ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA

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ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA

• Penny Ur

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expanding circle
outer circle
inner circle
Kachru, 1985
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• Probably between two and three billion people
  speak English.
• The majority use it as a foreign or second
  language.
• It is used for academic purposes political
  negotiation tourism entertainment business and
  finance information personal social interaction
  
• Most educated speakers of other languages are at
  least bilingual.

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A LINGUA FRANCA

• The most important function of the English
  language today is as a lingua franca not as a
  native language.

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A TYPICAL ENGLISH SPEAKER

• Speaks English as a foreign/second language
• Is at least bilingual (English-knowing
  bilingualism)
• Speaks the standard international variety

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• Is not interested in aspects of culture of inner
  circle countries
• May never have visited an inner-circle country,
  may not be particularly interested in doing so
• Is skilled in communicative and comprehension
  strategies.

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WORLD STANDARD ENGLISH

• There is rapidly developing an international
  variety of English (World Standard English),
  distinct from native varieties.
• It has the basic standard grammar and lexis.
• But beyond the basics, some international norms
  are evolving.

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PRONUNCIATION
/hi cæn du/
/hi c?n du/
Im
I am
/tit??/
/tit??r/
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WHAT SOUNDS ARE ESSENTIAL IN WSE? WHAT SOUNDS ARE
NOT?

• Question
• What mispronunciations lead to a breakdown in
  communication? What mispronunciations make no
  difference to understanding?
• (Jenkins, 2002)

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RESULTS

• The following items were found to be essential
  for good understanding (a selection)
• /I/ versus /i/ (i versus ee)
• /p/, /t/, /k/ versus /b/, /d/, /g/
• initial consonant clusters eg. strong
• use of tonic stress e.g. He came by TRAIN versus
  HE came by train.

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The following items were found to be
non-essential

• /ð/ and /?/
• The schwa sound /?/.

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CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

• We should place more stress on teaching the items
  that lead to misunderstanding than on the ones
  that dont.

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SPELLING
program
programme
color
colour
centre
center
organize
organise
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VOCABULARY
Cheers!
Thanks!
line
queue
autumn
fall
flat
apartment
two weeks
fortnight
lift
elevator
pavement
sidewalk
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GRAMMAR
I have got / Have you got?
I have / Do you have?
She has just finished
She just finished
If I had
If I would have
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We are waiting for an hour.
We have been waiting for an hour.
Your name is Jenny, no? Your name is Jenny,
right?
Your name is Jenny, isnt it?
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DISCOURSE

• Fairly standard written dialect, more varied
  spoken
• Development of an e-dialect
• informality of style (headings? sentences?
  salutations?)
• short paragraphs, line spaces
• characteristic formatting use of capitals
  (shouting), asterisks, repeated punctuation,
  emoticons -)

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The save-a-keystroke principle

• American spelling
• abbreviations pls, B4N, CU, thanx, fyi, CWOT
• close it up startup, email
• minimal punctuation and capitals london, i
• (Crystal, 2001)

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• In general
• Native dialect is not necessarily the model
• And not necessarily purely American or British
  English.

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• Pronunciation
• Comprehensible, clear, not necessarily native
• Spelling
• Simpler, so normally American
• Vocabulary
• Universally comprehensible, unambiguous, simple

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• Grammar
• Mainly American (simpler)
• Written, not spoken
• Discourse
• Mainly formal, conventional
• Awareness of distinction between informal and
  formal, and when each is appropriate
• Awareness of growing differences between
  conventions of different discourses

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IMPLICATIONS

• A. STANDARDS, GOALS AND MODELS FOR TEACHING

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• If the standard is not a native speaker dialect
  (British or American), then what is it?
• If the goal of English teaching is not to reach
  native-speaker competence, then what is it?
• If the model is not the native speaker, then who
  is it?

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• Key concepts
• Lingua Franca
• World Standard English / International English
• International comprehensibility and acceptability
• The proficient speaker / user of English

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B. THE NATIVE / NON-NATIVE ENGLISH-SPEACHING
TEACHER
The native-speaker English teacher
The non-native-speaker English teacher
May speak a more correct and fluent English.
May speak a less correct and fluent English.
Feels confident of own knowledge of English.
May feel less confident of own knowledge of
English.
Is likely to speak an appropriate variety of
English (WSE).
May speak an inappropriate (native) variety of
English.
May not be familiar with students L1 and culture.
Is familiar with students L1 and culture.
Can serve as a role model.
Cannot serve as a role model.
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• Probably the whole issue of native /
  non-native is an irrelevant question anyway.
• What is important is that the teacher should be
• a competent and fluent speaker of (World
  Standard) English
• a good teacher
• fluent in the learners L1 and familiar with the
  learners home culture.

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C. INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE

• Importance of genuinely intercultural competence
  i.e. not just foreign versus English-speaking
  cultures.
• There is possibly evolving a world culture of
  international interaction, to match World
  Standard English.

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D. COURSEBOOK CONTENT

• The language predominantly WSE
• The cultural content source
  English-speaking international
• Scenarios in international rather than
  English-speaking locations.
• Recordings a mix of native and non-native
  accents
• More use of L1

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E. THE SOURCE OF EXPERTISE

• The relative number of EFL experts coming from
  places outside the core English speaking
  countries is rising.
• There is a similar rise in the proportion of
  home-designed EFL materials.

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SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

• English today has two major communicative
  functions
• As the means of communication between its native
  speakers within a core English-speaking country
• As the means of international communication,
  anywhere in the world a Lingua Franca.
• The second is predominant in the world today, and
  it is the one on which we should focus in our
  teaching.

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• There is in the process of development a World
  Standard English, based on
• internationally acceptable lexis (very large, but
  often domain-specific)
• grammatical rules based on commonly accepted
  standards (mainly American)
• pronunciation to some extent variable, but has to
  be comprehensible.

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• The goals of English teaching are therefore to
  enable our learners to reach a high standard of
  comprehension and self-expression in an English
  which will be readily understood worldwide.

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• It is the proficient user of English as an
  International Language who is the appropriate
  model for our learners, rather than a native
  speaker.

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• Learners need to learn intercultural
  competence enabled to recognize and respect
  other cultural norms and communicate effectively
  with their owners.

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• Coursebooks should be based on the source culture
  of the learners, moving towards international
  culture(s).

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• Authoritative experts on English as a Lingua
  Franca may or may not themselves be originally
  native speakers but the geographical focus of
  such expertise is increasingly the countries
  where English is a second or foreign language
  rather than the first.

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THE END

• Thank you for your attention