This paper reports on two studies that addressed the issue of ultimate attainment by late second language learners. The aim of the studies, which included a carefully screened group of highly successful Dutch learners of English in their designs, was to determine whether or not late second language learners who had achieved a nativelike performance in the pronunciation of a second language could be identified. Speech samples provided by two groups of learners, one of which consisted of highly successful learners only, and a native speaker control group were rated for accent by native speakers of English. The ratings obtained by some learners were within the range of the ratings assigned to the native speaker controls. Such results suggest that it is not impossible to achieve an authentic, nativelike pronunciation of a second language after a specified biological period of time. Examination of the learning histories of the highly successful learners lead the authors to argue that certain learner characteristics and learning contexts may work together to override the disadvantages of a late start.

Business English as a Lingua Franca (BELF) has come to dominate as the shared code used to 'get work done' in international business. In this paper, we explore internationally operating business professionals' perceptions of BELF communication and its "success" at work, based on selected data from an online survey (N=987) and in-depth interviews (N=27) conducted in European multinational companies. The findings show that BELF can be characterized as a simplified, hybridized and highly dynamic communication code. BELF competence calls for clarity and accuracy of content (rather than linguistic correctness) and knowledge of businessspecific vocabulary and genre conventions (rather than only 'general' English). In addition, since BELF interactions take place with NNSs from a variety of cultural backgrounds, the relational orientation is perceived as integral for BELF competence. In sum, BELF competence can be considered an essential component of business knowledge required in today's global business environment.Keywords: BELF (Business English as a lingua franca), international business communication, international business, globalization, communication competence, business knowledge 2 IntroductionIncreased globalisation has meant that not only countries and companies but also individual business professionals now need to collaborate and compete internationally (Friedman, 2006). For globalisation to continue, access to a shared language facility is -and has beenindispensible (Charles, 2007), and it is now beyond dispute that Business English as a Lingua Franca (or BELF, Louhiala-Salminen, Charles & Kankaanranta, 2005) has come to dominate as the language of international business over the past few decades (e.g. Seidlhofer, Breiteneder & Pitzl, 2006;Bargiela-Chiappini, Nickerson & Planken, 2007;Charles, 2007; Rogerson-Revell, 2007;Gerritsen & Nickerson, 2009). BELF is "a 'neutral' and shared communication code for the function of conducting business" (Louhiala-Salminen et al., 2005) and it is this purpose and domain of use, i.e. the 'B', which distinguishes it from ELF (or English as a Lingua Franca; see e.g. Jenkins, 2000Jenkins, , 2007Seidlhofer 2000Seidlhofer , 2001Seidlhofer , 2004. Although we will not elaborate on the 'B' in this paper further, we want to point out that for us it entails the professional domain of internationally operating companies and the people representing various "cultural identities" (Jameson, 2007) who constitute that domain, which can be characterized by its goal-oriented (inter)actions, drive for efficient use of such resources as time and money, and an overall aspiration for win-win scenarios among business partners. For this reason, we will use the term BELF when we refer to the shared language facility of the domain (for a thorough account about BELF, see Gerritsen & Nickerson, 2009; also Du Babcock, 2009). 3The dominance of BELF in the international business arena is supported by the introduction of English as the official corporate language in several Europe-based multi...

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract