Euro-English

One of the objectives of English as Lingua Franca (ELF) researchers is an account of the unique features of English that they have found in the speech of European users of English. These features, it is argued, describe a variety of English which they label "English as Lingua Franca". The choice of this particular term is problematic because, as a construct, "lingua franca" generally refers to an overarching function of language, not to any specific set of idiosyncratic forms themselves. However, ELF researchers do not make this distinction. This has resulted in considerable attention being given to a confusing use of linguistic terminology and to the assumptions and theoretical underpinnings guiding ELF research. This paper extends this discussion to an examination of the relationship of ELF studies to English in Europe and the adequacy of "lingua franca" to represent the sociolinguistic realities of world Englishes. It first looks at work written by prominent ELF researchers to determine what they mean by "lingua franca", outlines the distinction between form and function with illustrations of the role and status of English in Europe, and discusses how the architect's principle that "form follows function" is relevant to an understanding of the notion "lingua franca".

Section: English In Europementioning

confidence: 99%

English as lingua franca and English in Europe

Berns

2009

“…She begins with a review of Euro‐English (pp. 4–13), outlining the vicissitudes of the trope from Dècsy (1993, based on a 1974 lecture), Ferguson (1982), and Carstensen (1986). This introduction is the most ambitious description of the Euro‐English debate so far.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Euro‐English: Assessing Variety Status by Sandra Mollin

Modiano

2007

A cornerstone of the World Englishes paradigm is the understanding that non-native speakers possess legitimate endonormative varieties when they use English in a number of domains (such as in education, administration, and the media), when they recognize English as having functional lingua franca status for social interaction, and when their idiosyncratic use of language (in phonology, grammar, lexis, and syntax) becomes systematic and communal. When English develops locally to the extent that one can claim such criteria have been met, efforts to legitimize, codify, and standardize the 'variety', and furthermore to promote the learning of the local variety in schools, are warranted. Yet, where idiosyncratic linguistic features are not used extensively or systematically across the speech community, and where one believes that other relevant criteria have not been adequately met, one can claim that deviation from standard language in such speech communities can and should be defined as interlanguage (which, it is believed, is best remedied by taking an exonormative/prescriptivist approach to foreign-language teaching). Thus, how we define the English of non-native speakers has far-reaching implications for ELT specialists. It is also interesting to note that proponents of emerging varieties, during the period of transition from a pedagogy based on an exonormative standard to an endonormative one, inevitably encounter much resistance from those who apparently want to maintain the status quo.One is reminded of Braj Kachru's dismissal of traditional language teaching and learning practices for Africans and Asians who took possession of English in the postcolonial era. His debates with Randolph Quirk in English Today in the early 1990s concerned the status of Standard English, or perhaps more specifically Standard British English (BrE), which, Kachru argued, can be replaced as the target model in ELT in regions where local Englishes are in the process of becoming legitimate varieties (see Quirk, 1990;Kachru, 1991).

“…Another, the English as an International Language (EIL) paradigm, includes a number of differing ways to envision English as a language of wider communication. There is, furthermore, the call for conceptualising English from a mainland European perspective (Berns, 1994(Berns, , 2009Carstensen, 1986;Fenyö, 2003;Modiano, 2000Modiano, , 2009Modiano, , 2017. Eclectic approaches to the teaching and learning of English also act as the basis for ELT in many quarters.…”

Section: Language Standards Across the European Unionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identity and standards for English as a European Union lingua franca

Modiano

2024

This article addresses, from an applied linguistics perspective, the position English maintains among the myriad of languages spoken in the European Union (EU). The linguistic make‐up of EU society, as well as the language policy of the Union, is scrutinised. The role English is playing in European unification is also important for the discussion, as is the call for a re‐evaluation of the norms deployed in English language teaching. The linguistic nativisation currently taking place in mainland Europe, which indicates that English is functioning more as an Outer Circle rather than as an Expanding Circle language, is juxtaposed with these developments.