EFL or ELF - ELT Debate Report

What is English as a Lingua Franca ?

     English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) refers to the use of English as a medium of communication between peoples of different languages. We include as potential ELF users both those who speak English as an additional language and those who speak English (in any of its social, regional and national varieties) as their main language. So, if you are speaking English with another student who speaks English as an additional language, whether or not English is your main language, you are both using ELF.

     ELF has been studied by linguists interested in how its grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation is different from other varieties of English (Seidlhofer 2005). Other linguists have focused on ELF as a process, rather than a product; noticing how speakers in multilingual situations are able to monitor each other's response and work out the grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, rate of speaking, volume, gestures, eye contact and so on that help communicate the messages needed to achieve a specific task (Smith 1983, Canagarajah 2007). Process-oriented ELF analysts are interested in how speakers monitor and adjust their language to meet their needs and the needs of the task they are engaged in.

First, let’s recap:

     The concept of ELF (English as a Lingua Franca) is simple: many learners of English today do not want/need to use English with people whose first language (L1) is English.  They are more likely to use English in situations where nobody shares an L1. (e.g. a native speaker of French, a native speaker of Japanese and a native speaker of Arabic might use English to communicate with each other).

What does this mean for pronunciation?

     Way back in 2000, a linguist called Jennifer Jenkins wrote a book about this way of using English, including research on what aspects of pronunciation appear important to produce and understand accurately if a learner’s goal is NOT to sound precisely like a native speaker, but mainly to communicate intelligibly with other non-native speakers.

     One result of this research was the ‘Lingua Franca Core‘ (the ‘LFC‘).  This is a list of pronunciation features which appear to be crucial to produce accurately in order for ELF communication to be intelligible.  

     Outside the ‘core’ are all other features of pronunciation that might occur in different varieties of English; but these are probably not necessary for learners to be able to produce if their goal is mainly NOT to communicate with (or sound like) a native speaker.

     By teaching features outside the ‘core’ receptively, rather than productively, learners can still understand other accents of English and maintain something of their L1 accent, which many learners may wish to do, given that accent is an important part of personal identity.

Looking at 'English as a Lingua Franca' from different perspectives:

Muscles(Ethnicity) & Humanism

     Every ethnic group has its own articulation muscles. These muscles are different than any other groups'. When you go to Scandinavia, you will clearly see that people can pronounce the sounds of English without having any difficulty. This is also the same for German and Dutch people. But when you just move on through the south-west of Scandinavia -through Poland and Spain- it is inevitable for you to see that people cannot articulate some sounds of English properly. To give an example: a Spanish person sounds the word "joke" as  /hoʊk/ not as /dʒoʊk/. Also a Polish person will have difficulty about sounding the word "fur" because of the "/ɜː/" sound inside that word.

     As we can see from all these examples, articulation is determined by the muscles which change from nation to nation. This is because all nations have lived in different places throughout the history. Some of them lived together and this life led them to share the same ethnic specifications. While French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese people shared the Latin root, British, German and Dutch people shared the Celtic root. This sharing made a huge impact on their speech muscles.
So, this is one of the reasons of me supporting English as a Lingua Franca. I respect all differences between nations and accept their English.

     By taking all these things above into consideration it is possible to say English as a Lingua Franca follows the more humanistic way. It accepts people as they are and never ignores the background of people.


Politics:Standing Against Cultural Degeneration

     In today's world wherever you go it is certain that you will see some globally famous American brands like Starbucks, Apple, McDonald's etc. To think all these brands serve only for people's benefit would be a total mistake. There is also another aim of them -maybe the most important one- to spread the culture of America through the whole globe. This fact makes a great contribution to my opinions about English as a Lingua Franca. I do not want any culture to be destroyed. Every culture is a treasure. Unfortunately, these brands gradually take the control of people.
Instead of cooking their traditional coffee or instead of making their own sandwiches, people go for the easiest way.
They just go to Starbucks, grab a coffee and then run out of time or they just go to a McDonald's and fill themselves with oily artificial foods.
Instead of putting ideas forward for a local smartphone and contributing to the economy of our country, people just choose what is believed to be the coolest and the most famous.

     Since these brands begin to affect the original cultures of nation, I stand against this purpose of assimilation. English as a Lingua Franca gives us the opportunity to communicate with people from other cultures. It never forces a person to sound like a native but English as a Foreign Language does. Because I do not want to sound like a native and because I do not want my culture to be destroyed by native-sounding cultural brands I support English as a Lingua Franca.

Multilingualism

     Multilingualism is one of the most important points of English as a Lingua Franca. It is using or being able to use several languages especially with equal fluency. It plays a great role in English as a Lingua Franca. Since English as a Lingua Franca requires people of different languages, multilingualism has to be included in any situation related to English as a Lingua Franca .

     "You cannot use ELF without being multi-lingual." says Prof. Dr. Jennifer Jenkins. This is a basic and brief explanation of relation between multilingualism and English as a Lingua Franca.




REFERENCES

IATEFL Online ELT Journal Debate, "English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) is interesting for researchers, but not important for teachers and learners"

ELF Pronunciation WordPress, "What is the Lingua Franca Core?"

www.englishlinguafranca.com, "What is English as a Lingua Franca?"