The Cultural and Intercultural Dimensions of English as a Lingua Franca

Prue Holmes, Fred Dervin

• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781783095087
• eBook ISBN: 9781783095117
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: English Language
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

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.

Part 1

The Interconnections and Inter-Relationships Between Interculturality and ELF

1Lingua 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); prototypica...

Table of contents

• Cover-Page
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Contributors
• Foreword
• Introduction – English as a Lingua Franca and Interculturality: Beyond Orthodoxies
• Part 1: The Interconnections and Inter-Relationships Between Interculturality and ELF
• Part 2: Grounding Conceptual Understandings of Interculturality in ELF Communication
• Part 3: Commentary
• Index