This book investigates the cultural and intercultural aspects of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). Authors discuss how ‘culture’ and the ‘intercultural’ can be understood, theorised and operationalised in ELF, and how the concepts can be integrated into formats of ELF-oriented learning and teaching. The various cultural connotations are also discussed (ideological, political, religious and historical) and whether it is possible to use and/or teach a lingua franca as if it were culturally neutral. The chapters consider the communication and pedagogical implications of the cultural and intercultural dimensions of ELF and offer suggestions for new directions in ELF research, pedagogy and curriculum development.
This book investigates the cultural and intercultural aspects of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). Authors discuss how ‘culture’ and the ‘intercultural’ can be understood, theorised and operationalised in ELF, and how the concepts can be integrated into formats of ELF-oriented learning and teaching. The various cultural connotations are also discussed (ideological, political, religious and historical) and whether it is possible to use and/or teach a lingua franca as if it were culturally neutral. The chapters consider the communication and pedagogical implications of the cultural and intercultural dimensions of ELF and offer suggestions for new directions in ELF research, pedagogy and curriculum development.
The Cultural and Intercultural Dimensions of English as a Lingua Franca
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Overview
This book investigates the cultural and intercultural aspects of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). Authors discuss how ‘culture’ and the ‘intercultural’ can be understood, theorised and operationalised in ELF, and how the concepts can be integrated into formats of ELF-oriented learning and teaching. The various cultural connotations are also discussed (ideological, political, religious and historical) and whether it is possible to use and/or teach a lingua franca as if it were culturally neutral. The chapters consider the communication and pedagogical implications of the cultural and intercultural dimensions of ELF and offer suggestions for new directions in ELF research, pedagogy and curriculum development.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781783095117 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Multilingual Matters Ltd. |
| Publication date: | 03/01/2016 |
| Series: | Languages for Intercultural Communication and Education , #29 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 221 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Prue Holmes is Reader in the School of Education at Durham University and Adjunct Professor at the University of Helsinki. Her research interests include intercultural communication and education, and language education.
Fred Dervin is Professor of Multicultural Education at the University of Helsinki and holds a number of Associate and Adjunct Professorships elsewhere. His research interests include intercultural communication and education, intercultural competence, academic mobility and migration and Chinese education.
Prue Holmes is Professor and Director of Research in the School of Education, University of Durham, UK. She is the editor of The Cultural and Intercultural Dimensions of English as a Lingua Franca (with Fred Dervin, 2016, Multilingual Matters).
Fred Dervin is Professor of Multicultural Education at the University of Helsinki (Finland). He is Director of the TENSION research group (diversities and interculturality in education). Dervin also holds several distinguished and visiting professorships in Australia, Canada, China, Luxembourg, Malaysia and Sweden. Prof. Dervin specializes in intercultural education, the sociology of multiculturalism and student and academic mobility. He has widely published in different languages on identity, the “intercultural” and mobility/migration (over 150 articles and 60 books). His latest books include (all 2022): Fragments in Interculturality: A Reflexive Approach (Springer); Supercriticality and Interculturality (with Tan, Springer); Interculturality in Teacher Education (Cambridge University Press).
Read an Excerpt
The Cultural and Intercultural Dimensions of English as a Lingua Franca
By Prue Holmes, Fred Dervin
Multilingual Matters
Copyright © 2016 Prue Holmes, Fred Dervin and the authors of individual chaptersAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78309-511-7
CHAPTER 1
Lingua Francas in a World of Migrations
Karen Risager
Introduction
In this chapter I focus on transnational mobility and the ensuing linguistic and cultural flows in the world. I emphasise the importance of the field of ELF for studies of other languages as well, and look specifically at the cultural/intercultural dimensions of ELF and their relevance for other languages. I want to add that I am using the term 'ELF' as a shorthand for English as it is used in lingua franca situations. The concept of lingua franca situation is much debated (see for example Jenkins et al., 2011), but here I will define it as a communicative situation dominated by people who don't have the language in question as their first or early second language (the term 'early second' is treated below). The chapter argues for the following points:
(1) English is the language that is used most as a lingua franca today. But at the same time a large number of the world's other languages are used as lingua francas as well. English and many other languages are used as lingua francas not only in settings like international business and international higher education, but also between immigrants of diverse origins living in the countries where the languages in question are national or official languages.
(2) No language is culturally neutral, and that includes English in lingua franca use. All languages, whether they function as a first language, a foreign language or a second language for the individual, and whether they are used in a lingua franca situation or not, (re)produce culture in the sense of meaning. The culturality of language may be analysed at two different levels: linguaculture, which is bound to specific languages, and discourse, which is not necessarily bound to specific languages.
(3) The learning and teaching of English for lingua franca use can, and should, contribute to the development of global citizenship and critical awareness of cultural complexity. Such a pedagogical goal is immediately relevant for ELF, but it is also relevant for all other language learning and teaching because we have to transcend the traditional national paradigm of one nation, one language, one culture.
The Growth of the Lingua Franca Phenomenon
Transnational mobility and linguistic flows
A large number of the languages of the world are spread by transnational mobility. I would like to start with the concrete example of Danish, my first language: Danish is spoken in Denmark, but not only there. There are Danish-speaking people all over the world as a consequence of all kinds of mobility such as, for example, tourism, job-related and educational travels and sojourns, and regular emigration. There are Danish-speaking doctors, businesspeople, students, diplomats, sports people, journalists, artists, pensioners, etc. in most countries of the world, and Danish is taught on all continents in Scandinavian departments in higher education. Danish is also spoken, of course, in other parts of the Danish kingdom: Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Thus, one can encounter Danish-speaking people all over the world who can, in principle, communicate in Danish via the internet. They can use email, Skype and social media, look at Danish TV, read online newspapers, etc., provided they have access to relevant infrastructure.
I am thinking not only of people having Danish as a first or native language, but also as a second language or a foreign language. People may, as immigrants from, for example, Egypt, have learnt Danish as a second language in Denmark, and then moved on to another country and maybe back to Egypt. Or people may have learnt Danish as a foreign language in, for example, Russia, and then moved to Denmark to conduct further studies. Or people may have acquired Danish as a first language as members of a Danish-speaking family working in, for example, Kenya. Danish is used in many kinds of communicative situations; current researchis focusing on Danish as a language of internationalisation at universities in Denmark (Haberland, 2011).
Danish can therefore be said to be a world language – not on the basis of the number of its speakers, but on the basis of the global range of its use. Of course, exactly the same thing can be said of a large number of the world's other languages. The spread of English has a global scope, but so has that of Polish, Farsi, Somali, Cantonese, Turkish, Italian, Filipino, Hindi, Swahili, Swedish, etc.
This dynamic picture of the languages of the world rests on a sociological theory of language that focuses on language practices (in specific 'languages', including pidgins, creoles and other language mixings) in social networks of different scales, from the micro-level of interpersonal communication in real and virtual space to macro-levels of mass communication and the global spread of information through social media (Risager, 2006). Seen in the light of this theory, inspired by social anthropologist Hannerz's theory of global cultural flows and cultural complexity (Hannerz, 1992), people who move or migrate, change the patterns of social networks, leaving some of them behind, creating new ones in new locations, 'stretching' old ones, etc. They take their personal language resources with them to new environments and put them to use there in relevant settings. Thus, languages are not seen as territorially bound, they are seen as mobile to the extent that their users are mobile (see also Blommaert, 2010; Pennycook, 2007; Piller, 2011).
Local linguistic complexity
The flows of a large number of languages across national borders give rise to local complexity in all countries, especially in the big cities with a multitude of linguistic minorities and recent newcomers (Blommaert, 2010; Canagarajah, 2007; Jørgensen, 2008; Otsuji & Pennycook, 2010; Rampton, 1995). Several hundred languages may be spoken. In a small country like Denmark, for instance, about 120 languages are spoken by various groups of immigrants (Risager, 2006).
The local linguistic complexity is characterised by language hierarchisations in both practice and representation (Risager, 2012a). Language hierarchisation in practice happens all the time as people choose languages for verbal interaction and writing in specific situations and contexts. Code-switching and crossing are among the phenomena that show the interplay of different power positions, symbolic functions and identities of languages in interaction (Otsuji & Pennycook, 2010; Rampton, 1995). But language hierarchisation is also carried out via language representation. For example, government authorities may produce a language policy document outlining the use and learning of a certain number of languages in education. Or a local radio station may organise a discussion of the use of various languages in the media. Language representations may also be used in identity politics, as for example when a group of people fight for recognition of their language, and thus for a change of language hierarchies.
One of the achievements of ELF studies is the emphasis on innovative language practices and the creation of local and situational norms in everyday communication between people with different language backgrounds. But it is also important to be aware of power issues in the linguistic landscape, for example in relation to norms. Certain norms are more dominant than others, and certain models (real or imagined language users) are more dominant than others. When people communicate in informal settings and just want to get themselves understood, there may well be openness as to norms and models, which offers a great freedom for instant experimentation and innovation. But in some situations people have to conform to other people's norms if they want to be taken seriously, such as when they seek a job or want to publish an academic article. At such times it is in their own interest to conform to these organisational norms and conventions, particularly if they are not in a position to change them.
The concepts of first, second and foreign language, and of lingua franca use
All these languages in the local setting may have different functions for the individual, according to the context in and age at which they were learnt. Four ideal-typical cases may be distinguished: (1) it can be a first (or native) language, i.e. a language (or maybe two or even three) learnt in early childhood in the family; (2) it can be an early second language, i.e. a language that is the national or official language of the country of residence, and which is learnt in childhood outside the family, for instance in the neighbourhood and/or for use in school as a medium of learning; (3) it can be a late second language, i.e. a language that is the national or official language of the country one lives in as an immigrant, and which is learnt upon arrival in order to be able to live as a new citizen, with all that this entails; or (4) it can be a foreign language, i.e. a language that is not the national or official language of the country of residence, and which is learnt in school or later in life for more limited and well-defined reasons such as being able to communicate with other people who also know the language, or being able to read texts in the language (see Risager, 2006, which includes a discussion of changes among these functions in the light of transnational migration).
What I want to emphasise here is that these concepts relate to the individual (or more precisely the subject; see for example Kramsch, 2009), whereas the concept of lingua franca use relates to communication in real-time in specific settings. An individual participating in a lingua franca situation may be a first-language speaker, or an early second-language speaker, or a late second-language speaker, or a foreign-language speaker. And, according to his or her language-learning background, the speaker may have a more or less dominant position in the situation with more or less control over emergent forms in the course of communication.
The distinction between English as a lingua franca (ELF) and English as a foreign language (EFL), which is characteristic of much research in ELF (Jenkins et al., 2011: 283ff), is problematic because it mixes these two perspectives: the social and the individual. The social perspective deals with language practice in communicative situations; as I noted in the introduction, I define a lingua franca situation as a communicative situation dominated by people who don't have the language in question as their first or early second language (i.e. they have it as a late second or foreign language). The social perspective is about the communicative situation or event, whereas the individual perspective is about the role of the language in the individual's life and learning. When an individual is taught a language that is a foreign language for him or her, the teaching can focus on uses of the language in non-lingua franca situations (i.e. situations that are dominated by participants who have the language as first or early second language); prototypically, the teaching would focus on communication with native speakers in target-language countries. I would characterise such teaching as drawing on the traditional national paradigm in language and culture pedagogy. Alternatively, the teaching of the foreign language can focus on (or at least include) uses of the language in lingua franca situations and thus favour a more transnational approach to language and culture pedagogy by drawing attention to the fact that the target language may be used in many kinds of situations all over the world (Risager, 2007).
Lingua franca use between immigrants of diverse origins
Linguistic complexity is of course also the general situation in the countries where English is the national or official language (Inner Circle and Outer Circle countries; Kachru, 1986). There are hundreds of different linguistic minorities, including indigenous communities and/or communities identifying with heritage languages. Moreover, there are all the different types of newcomers and travelers referred to above (tourists, students, expatriates, refugees, etc.). Those who can communicate in English do it every day or from time to time. Therefore, why not describe the use of English between immigrants of diverse origins as lingua franca communication? Here I would like to expand on Canagarajah's historical comment:
There are at least two major senses in which English has served as a lingua franca, in relation to historical developments. When English spread to the colonies from English beginning from the 16th century, it served as a contact language between the colonisers and the colonised. It also served as a contact language between the colonised. However, after decolonisation in the 1950s and, more significantly, in the recent forms of globalisation marked by new technology, transnational economic and production relationships, and the porous nature of nation-state boundaries, English has become a contact language for a wider range of communities (outside the former British empire). (Canagarajah, 2006: 197, italics in the original)
What I would add here is that English has also, by the very same processes of globalisation, become a contact language between immigrants and 'natives' in the countries where English is a national or official language, and has also become a contact language between immigrants of diverse origins. Seen in this light, English is being used in lingua franca situations in all countries of the world, including Inner and Outer Circle countries, as well as in virtual space. The same can be said of all other languages that are spread by transnational mobility, including for example Danish, which is used for communication between people of diverse linguistic origins living in Denmark if Danish is their only common language.
Thus with the worldwide increase of transnational migrations and mobility in general, and with the increase in the learning and use of a large number of languages as second languages in host countries, the lingua franca phenomenon is gaining importance as a mode of verbal communication among a multitude of diverse groups and networks. This also means that for many languages, ethnolectal variation and innovation are probably on the increase.
The geographical basis of the field of ELF would widen if it included the use of ELF within countries where English is the national or official language. For example, take two imagined communicative events, one in London and one in Kraków in Poland: in London, a British-Greek immigrant and a British-Russian immigrant talk with each other in English in a restaurant because English is their only common language. Compare this to the other event: in Kraków, the same two people talk with each other about the same topics in English in a restaurant because English is their only common language. Although the larger cultural contexts are different, the course of communication may be very similar. Yet the second case is seen as an instance of ELF communication, whereas the first is not.
ELF could also widen its empirical basis to social domains other than elite domains such as communication in transnational business companies or communication among international students in higher education (Preisler & Fabricius, 2011). Transnational mobility concerns all age groups, all social groups and probably most professions. Thus the field of ELF, as it is now and also with the potentially larger geographical and social scope described above, could in fact have very positive functions because it could give new impulses to lingua franca studies related to other languages. The latter is a field that is under-researched at the moment (but see McGroarty, 2006, for a number of interesting surveys on Lingala, Esperanto, Chinese, French, Quechua, Spanish, Russian and German; also see Dervin, 2011).
The Culturality of Language: Linguaculture and Discourse
Linguaculture within linguistic flows
I now turn to the question of the culturality of language, beginning with the concept of linguaculture (Risager, 2006, 2011b). I am among those who maintain that language is never culturally neutral. Language is not just a code; it is a system for the production and reproduction of meaning in human society. And meaning is culture – as per the title of the abovementioned book by Hannerz (1992):Cultural Complexity: Studies of the Social Organization of Meaning. Any language carries meaning, and in this sense any language carries culture (see for example Crozet & Liddicoat, 2000, who do not use the term 'linguaculture', but rather the expression 'culture in language').
(Continues...)
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Contributors
Introduction
Part I: The Interconnections and Inter-relationships between Interculturality and ELF
1. Karen Risager: Lingua Francas in a World of Migrations
2. Richard Fay, Nicos Sifakis and Vally Lytra: Interculturalities of English as a Lingua Franca: International Communication and Multicultural Awareness in the Greek Context
3. Will Baker: Culture and Language in Intercultural Communication, English as a Lingua Franca and English Language Teaching: Points of Convergence and Conflict
Part II: Grounding Conceptual Understandings of Interculturality in ELF Communication
4. Chris Jenks: Talking Cultural Identities into Being in ELF Interactions: An Investigation of International Postgraduate Students in the United Kingdom
5. Anne Kari Bjørge: Conflict Talk and ELF Communities of Practice
6. Jagdish Kaur: Intercultural Misunderstanding Revisited: Cultural Difference as a (Non) Source of Misunderstanding in ELF Communication
7. Tiina Räisänen: Finnish Engineers’ Trajectories of Socialization into Global Working Life: From Language Learners to BELF Users and the Emergence of A Finnish Way of Speaking English
8. Eric Henry: The Local Purposes of a Global Language: English as Intracultural Communicative Medium in China
Part III: Commentary
John O’Regan: Intercultural Communication and the Possibility of English as a Lingua Franca