ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA

Penny Ur

inner circle

outer circle

expanding circle

Kachru, 1985

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.

A LINGUA FRANCA

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

A TYPICAL ENGLISH SPEAKER

Speaks English as a foreign/second language;

Is at least bilingual (‘English-knowing bilingualism’);

Speaks the standard international variety;

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.

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.

PRONUNCIATION

/hi: cæn du:/

I’m I am

/hi: cən du:/

/ti:t∫ə/ /ti:t∫ər/

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)

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.

The following items were found to be non-

essential:

/ð/ and /θ/;

The schwa sound /ə/.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

We should place more stress on teaching the items that lead to misunderstanding than on the ones that don’t.

SPELLINGSPELLING

program

color colour

center centre

organize organise

programme

VOCABULARY

Cheers! Thanks!

lift elevator

autumn fall

flat apartment

pavement sidewalk

fortnight two weeks

queue line

GRAMMAR

I have / Do you have?

I have got / Have you got?

She just finished She has just finished

If I had… If I would have …

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, isn’t it?

DISCOURSE

Fairly standard written dialect, more varied spoken

Development of an ‘e-dialect’:

o informality of style (headings? sentences? salutations?)

o short paragraphs, line spaceso characteristic formatting: use of capitals

(‘shouting’), asterisks, repeated punctuation, emoticons :-)

The ‘save-a-keystroke’ principle:

o American spelling

o abbreviations [pls, B4N, CU, thanx, fyi, CWOT]

o ‘close it up’ [startup, email]

o minimal punctuation and capitals [london, i]

(Crystal, 2001)

In general:

‘Native’ dialect is not necessarily the model

And not necessarily purely American or British English.

Pronunciation

Comprehensible, clear, not necessarily native

Spelling

Simpler, so normally American

Vocabulary

Universally comprehensible, unambiguous, simple

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

IMPLICATIONS

A. STANDARDS, GOALS AND MODELS FOR TEACHING

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?

Key concepts:

Lingua Franca

World Standard English / International English

International comprehensibility and acceptability

The proficient speaker / user of English

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.

May speak an inappropriate (native) variety of English.

Is likely to speak an appropriate variety of English (WSE).

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.

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.

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’.

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

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.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

English today has two major communicative functions:

1.As the means of communication between its native speakers within a ‘core’ English-speaking country

2.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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

THE END

Thank you for your attention