The Cultural and Intercultural Dimensions of English As a Lingua Franca

by Holmes, Prue; Dervin, Fred

• ISBN13: 9781783095094
• ISBN10: 1783095091
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2016-03-01
• Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Prue Holmes is Reader in the School of Education at Durham University and Adjunct Professor at the University of Helsinki. Her research interests include intercultural communication and education, and language education.Fred Dervin is Professor of Multicultural Education at the University of Helsinki and holds a number of Associate and Adjunct Professorships elsewhere. His research interests include intercultural communication and education, intercultural competence, academic mobility and migration and Chinese education.

Table of Contents

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