English as a lingua franca
Lingua Inglese 2 LM 2013-14 modulo B
-
What does “English as a lingua franca”
mean?
Franks:
westerners/europeans
OED historical definitions of ”frank”:
1) of Germanic origin, conquerors of Gaul
2) In the eastern Mediterranean region: a person
of Western nationality. L17. cf Feringhee

”as a man of liberal views, it might have amused
him to annoy Ali Pasha by selling the land to
Frank Protestants”
(Ottoman minister of state, 1861).

New Oxford Shorter:
from Italian (+++), any language serving as a medium
between different nations etc whose own languages are
not the same; a system of communication providing
mutual understanding.
This looks as if a lingua franca is neutral,
but is it?
English is destined to be in the next and
succeeding centuries more generally the
language of the world than Latin was in the last
or French in the present age.
John Adams to Congress, 1780
A class of persons, Indians in blood and colour,
English in taste, in opinion, in morals and in
intellect.
Lord Macaulay, 1835
In 1838 the ‘Board of Foreign Missions of the
USA’, 13 ‘colonies’, propounded ‘a belief in the
manifest destiny of Anglo-Saxon culture to
spread around the world’
Joel Spring, The cultural transformation of a
Native American family and its tribe 1763-1995.
1996, Lawrence Erlbaum.
The whole world should adopt the American
system. The American system can survive in
America only if it becomes a world system.
President Harry Truman, 1947 cited in Pieterse,
Jan N. 2004. Globalization or empire. New York
and London: Routledge, 131.

‘Science cannot be advanced without the
English language and textbooks and students
will make better progress in the sciences by
taking the English textbooks and learning the
English to boot than they will by giving exclusive
attention to their own language and textbooks
in our field
Who the first inhabitants of Britain were, whether
natives or immigrants, remains obscure: one must
remember we are dealing with barbarians
Tacitus, AD 97


National British English: The Queen’s/Oxford/standard
American English as an instrument for forming American
national identity, Noah Webster, 1791.
The American Dictionary of the English Language of 1828
became in 1890 Webster’s International Dictionary, while
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the
English Language, 1961, aims at meeting the needs of
the ‘whole modern English-speaking world’

”lingua franca” was the term (from Arabic) for the
language of the Crusaders and the Franks

It is now the term for the the crusade of global
corporatisation, marketed as freedom, democracy
(& human rights?).

A pernicious, invidious term if the language in
question is a first language for some people but for
others a foreign language.

A misleading term if the language is supposed to be
neutral and disconnected from culture.

A false term for a language that is taught as a
subject in general education.

Historical reasons:
English is still used institutionally because of the legacy of British
or American imperialism.

Internal political reasons
English provides a neutral means of communication between the
different ethnic groups of a country and may be seen as a symbol
of national unity or emerging statehood.

External economic reasons
the USA’s dominant economic position often acts as a magnet for
international business and trade

Practical reasons
English is the language of international air traffic control,
international tourism, international politics, international business
and academic conferences.

Intellectual reasons
Most of the scientific, technological, and academic information in
the world is expressed in English. English is the gateway to Western
culture.

Entertainment reasons

English is the main language of popular music, sat TV, computers
and video games.

Personal advantage/prestige

Proficiency in English is often perceived as conferring higher
status.

How do we classify the modern english as a
lingua franca?

English as a foreign language (EFL)

English as a second language (ESL)

English as an International language (EIL)

English as a lingua franca (ELF)

Global Englishes

International English

World Englishes

Varieties of English

Three concentric circles which describe the
spread of english worldwide
- inner circle (english as a native/first language)
- outer circle (english as a second language)
- expanding circle (english as a foreign language)
English as
a first
language
English as
a second
language
inner
circle
ENL
outer circle - ESL
expanding circle - EFL
Kachru, 1985
English as a
foreign
language
380 million
300 million
inner
circle
ENL
outer circle - ESL
expanding circle - EFL
Kachru, 1985
1 billion
EFL speakers
ELF
speakers
ELF
speakers
ENL
speakers
ESL speakers
ELF
speakers

‘It is of course true that ELF research has had
its primary focus on Kachru’s Expanding
Circle, but obviously communication via ELF
frequently happens in and across all three of
Kachru’s circles. Research in the ‘world
Englishes paradigm’, on the other hand, has
been less concerned with the Expanding
Circle’
(Seidlhofer, 2009a: 236)

‘In this book, I will use the term ‘ELF’ to refer to the use of
English in an international context as a lingua franca
between two people with a different L1, but excluding L1
speakers of English. I will use the acronym EIL to refer to
the use of English in an international context as a lingua
franca between people with a different L1, including L1
speakers of English when they are using English with L2
users.’
(Prodromou, 2008)

‘The term International English is sometimes
used as a shorthand for EIL, but is
misleading in that it suggests that there is
one clearly distinguishable, codified and
unitary variety called International English,
which clearly is not the case.’
(Seidlhofer, 2004: 210)

“‘International English’” is indeed generally
interpreted as the distribution of nativespeaker Standard English rather than the way
English has changed to meet international
needs.’
(Seidlhofer, 2009a:237)




International business communication
Academic communication
Tourist communication
Specific workplaces – air traffic control,
university information services (e.g. for
Erasmus students)