I talked to Professor Jennifer Jenkins about English as Lingua Franca, what it is and what it means to us as teachers. As usual, a google scholar search turns up quite a lot of good reading in this area, but I would recommend this short article as a good starting point.
Barbara Seidlhofer’s name came up in the discussion too, and I recommend this article as a very important one in the development of the field.
Seidlhofer B. (2004) ‘Teaching English as a lingua franca’. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics Vol.24: 209–239
The Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English is an ongoing attempt to build a sample of non-native interaction in English.
Here is a review (mine!) of her 2007 book ‘English as Lingua Franca: Attitude and Identity’
And finally, some commentary on David Graddol’s book (and a free pdf download of the whole thing) which we mention later in the podcast.
From this particular conversation? I am still in agreement with the philosophy behind ELF… but it ELF doesn’t need my permission, as a native speaker, to exist and thrive. The fact is that non-native speakers are now driving the language forward. My difficulty, as a teacher, is what I do about it. What is a mistake, and what is just a difference? How does this impact on my writing class? How long have I got to become fluent and fully literate in another language, before I become obsolete? Listen, enjoy, and comment please. But play nice – I know this topic can get particularly feisty….