So You Think You Can ELF: English as a Lingua Franca as the Medium of Instruction

Abstract

This paper reports the fi ndings of a study on spoken English as a lingua franca (ELF) in Swedish higher education. The aim has been to investigate the role pragmatic strategies play in content lectures where English is a lingua franca, i.e. a vehicular language. The fi ndings show that lecturers in ELF settings make less frequent use of pragmatic strategies 1 than students, who deploy these strategies frequently in group-work projects. Earlier stages of the present study showed that despite frequent non-standardness at the morphosyntax level, there is very little overt disturbance in student group-work (Björkman 2008a and b/2009b), most likely owing to a variety of communicative strategies used during interaction and the questions raised (Björkman 2009a). It seems reasonable to assume that, in the absence of appropriate strategies and questions that serve as real-time signals of disturbance, there is an increased risk for covert disturbance in lectures. This view complies with the fi ndings of earlier studies on the importance of such strategies (Mauranen 2006, Airey 2009, Hellekjaer 2010. The fi ndings imply that the effectiveness of a speaker of English in academic ELF settings is determined primarily by the speaker's pragmatic ability and less by his/her profi ciency. There are important implications of these fi ndings for lecturers who need to operate in ELF settings. First, increasing interactivity by using pragmatic strategies suffi ciently frequently appears critical for those involved in English-medium education. It is also important that awareness is raised on target language usage in lecturing in English. Such awareness-raising can be achieved at the macro level by clearly-written language policies that include training for teachers and students who both need to be equipped with the skills needed to cope with the complexities of such settings, and at the micro level, by in-house training and courses that could be administered to both teachers and students.

Assessing English‐Medium Instruction Lecturer Language Proficiency Across Disciplines

“…Apart from lack of language proficiency in some contexts (Campagna & Pulcini, ; Dafouz & Camacho‐Miñano, ), EMI lecturers’ speech tends to be (1) restricted in terms of academic and general vocabulary (Tange, ), (2) formal and dry because it resembles written communication (Thøgersen & Airey, ), and lacking in sophistication and humor (Tange, ; Wilkinson, ). Additionally, Björkman (, ) argues that a high level of proficiency is insufficient for effective EMI classroom communication because it requires pragmatic strategies relevant to its multilingual, multicultural context. Due to these issues, university management teams have become concerned about the quality of teaching and learning in EMI and mandated establishment of quality assurance measures, mostly in the form of English proficiency assessments for lecturers (Ball & Lindsay, ; Klaassen & Bos, ; Kling & Hjulmand, ; Kling & Stæhr, ).…”

The implementation of English-medium instruction in Croatian higher education: Attitudes, expectations and concerns

“…Björkman (2010) such as repetition, questions, and signalling importance, is as important for effective teaching as high language proficiency. Björkman (2010) such as repetition, questions, and signalling importance, is as important for effective teaching as high language proficiency.…”

Exploring the Effectiveness of Communication Strategies Through Pro-Active Listening in ELF-Informed Pedagogy

“…According to Björkman (2010), "monologic events, where the listener has few opportunities, if any, to check his / her own understanding, are where misunderstandings and general comprehension problems are most likely to occur" (p. 85). Thus, PAL allows the listener to interact with the listening source when non-understanding occurs through the application of CSs to negotiate meaning with the speaker (i.e., their partner).…”

“…PAL also enables the speaker, while playing the role of the person whose transcript is being read aloud (and displaying a picture of the person to create a sense of realism), to repeat or reformulate information to accommodate the listener. Hence, unlike traditional models based on monologic speech, which require students to listen passively for extended lengths of time (Björkman, 2010), PAL creates opportunities for students to work collaboratively to negotiate and co-construct meaning.…”

“…According to Kaur (2014), collaborative class work such as role plays that mimic ELF-type scenarios, particularly if realistic, can generate valuable opportunities for learners to practice a variety of CSs. Björkman (2010) acknowledged that interactive speech events incorporating CSs and "proactive work that enhances understanding and prevents misunderstanding . .…”