The Cultural and Intercultural Dimensions of English as a Lingua Franca

Edited by Dr. Prue Holmes, Fred Dervin

Publication date:

01 March 2016

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

210x148mm
6x8"

ISBN-13: 9781783095094

This book investigates the cultural and intercultural aspects of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). Authors discuss how ‘culture’ and the ‘intercultural’ can be understood, theorised and operationalised in ELF, and how the concepts can be integrated into formats of ELF-oriented learning and teaching. The various cultural connotations are also discussed (ideological, political, religious and historical) and whether it is possible to use and/or teach a lingua franca as if it were culturally neutral. The chapters consider the communication and pedagogical implications of the cultural and intercultural dimensions of ELF and offer suggestions for new directions in ELF research, pedagogy and curriculum development.

Acknowledgments

Contributors

Introduction
Part I: The Interconnections and Inter-relationships between Interculturality and ELF

1. Karen Risager: Lingua Francas in a World of Migrations

2. Richard Fay, Nicos Sifakis and Vally Lytra: Interculturalities of English as a Lingua Franca: International Communication and Multicultural Awareness in the Greek Context

3. Will Baker: Culture and Language in Intercultural Communication, English as a Lingua Franca and English Language Teaching: Points of Convergence and Conflict

Part II: Grounding Conceptual Understandings of Interculturality in ELF Communication

4. Chris Jenks: Talking Cultural Identities into Being in ELF Interactions: An Investigation of International Postgraduate Students in the United Kingdom

5. Anne Kari Bjørge: Conflict Talk and ELF Communities of Practice

6. Jagdish Kaur: Intercultural Misunderstanding Revisited: Cultural Difference as a (Non) Source of Misunderstanding in ELF Communication

7. Tiina Räisänen: Finnish Engineers’ Trajectories of Socialization into Global Working Life: From Language Learners to BELF Users and the Emergence of A Finnish Way of Speaking English

8. Eric Henry: The Local Purposes of a Global Language: English as Intracultural Communicative Medium in China

Part III: Commentary

John O’Regan: Intercultural Communication and the Possibility of English as a Lingua Franca

This edited volume is exemplary in threading together two hitherto parallel intellectual traditions – Intercultural Communication Studies and English as a Lingua Franca – innovatively and critically through a constellation of theoretical and analytical synergies. The empirical case studies across diverse settings will no doubt pave the way for future research-cum-pedagogy in the above two traditions and their intersection.