and adds several insights into the nature of these attitudes through the analysis of 95 open-ended questionnaires and 18 conversational interviews. First of all, the participants’ negative language attitudes embraced notable contradictions. Also, their ambivalence was scarcely evident, and more to the point, a matter of degree. Moreover, it is the doxic experience (Bourdieu 1977, Outline of a theory of practice . Trans. Richard Nice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) within Japanese society that was likely to hinder grounding those attitudes on their own critical thinking and valuing their English communication ability with non-Japanese. And most importantly, it was easy for them to appreciate English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) perspectives, so long as they would like to use English for international communication. More precisely, while they were unlikely to have any previous attitudes towards the unfamiliar representation of their English (i.e. from ELF perspectives), they were highly likely to develop positive attitudes towards it. This article calls for more future research and effort devoted to raising ELF awareness in Japanese and other similar contexts.

This conversation analytic study explores the nexus of goal orientation and linguistic identity (particularly of L1 English speakers) in ELF interaction. While goal orientation constitutes a hallmark of ELF scholarship, the latter notion has received limited scholarly attention. To address this gap, this study examines a dyadic, institutional interaction between two students in the United States (L1 British English and L1 Arabic) who met for an intercultural conversation assigned by their instructors. In the interest of accomplishing the goal of obtaining intercultural information, the participants did not bring their differences in linguistic identity to the fore of the interaction, while it was also found that the pursuit of an institutional goal can at times manifest itself as orientations to linguistic norms. The examination of these overt orientations to the institutional goal is followed by a study of deviant cases in which the L1 speaking participant appeared to make relevant his superior linguistic identity at first glance. While they could be interpreted as claims of linguistic superiority, a closer look revealed that these instances also reflected the participants’ cooperative orientations to the emergent communicative needs so as to jointly accomplish the shared goal. Highlighting the problem of presuming a correlation between interactional behavior and linguistic identity, the study suggests the need for the analyst to withhold his/her preconceptions about interactants’ identities. Further research involving diverse groups of interactants, including L1 speakers of English, is needed to contribute to the recent theoretical developments that characterize ELF interaction as situated within diverse linguacultural ecologies and power dynamics.

Responding to observations in ELF research that Anglophone-centric attitudes towards English are eroding among speakers of a younger generation, this paper demonstrates that attitudes towards English can in fact vary among youth of different social class backgrounds. Drawing on a case study of immigrant Filipino adolescents in Vancouver, this paper examines how class differences of these youth impinge on their lived experiences and the material conditions of their migration, shaping how they negotiate their linguistic capital, particularly their use of English. Data illustrate how such conditions shape their dispositions, their sense of agency, and feelings of linguistic confidence and insecurity. Using Darvin and Norton’s (2015. Identity and a model of investment in applied linguistics. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 35. 36–56) model of investment as a lens to investigate the interplay of identity, capital, and ideology in communicative contexts, this paper asserts how contrasting language attitudes are constructed by asymmetrical relations of power between speakers. In the spirit of accommodation and adaptation that characterizes ELF communication, this paper calls for a critical pedagogy that enables speakers to reflect on how they position themselves and others in these contexts, and assert their place as legitimate speakers of English.

This paper investigates how English as a lingua franca is used to manage adversarial moments in casual conversation among friends, using conversation analysis and politeness theory. It presents a single case analysis of face negotiation devices utilized in two cases of third-party complaint sequences, in which complaints are made about someone else who is not present. The two cases to be analyzed were extracted from recordings of conversation of international students in British universities. The analysis revealed that the interactants utilize verbal and nonverbal devices, which are sometimes linguistically inexplicit but nonverbally resourceful, in a pragmatically sensitive manner in situ, thereby saving mutual face, intensifying the degree of face-threatening, or expressing disaffiliation in a face-saving way.

Sceptical attitudes towards the relevance of ELF research for language pedagogy and teacher education are prevalent and well-documented. Some of this resistance may result from a misunderstanding of key concepts and arguments, some from practical concerns and context-specific factors such as syllabus and assessment frameworks. A significant difficulty in persuading ELT practitioners to adopt or recognise ELF positions is the apparent conflict between preferences for standard language models and the reality of variable lingua franca goals for learning and use. ELF potentially changes everything, yet is a phenomenon grounded in unchanging social fundamentals of language use. This article reports on part of a continuing study into the impact of ELF perspectives on experienced language teachers, with a focus on their attitudes and levels of awareness in relation to their professional development and contexts. How teachers are enabled and encouraged to overcome potential scepticism, and reconcile the perceived conflict between standard models and lingua franca goals in their practice, is crucial to the spread of a more appropriate, “ELF-aware” form of language teacher education. Responses are mixed, but generally insightful and engaged, even when expressing reservations or doubt. There is also some good news, with clear evidence that attitudes can be influenced, through exposure to ideas, reflection and motivation towards action.

Over the last decade ELF has become a reality in European universities, but this is not reflected in the major international language tests designed for access to higher education and for university students. In this paper I describe an experiment in “co-certification,” a test of English set at level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), jointly developed by Trinity College London and the University of Ca’ Foscari Venice, in which an international version of the test was adapted locally to include locally relevant components and enhance validity and task authenticity. One feature of the co-certification was the introduction of an independent listening task which took the form of understanding an extract from a lecture given in English by a non-native speaker. Possible problems we had anticipated ranged from the kind of discourse features they should include, and whether or not there was a fairness issue related to accent recognition. In fact, the overall results showed no significant difference from the previous version of the exam, while the listening part had a higher pass rate than the overall oral test which involved interaction with a native speaker. As far as we know, the co-certification is the first example of an internationally recognized board engaging systematically with characteristic features of ELF communication, notably non-native phonology and intonation patterns, in a test of listening. The findings so far suggest that, for the test takers at least, this can be unproblematic and uncontroversial.