1. World Englishes Jennifer Jenkins
A resource book for students

2. Strand 6: English as a lingua franca
Ambivalent attitude towards English as an international lingua franca
Reasons for the international status of English:
Historical reasons
Internal political reasons
External economic reasons
Practical reasons
Intellectual reasons
Entertainment reasons
Personal advantage/prestige (Crystal 1997) A6

3. Mutual intelligibility and group identity
Intelligibility and identity: two opposing forces
Mutual intelligibility: accent differences decrease
Identity: accent differences increase A6

4. Native and non-native speakers of English
Arguments against using the terms ‘native speaker’ and ‘non-native speaker’:
Implies that monolingualism is norm (although multilingualism is widespread)
Multlingual repertoires: L1/L2/L3 increasingly blurry
Implies that order of acquisition determines proficiency
Anglo speaker seen as reference point
Implies a unidirectional power relationship
Encourages simplistic view of what an error is
Negative perception of/among ‘NNSs’
Image of ideal NS B6

5. The NS as target for language learning: resulting questions
Who is the NS of a standard language?
Speaking English – not related to cultural identity?
Regional accents accepted in NSs, regarded as poor acquisition in NNSs?
Having to sound ‘more British than the British’?
EFL vs. ELF – an important distinction? B6

6. Alternatives to the NS/NNS distinction
Rampton 1990:
‘experts’  expertise
Advantages:
does not require identification, learned rather than fixed or innate, relative, partial, can be challenged
Disadvantages:
‘non-expert’  value judgement B6

7. Alternatives to the NS/NNS distinction
Jenkins 1996, 2000:
Monolingual English Speaker (MES)
Bilingual English Speaker (BES)
Non-Bilingual English Speaker (NBES)
Advantages:
MES less favourable than BES  monolingualism is not the preferable target
Removes L1/L2 distinction
Disadvantages:
Problematic distinction between BES and NBES B6

8. English as a lingua franca (ELF)
ELF is used in contexts in which speakers with different L1s (mostly, but not exclusively, from Expanding Circle) need it as their means to communicate with each other
ELF is an alternative to EFL rather than a replacement for it – depends on speaker’s (or learner’s) individual needs and preferences C6

9. English as a lingua franca (ELF)
EFL
ELF
Part of modern foreign languages
Part of World Englishes
Deficit perspective
Difference perspective
Metaphors of transfer / interference / fossilisation
Metaphor of contact / evolution
Code-mixing and switching are seen as interfererence errors
Code-mixing and switching are seen as bilingual resources
Kirkpatrick (2007b) adapted from Jenkins (2006c) C6

10. English as a lingua franca (ELF)
ELF involves linguistic innovations that differ from ENL and which, in some cases, are shared by most ELF speakers
ELF involves the use of certain pragmatic communication strategies, particularly accommodation and code-switching. ELF forms crucially depend on the specific communication context.
Descriptions of ELF that may lead to codification are drawn from communication involving proficient ELF speakers. C6

11. ELF features Lexicogrammar (Seidlhofer 2004)
e.g. ‘dropping’ third person –s, interchangeable use of who and which, flexible use of articles, invariant tag questions, additional prepositions, frequent use of verbs with high semantic generality, heightened explicitness
Collaborative behaviour in interaction
e.g. supportive interruptions, positive minimal responses, repetition, completion of the interlocutor’s sentences
Pronunciation C6

12. ELF features Pronunciation (Jenkins 2000)
Lingua Franca Core (LFC)
consonant sounds except th-sounds and dark ‘l’, vowel length contrasts, avoidance of consonant deletion at the beginnings of words, placement of nuclear stress
Non-core features
e.g. vowel quality, weak forms, assimilation, elision, word stress C6

13. ELF processes
ELF features are the result of processes similar to the ones affecting ENL
Additional factors in ELF
language contact on a massive scale
intercultural communication
Acceleration of processes
Attitudes towards ELF
still scepticism/rejection among many linguists and ELT professionals C6