Volume 5 (2022): Edizione 1 (April 2022)

The research field of English as a lingua franca (ELF) is concerned with global communication among English users, in which English is most often a part, not the whole, of their communicative repertoires. The notion of English as a multilingua franca (EMF) repositions English within multilingualism to foreground multilingual situations, influences, and practices inherent in global encounters (Jenkins, 2015). This paper attempts to further the theoretical development of EMF in light of the theories du jour in applied linguistics, namely the ‘trans-’ theories of translanguaging and transmodal, transcultural communication. A review and integration of literature on these areas makes clear more similarities than differences between EMF and ‘trans-’ theories, which together highlight the limited role of any named language, mode, or culture in both online and offline interactions at a global scale. It is hoped that beyond any ideologically fixed construct, future research in the ELF field explores how English users collaboratively (or uncollaboratively) take advantage of wider multilingual, multimodal, and multicultural resources while engaging in translingual, transmodal, and transcultural practices.

It has been argued that prosodic features (e.g. stress, rhythm, or intonation) contribute significantly to production and comprehension among speakers of English. While it is easy to come across studies that focus on these features in native Englishes, the same cannot be said of Englishes outside native speaker contexts, especially regarding rhythm in academic discourse, although such results greatly enhance our understanding of this prosodic phenomenon. This study examined rhythm in academic Ghanaian English, using Liberman and Prince's (1977) Metrical Phonology theory. Lessons were recorded from 24 lecturers in a public university in Ghana and analyzed using the computerized speech laboratory (CSL). Cues measured were duration, pitch, and amplitude to help determine the rhythmic patterns of these lecturers. The results suggest that the rhythmic patterns produced bear similarities as well as differences with those produced by inner circle speakers. The preponderance of rhythmic patterns of strong-strong and weak- strong or strong-weak syllables in certain words presented exceptions to the theory. Based on this, it is argued that Ghanaian English appears to be a more syllable-based than a stressed-based variety, and so teachers might consider using a variety local and familiar to students in order to achieve intelligibility.

Study abroad (SA) is regarded as a successful way to develop learners' English skills and intercultural understanding, and has also been incorporated into teacher training programs. Against this backdrop, KLF (English as a lingua franca)-oriented research which investigates Japanese pre-service and practicing teachers' evolving views of English propelled by their SA experiences has started to appear. This study, which is set in a nihonjingakkō in Brussels, sought to contribute to this area of research by examining the principal and English teachers' perception of English and its inÁuence on their pedagogy and school's English education policy. Nihonjingakkō is a full-time day school for children of Japanese expatriates, and Japanese teachers are sent from the government of Japan, teach at the appointed schools for several years, and subsequently return to their work in Japan. The article demonstrates that while the school principal and English language teachers appreciated the diversity of English, the school's English education policy and classroom teaching were shaped by native-speakerism ideology and traditional assumptions of Standard English as the only recognized variety. Based on the study's findings, I make suggestions which can advance integration of KLF into KLT in nihonjingakkō and mainstream schools in Japan.

This study investigates intercultural phenomena in the process of recognizing cultural boundaries in online English as a lingua franca (ELF) video conferencing-based interactions. The recorded interactions between 20 conversational pairs were analyzed by adopting conversation analysis as an analytic framework. The participants’ intercultural perspectives are demonstrated through the action sequence of verifying the recipient’s knowledge status, informing, and complimenting, which are built by adopting category relevant knowledge of the cultural backgrounds of the recipients. The findings thus suggest that the participants employ knowledge of their own cultural repertoire in exchanges with unfamiliar cultural values as they navigate boundaries based on practical reasoning. More specifically, the participants categorize one another and use their procedural knowledge about familiar cultural practices of their own and the other’s country while displaying one’s affiliation to the recipients. This study concludes that ELF speakers’ experiences of navigating boundaries during first encounters are organized according to the method they use to negotiate and accommodate their cultural affinity, which is significant as it confirms that these practices are shared beyond a particular cultural domain.

Research suggests that English-derived loanwords in Japanese can affect Japanese learners' acquisition and receptive knowledge of their English words of origin (‘basewords'). This study adopts a corpus-based approach to expand on this research by exploring the effects of loanwords on learners' productive knowledge. It primarily uses a corpus of written English produced by Japanese learners of English, a corpus of written English produced by native English speakers, and samples from a corpus of written Japanese to compare quantitatively how basewords and loanwords are used in each. The results provide statistically non-significant evidence that basewords are used relatively more frequently by learners than by native speakers, and some significant evidence that learners' baseword usage exhibits features of loanword usage where loanwords have changed in meaning or part of speech from their words of origin. The corpora also provide weak evidence that loanwords' effects on baseword usage increase with length of study of English. The findings point the way to more targeted use of loanwords in the classroom, including through the exploration of corpora by learners themselves.

English use in many short-term study abroad (STSA) contexts is often more fluid than in its common representation in language education. Based on such representation, students may develop perspectives towards effective language use as fixed on standard norms. Experiences of communication during STSA may help students form new perspectives towards English use, linked to Global Englishes (GE), which accounts for the fluidity of English use in global communication contexts. The formation of new perspectives may be evident in GE understandings, i.e., pluralistic over monolithic awareness of English, recognition of linguistic diversity among English users, acceptance of variability in English language use, and recognition of the role of English as lingua franca (ELF). This qualitative interview study investigated the development of GE awareness among 15 Japanese university students participating in different STSA. Semi-structured interviews were conducted pre-sojourn, post-sojourn, and six months later. A thematic analysis of the interviews revealed that while perspectives towards learning remained focused on standard norms, new GE awareness and practices emerged following social contact with other international students in linguistically and culturally diverse settings. The paper argues that the learning potential of multilingual and multicultural STSA experiences should be emphasised over “target” language focus on standard language norms.