NJES Volume 5, No. 2 (2006)
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Item Exploring Corporate Websites as a Setting for ELF Research: The Case of Ostrobothnian Export Companies(Gothenburg University, 2006-12) Aaltonen, SirkkuAccording to Jennifer Jenkins (2004: 63), the essential distinction between the use of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and that as a lingua franca (ELF) lies in their interlocutors' native language. Speakers (themselves non-native speakers) of EFL use their English chiefly to communicate with native speakers (NSs) of English, often in NS settings, while speakers of ELF use English to communicate primarily with other NNSs of English. In what follows, I will explore how these criteria would be met by the use of English on Finnish corporate websites, and, consequently, their suitability as a setting for ELF research. As my material, I have used the websites of 16 Finnish Ostrobothnian export companies. If websites are seen as communication which incorporates mass and interpersonal communication via one medium and which provides the possibility of reciprocal information exchange with two sets of users, it may be possible to distinguish between EFL and ELF settings. Finally, I have also identified some features which I suggest could be submitted to further study as ELF features of English in Finnish corporate websites.Item VOICE Recording - Methodological Challenges in the Compilation of a Corpus of Spoken ELF(Gothenburg University, 2006-12) Breiteneder, Angelika; Pitzl, Marie-Luise; Majewski, Stefan; Klimpfinger, TheresaVOICE, the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English, aims to provide a general basis for analyses of English as a lingua franca (ELF) talk on all linguistic levels. This paper discusses criteria that have to be fulfilled in order to achieve this aim. It illustrates that compiling a corpus of spoken ELF involves the reconciliation of different - and often conflicting - requirements: this means finding and keeping a reasonable balance between theoretical specifications, methodological considerations and practical limitations. The focus of this paper is on dilemmas encountered in the processes of data collection and selection and finding suitable ways of representing spoken ELF in written form.Item A Rich Domain of ELF - the ELFA Corpus of Academic Discourse(Gothenburg University, 2006-12) Mauranen, AnnaThe academic field has used English as a lingua franca widely for a long time, and is a good choice for an ELF corpus. It is useful to restrict the scope of exploratory research in one way or another, mode and domain offering themselves as clear and reasonably unproblematic limiters in language sampling. What makes the academic domain suitable for ELF research is that it is demanding, deeply influential, and largely constituted by its own specific genres. This paper discusses the compilation principles of the ELFA corpus (English as a Lingua Franca in Academic Settings) of spoken language, and outlines the kind of research it has already produced and that is going on with the data.Item “Words are more or less superfluous”: the Case of more or less in Academic Lingua Franca English(Gothenburg University, 2006-12) Metsä-Ketelä, MariaIn the past fifty years, English has turned into the leading language of international communication. Despite its well-established status as a global lingua franca, there is a lack of descriptive research on how people actually use English as a global language. The aim of this paper is to contribute to knowledge of lingua franca English, and more specifically to investigate a linguistic phenomenon that is common to all languages, namely lexical vagueness. This study provides a detailed description of how non-native speakers of English use the vague expression more or less in international settings. Concordance analyses showed that more or less is among the most frequent markers of vagueness in academic lingua franca English. A detailed contextual analysis indicated that the expression is used to carry out various communicative functions in lingua franca discourse. This paper aims to show that non-native speakers of English are aware of the communicative potential vague expressions have and that divergence from native use does not result in communication breakdown.Item The 'Attractive' Progressive - Why use the -ing Form in English as a Lingua Franca?(2006-12) Ranta, ElinaIn SLA literature, the 'extended' use of the progressive in L2 English production has often been considered a 'problem'. The studies have been based on elicited data and explanations for such use have ranged from first language interference to target language input. In this paper, my aim is to look into the use of the progressive in authentic spoken L2 English from a fresh, more communicative perspective, namely that of English as a lingua franca. The main focus is on finding out whether the use of the progressive is really 'extended', and if so, does this cause problems in communication. At the end, an explanation for the characteristic use of the progressive in ELF is attempted. The data for the study comes from an academic ELF speech corpus, ELFA.Item English as a Lingua Franca: A New Variety in the New Expanding Circle?(2006-12) Mollin, SandraThe traditional tripartite model of English world-wide has so far ignored one of the most important functions of English today, namely that of a lingua franca between non-native speakers. In integrating ELF into models such as Kachru's, the question that arises is whether it can count as a variety. Evidence from a corpus-based study of lingua franca English as it is used between European speakers indicates that it is not a non-native variety in the traditional sense. It is suggested here that ELF could be conceptualised as a register, which can be integrated into the variety- and nation-based model only on a functional level.Item Efficiency in ELF Communication: From Pragmatic Motives to Lexico-grammatical Innovation(2006-12) Cogo, Alessia; Dewey, MartinThe considerable demographic shift in the use of English worldwide, with the effect that L2 speakers outnumber L1 speakers, particularly as typified in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) communication, is now widely acknowledged in Applied Linguistics. To a certain extent the resulting impact this has in relation to key issues such as the ownership of English has also been recognised. Description of the linguistic consequences of this shift however is less established, and lingua franca corpora are still in their relatively early stages of development, though growing in momentum. This paper will contribute to the emerging body of work that does report on empirical studies in the field, drawing on two corpora of naturally occurring lingua franca interactions which have been gathered for PhD projects at King's College London. To date reported ELF research projects have tended to focus separately on one or other linguistic system, on phonology (e.g. Jenkins 2000; 2005), and to a lesser extent on pragmatics (e.g. House 1999), and on lexicogrammatical features (cf Seidlhofer 2004). The focus of this paper is to report on findings in both pragmatics and lexicogrammar, and in so doing to identify the interrelationship between the two systems and highlight ways in which they are mutually constitutive. The paper aims to show how pragmatic motives can lead to changes in the lexis and grammar, and in turn how lexicogrammatical innovations impact on pragmatic norms and strategies.Item Making English Their Own: The use of ELF among Students of English at the FUB(Gothenburg University, 2006-12) Erling, Elizabeth J.; Bartlett, TomThis paper analyses the attitudes and motives of students studying English at the Freie Universität Berlin (FUB) and suggests that changing opinions on national (US and UK) standards and the emergence of the 'New Europe' represent mutually reinforcing conditions of possibility for the deliberate adoption of a Europeanised English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). We present results from a sociolinguistic profile of students at the FUB which include a statistical analysis of questionnaires distributed to 101 students of English in July 2001; excerpts from student essays that reflect on the role of English in students' lives; and in-depth interviews with five of these students (see further Erling 2004). Through statistical analysis, it became clear that there were certain clusters among students: a US-friendly cluster (54%), a pro-British cluster (13%) and a lingua franca cluster (34%). In this paper, the lingua franca cluster is considered in depth with an analysis of their descriptions of the challenges of making English 'their own […] forcing it to submit to their own intentions and accents' (Bakhtin 1981: 294). We also describe specific linguistic features of these students' Englishes and compare them to other varieties of world Englishes. These findings suggest that these users are appropriating the language for their own purposes, asserting their identities through English and empowering themselves as owners of the language. With this in mind, pedagogical implications for teaching ELF at the university level are considered in the final section of the paper.Item Introduction: English as A Lingua Franca(Gothenburg University, 2006-12) Mauranen, Anna; Metsä-Ketelä, MariaN/A