This essay examines the grammar variation of English as a common tongue of two characters from the TV series, Game of Thrones. Scenes from season 1-7 of the series where the characters Irri and Grey Worm spoke the common tongue, English, were transcribed and examined using the concepts of interlanguage (IL) and English as a lingua franca (ELF) as analytic frameworks. The two research questions for this essay are ‘What is grammatical variation of English as a common tongue spoken by two characters, Irri and Grey Worm in the TV series, Game of Thrones?’ and ‘What dramatic effects are perceived with the characters' grammatical variation in the series?’. The results showed that while both characters have features explained by both the IL and ELF frameworks, IL was a more appropriate concept for understanding the data overall. Nevertheless, Irri proved to use more ELF features than Grey Worm in the collected data in which there were more variations by Grey Worm than by Irri. In addition, three dramatic effects of the characters’ grammar variation emerged, namely emotional effect, cultural effect, and development effect. Based on the results, this essay concluded that the characters of Irri and Grey Worm had grammar variations that featured in both IL and ELF, with the majority of them being IL.

This paper focuses on English as a lingua franca, an area of research that has gone through several phases of reconceptualization over recent years. What has not changed despite the reframing is the insistence that ELF, with its focus on intelligibility rather than formal accuracy, is not to be judged on the basis of standard English norms. In response to these claims, researchers have argued from linguo-political and philosophical perspectives that re-labelling English ‘ELF’ does not remove native-speaker privileges and linguistic injustice. This paper addresses the topic by presenting some results of an investigation into students’ language choices and practises during study abroad. Drawing on data gained by means of a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews, it will show that, despite their use of English in lingua franca situations, a considerable number of students adhere to standard English as an appropriate model and measure their own proficiency in English and progress in language learning against nativespeaker norms.

Purpose: This study aims to provide a better understanding of the importance of mastering foreign languages in building international business relationships as well as whether English should be considered an interlingua in international negotiations. Theoretical framework: This study ́s theoretical framework consists of the disciplines Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing and psychic distance. In B2B marketing a sustainable business relationship is built on the customer experience which in turn rests the four pillars of trust, integrity, communication, and interdependence. Psychic distance includes the subdisciplines cultural distance, inter-organizational distance, and linguistic distance. Method: This study employs a qualitive research with an abductive approach. The empirical material was collected through semi-structured interviews. The respondents consisted of four employees at Business Sweden, who are working in different markets, and two Swedish export companies in the manufacturing industry. Conclusion: The study shows that the choice of language mainly affects communication and trust between the parties. The perceived integrity is affected more by the parties' socio- pragmatic skills than their linguistic skills. Mutual dependence affects the parties' attitudes towards language choice rather than vice versa. The study also shows that despite the English status as Lingua Franca, misunderstandings can still arise that are based on the communicators' cultural background. / Syfte: Denna studie syftar till att ge ökad förståelse för betydelsen av behärskningen av främmande språk vid skapandet av internationella affärsrelationer samt den funktion som engelskan fyller vid internationella förhandlingar. Teori: Uppsatsens teoretiska referensram utgörs av begreppen Business-to-Business (B2B) marknadsföring och psykiskt avstånd. En hållbar affärsrelation i B2B marknadsföring bygger på kundupplevelsen eller företagens uppfattning av varandra. Denna kundupplevelse bygger i sin tur på fyra grundpelare: förtroende, integritet, kommunikation och ömsesidigt beroende. I psykiskt avstånd ingår kulturellt avstånd, interorganisatoriskt avstånd och språkligt avstånd. Metod: Denna studie är baserad på en kvalitativ med en abduktiv ansats. Det empiriska materialet samlades in via semistrukturerade intervjuer. Respondenterna utgjordes av fyra anställda på Business Sweden, som är placerade på olika marknader, samt två svenska exportbolag inom tillverkningsindustrin. Slutsats: Studien visar på att språkvalet främst påverkar kommunikationen och förtroendet mellan parterna. Den upplevda integriteten påverkas mer av parternas sociopragmatiska kompetenser än deras språkliga kompetenser. Ömsesidigt beroende påverkar parternas attityder gentemot språkvalet snarare än vice versa. Studien visar även på att trots engelskans status som Lingua Franca kan det fortfarande uppstå missförstånd som grundar sig i kommunikatörernas kulturella bakgrund.

A língua inglesa hoje permite acesso a práticas internacionais por ser a língua mais utilizada em interações entre falantes de diferentes línguas maternas, em inúmeros contextos. Essa disseminação do inglês globalmente fez surgir novas formas de se enxergar o status língua, entre elas, a abordagem do inglês como língua franca (ILF). Visto que a maioria das interações em inglês hoje acontecerem entre falantes não nativos, o ILF busca a descentralização do falante nativo e a aceitação das variedades linguísticas. Entre os diversos contextos em que o inglês é difundido, pode-se dizer que a academia é um dos principais. Este trabalho tem como objetivo verificar qual o posicionamento de revistas científicas internacionais da área de Linguística Aplicada acerca das diretrizes para autores, sob a ótica do ILF. Para isso, fizemos um levantamento dos periódicos internacionais de Linguística Aplicada mais bem avaliados em um ranking nacional (Qualis Capes) e internacional (SCImago), reunindo assim um corpus de 36 periódicos. A pesquisa foi dividida em duas etapas. Primeiramente, foram identificadas e analisadas as diretrizes para autores no que diz respeito às normas linguísticas relacionadas ao padrão nativo e aceitação das variedades. Foram encontradas três normas relacionadas a exigências linguísticas: língua de publicação, ortografia e revisão externa. Os resultados demonstram que a língua de publicação mais usada é o inglês, sendo exigência em 44% dos periódicos; que as principais variedades ortográficas aceitas são a americana e britânica; e que 58% das revistas solicitam que os autores tenham seus textos revisados por uma terceira pessoa, sendo que, dessas, aproximadamente a metade dirigem as normas apenas a autores falantes não nativos. A segunda etapa da pesquisa consistiu em comparar as diretrizes encontradas com os 139 textos sobre ILF nelas publicados entre os anos de 2011 e 2015. Foi feita uma análise do conteúdo dos textos, onde buscou-se identificar os posicionamentos dos autores. Os resultados da comparação indicaram que 71% dos textos são a favor da abordagem do ILF, mas que a maioria precisou seguir alguma norma que contradiz o defendido no ILF para ser publicado. Assim, os resultados gerais desta pesquisa demonstram que, apesar de a área de Linguística Aplicada estar orientada para uma abordagem do inglês que visa à diversidade linguística, são encontradas discrepâncias e inconsistências nas práticas das revistas da própria área, responsáveis por veicular essas ideias. / The English language today grants access to international practices, since it is the most used language in interactions between speakers of different languages in several contexts. The global spread of English has created new ways of understanding its status, such as the English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) approach. Since most interactions in English happen between nonnative speakers of English, ELF aims at native speaker decentralization and acceptance of linguistic varieties. Academia is one of the main contexts in which English is widely used. The objective of this study is to assess the stance of Applied Linguistics international journals regarding author guidelines, from the perspective of ELF. To do so, we surveyed the best-ranked international journals in Applied linguistics both at domestic (Qualis Capes) and international (SCImago) rankings, which resulted in a corpus of 36 journals. This study was conducted in two parts. First, author guidelines related to linguistic norms concerning native standards and acceptance of varieties were identified and analyzed. Three guidelines related to linguistic requirements were found: language of publication, spelling, and third-party review. The results showed that the most used language of publication is English, a requirement in 44% of the journals; that American and British spelling varieties are mostly the ones accepted; and that 58% of the journals ask authors to have their manuscripts checked by a third-party reviewer, from which approximately 50% direct these guidelines only to nonnative authors. The second part of the study consisted in comparing the guidelines found with 139 texts about ELF published by the same journals between 2011 and 2015. The content of the texts was analyzed aiming at identifying their authors’ point of views. The results of this comparison indicated that 71% of the texts are in line with the ELF approach, but most of them had to follow some guidelines which contradict those defended by ELF in order to be published. Hence, the general results of this study showed that, although the area of Applied Linguistics is oriented towards an approach that aims at linguistic diversity in English, discrepancies and inconsistencies are found in the practices of the journals of this same area, journals which are responsible for broadcasting these ideas.

As a result of various historical, political, economic and sociocultural factors, English today witnesses a unique situation as its non-native speakers represent a clear majority in the world. This has implications for the ownership of the English language as such, the linguistic rights of its speakers and the points of departure for English Language Teaching (ELT) worldwide. The study of the use of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) challenges nativespeakerist norms through research in a wide range of linguistic fields such as lexicogrammar, phonology and pragmatics, suggesting various pedagogical alterations. Although ELF is now a prolific area of research, studies in Swedish upper secondary language education from an ELF perspective, remain a scarcity in the literature. The present paper engages in surveying teaching attitudes toward ELF in Swedish upper secondary education among Swedish and Anglophone International Baccalaureate (IB) teachers and in two contemporary syllabi, namely Swedish (ELT) and IB syllabi. The questionnaire given to the two aforementioned groups of teachers suggest that ELF-friendly teaching descriptions best suit their students even though both groups believe that teaching descriptions based on native speaker norms and varieties represent the most appropriate approach. The critical discourse analysis of the two syllabi suggests that ELF is approached in different ways in the two systems: the Swedish ELT curricula may be perceived as rather ELF-friendly because native speaker norms, deviations and errors, grammaticality and idiomaticity are almost non-existent, whereas the IB revolves around linguistic prescriptivism and native speaker norms to a larger extent. The present study argues that English language curricula in Sweden should be informed by research on ELF.

Submitted by Carolina Marques Déa (carol_mdea@hotmail.com) on 2018-06-25T15:20:10Z No. of bitstreams: 1 VERSÃO OFICIAL FORMATADA FINAL ficha cat .pdf: 4968453 bytes, checksum: 72e84d215779490395031145254e0901 (MD5) / Rejected by Priscila Carreira B Vicentini null (priscila@fclar.unesp.br), reason: Carolina Marques Déa, Solicitamos que realize correções na submissão seguindo as orientações abaixo: 1) Faltando ficha catalográfica (necessário colocá-la dentro do retângulo) da dissertação, podendo fazer através do Sistema automático da Biblioteca. Basta acessar http://fclar.unesp.br/#!/biblioteca/servicos/elaboracao-de-fichas-catalograficas/ e preencher os campos exigidos e sua ficha será gerada na hora 2) Para juntar os PDFs - da ficha com o do trabalho, pode se usar o link https://smallpdf.com/pt Em caso de maiores dúvidas, entrar em contato com as bibliotecárias da Seção de Referência, Camila (camila_serrador@fclar.unesp.br) ou Elaine (elaine@fclar.unesp.br). Agradecemos a compreensão. on 2018-06-26T13:24:20Z (GMT) / Submitted by Carolina Marques Déa (carol_mdea@hotmail.com) on 2018-06-26T13:53:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação completa.pdf: 5608158 bytes, checksum: 2bb080c6a9a065ad62fdb663dd54fe10 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Priscila Carreira B Vicentini null (priscila@fclar.unesp.br) on 2018-06-26T19:06:12Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 dea_cm_me_arafcl.pdf: 5516059 bytes, checksum: 627be2c04833cf72332fbe4ad7e427ea (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-26T19:06:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dea_cm_me_arafcl.pdf: 5516059 bytes, checksum: 627be2c04833cf72332fbe4ad7e427ea (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-04-25 / O ensino de inglês enfrenta alguns questionamentos sobre qual é a “melhor” variedade para ser ensinada. Algumas dúvidas sobre escolher o inglês americano ou britânico são comuns entre professores (enquanto outras variedades raramente são mencionadas como uma escolha possível para a sala de aula). Entretanto, é necessário encorajar os alunos a ter um comportamento mimético com relação ao seu aprendizado, almejando apenas ter a pronúncia parecida com a de um falante nativo? Essas questões são relevantes se considerarmos que a maioria das interações não acontece envolvendo falantes nativos. É desejável que linguistas aplicados, professores e materiais didáticos sejam críticos sobre a concepção da língua inglesa e sobre sua importância no cenário internacional atual. Como podemos ensiná-la? Como língua estrangeira ou como língua franca? Neste trabalho, discutimos o atual papel do inglês ao redor do mundo e como alguns aspectos influenciaram a confecção de materiais didáticos, buscando compreender possíveis impactos na representação dos falantes não nativos para os usuários do livro. Nosso objeto de pesquisa se trata do primeiro livro da série Global (Macmillan) e analisamos como é apresentada a língua inglesa e seus múltiplos falantes. Baseamo-nos na bibliografia sobre Inglês como Língua Franca e preparamos questões norteadoras para guiarem nossa análise sobre aspectos linguísticos, sociais e culturais da representação do falante não nativo presente no material. O resultado de nossa análise aponta que apesar da presença do falante não nativo no material, a maneira como é retratado é superficial, sendo mostrado majoritariamente de maneira separada, em seção anexa à lição, e sem estar em situações comunicativas de interação. Também apresentamos uma discussão sobre possíveis maneiras de abordar o de Inglês como Língua Franca em materiais didáticos. / The teaching of English faces some questioning about which is the “best” variety to be taught. Some queries about choosing American or British varieties are common among teachers (while other varieties are rarely mentioned as a possible choice for classrooms). However, is it necessary to encourage students to have a mimetic behavior towards their learning, just aiming to have a native-like pronunciation? This investigation is important if we consider that most interactions do not happen involving native speakers. It is desirable that applied linguists, teachers and classroom materials are critical about the conception of English and its importance in the current international scenario. How can we teach it? As a foreign language or as a Lingua Franca? In this work, we discuss the current role of English worldwide, and how some of the mentioned aspects have influenced the coursebooks confection, trying to understand its possible impacts on the representation of non native speaker to the users of the book. Our corpus consists of the first coursebook from the Global series (Macmillan) and we are going to analyze how it presents the English language and its huge number of speakers. Based on the bibliography on English as a Lingua Franca, we developed an analysis matrix to investigate the social, cultural and linguistic aspects of the representation of non-native speakers in the material. The result of our analysis shows that, even though there is the non-native speaker in the material, the way it is portrayed is superficial, being presented, mostly, in a separated section of the unit, and never in communicative situations of interaction. We also present a discussion on ways to approach English as Lingua Franca in teaching materials

This study investigates the use of two communicative strategies in particular, namely self- repair and repetition, in political interviews with Jean-Claude Juncker where English is used as a lingua franca (ELF). While ELF has received increasing attention throughout the past years, with a variety of researched genres ranging from higher education (e.g. Björkman 2011; Kaur 2011; Mauranen 2006) and business (Bjørge 2010; Firth 1996; Ehrenreich 2009; Pullin Stark 2009) to domestic settings (e.g. Klötzl 2014; Pietikäinen 2014), the genre of political interviews remains largely under-researched – despite it being such a highly international and high-stakes domain. Therefore, the aim of the present research is to include this domain to the list of researched genres, and thereby to gain a better understanding of how a politician uses ELF in his official role. The data comprises four interviews with the president of the EU-commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, with a total interview-time of 35 minutes. The interviews have been transcribed in their entirety for the purpose of the present study, and the data was analysed drawing on conversation analytic approaches. Both self-repair and repetition were frequently identified as clarification strategies in the data and their functions comply to a large extent with previous findings from ELF research (e.g. Kaur 2011; Lichtkoppler 2007; Mauranen 2006). Repetition was found to be used as a strategy to specify utterances and ensure understanding and self-repair to either right the wrongs or raise explicitness. In addition to that, the use of repetition showed some interview-genre related functions as well, such as the use of repetition to influence and interrupt the regular turn-taking structure of interviews. This study shows that the use of ELF is in fact to a certain extent different in political interviews than in other researched genres, and therefore suggests that further studies within this genre would significantly contribute to the field of research into ELF.

A língua inglesa hoje permite acesso a práticas internacionais por ser a língua mais utilizada em interações entre falantes de diferentes línguas maternas, em inúmeros contextos. Essa disseminação do inglês globalmente fez surgir novas formas de se enxergar o status língua, entre elas, a abordagem do inglês como língua franca (ILF). Visto que a maioria das interações em inglês hoje acontecerem entre falantes não nativos, o ILF busca a descentralização do falante nativo e a aceitação das variedades linguísticas. Entre os diversos contextos em que o inglês é difundido, pode-se dizer que a academia é um dos principais. Este trabalho tem como objetivo verificar qual o posicionamento de revistas científicas internacionais da área de Linguística Aplicada acerca das diretrizes para autores, sob a ótica do ILF. Para isso, fizemos um levantamento dos periódicos internacionais de Linguística Aplicada mais bem avaliados em um ranking nacional (Qualis Capes) e internacional (SCImago), reunindo assim um corpus de 36 periódicos. A pesquisa foi dividida em duas etapas. Primeiramente, foram identificadas e analisadas as diretrizes para autores no que diz respeito às normas linguísticas relacionadas ao padrão nativo e aceitação das variedades. Foram encontradas três normas relacionadas a exigências linguísticas: língua de publicação, ortografia e revisão externa. Os resultados demonstram que a língua de publicação mais usada é o inglês, sendo exigência em 44% dos periódicos; que as principais variedades ortográficas aceitas são a americana e britânica; e que 58% das revistas solicitam que os autores tenham seus textos revisados por uma terceira pessoa, sendo que, dessas, aproximadamente a metade dirigem as normas apenas a autores falantes não nativos. A segunda etapa da pesquisa consistiu em comparar as diretrizes encontradas com os 139 textos sobre ILF nelas publicados entre os anos de 2011 e 2015. Foi feita uma análise do conteúdo dos textos, onde buscou-se identificar os posicionamentos dos autores. Os resultados da comparação indicaram que 71% dos textos são a favor da abordagem do ILF, mas que a maioria precisou seguir alguma norma que contradiz o defendido no ILF para ser publicado. Assim, os resultados gerais desta pesquisa demonstram que, apesar de a área de Linguística Aplicada estar orientada para uma abordagem do inglês que visa à diversidade linguística, são encontradas discrepâncias e inconsistências nas práticas das revistas da própria área, responsáveis por veicular essas ideias. / The English language today grants access to international practices, since it is the most used language in interactions between speakers of different languages in several contexts. The global spread of English has created new ways of understanding its status, such as the English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) approach. Since most interactions in English happen between nonnative speakers of English, ELF aims at native speaker decentralization and acceptance of linguistic varieties. Academia is one of the main contexts in which English is widely used. The objective of this study is to assess the stance of Applied Linguistics international journals regarding author guidelines, from the perspective of ELF. To do so, we surveyed the best-ranked international journals in Applied linguistics both at domestic (Qualis Capes) and international (SCImago) rankings, which resulted in a corpus of 36 journals. This study was conducted in two parts. First, author guidelines related to linguistic norms concerning native standards and acceptance of varieties were identified and analyzed. Three guidelines related to linguistic requirements were found: language of publication, spelling, and third-party review. The results showed that the most used language of publication is English, a requirement in 44% of the journals; that American and British spelling varieties are mostly the ones accepted; and that 58% of the journals ask authors to have their manuscripts checked by a third-party reviewer, from which approximately 50% direct these guidelines only to nonnative authors. The second part of the study consisted in comparing the guidelines found with 139 texts about ELF published by the same journals between 2011 and 2015. The content of the texts was analyzed aiming at identifying their authors’ point of views. The results of this comparison indicated that 71% of the texts are in line with the ELF approach, but most of them had to follow some guidelines which contradict those defended by ELF in order to be published. Hence, the general results of this study showed that, although the area of Applied Linguistics is oriented towards an approach that aims at linguistic diversity in English, discrepancies and inconsistencies are found in the practices of the journals of this same area, journals which are responsible for broadcasting these ideas.

A língua inglesa hoje permite acesso a práticas internacionais por ser a língua mais utilizada em interações entre falantes de diferentes línguas maternas, em inúmeros contextos. Essa disseminação do inglês globalmente fez surgir novas formas de se enxergar o status língua, entre elas, a abordagem do inglês como língua franca (ILF). Visto que a maioria das interações em inglês hoje acontecerem entre falantes não nativos, o ILF busca a descentralização do falante nativo e a aceitação das variedades linguísticas. Entre os diversos contextos em que o inglês é difundido, pode-se dizer que a academia é um dos principais. Este trabalho tem como objetivo verificar qual o posicionamento de revistas científicas internacionais da área de Linguística Aplicada acerca das diretrizes para autores, sob a ótica do ILF. Para isso, fizemos um levantamento dos periódicos internacionais de Linguística Aplicada mais bem avaliados em um ranking nacional (Qualis Capes) e internacional (SCImago), reunindo assim um corpus de 36 periódicos. A pesquisa foi dividida em duas etapas. Primeiramente, foram identificadas e analisadas as diretrizes para autores no que diz respeito às normas linguísticas relacionadas ao padrão nativo e aceitação das variedades. Foram encontradas três normas relacionadas a exigências linguísticas: língua de publicação, ortografia e revisão externa. Os resultados demonstram que a língua de publicação mais usada é o inglês, sendo exigência em 44% dos periódicos; que as principais variedades ortográficas aceitas são a americana e britânica; e que 58% das revistas solicitam que os autores tenham seus textos revisados por uma terceira pessoa, sendo que, dessas, aproximadamente a metade dirigem as normas apenas a autores falantes não nativos. A segunda etapa da pesquisa consistiu em comparar as diretrizes encontradas com os 139 textos sobre ILF nelas publicados entre os anos de 2011 e 2015. Foi feita uma análise do conteúdo dos textos, onde buscou-se identificar os posicionamentos dos autores. Os resultados da comparação indicaram que 71% dos textos são a favor da abordagem do ILF, mas que a maioria precisou seguir alguma norma que contradiz o defendido no ILF para ser publicado. Assim, os resultados gerais desta pesquisa demonstram que, apesar de a área de Linguística Aplicada estar orientada para uma abordagem do inglês que visa à diversidade linguística, são encontradas discrepâncias e inconsistências nas práticas das revistas da própria área, responsáveis por veicular essas ideias. / The English language today grants access to international practices, since it is the most used language in interactions between speakers of different languages in several contexts. The global spread of English has created new ways of understanding its status, such as the English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) approach. Since most interactions in English happen between nonnative speakers of English, ELF aims at native speaker decentralization and acceptance of linguistic varieties. Academia is one of the main contexts in which English is widely used. The objective of this study is to assess the stance of Applied Linguistics international journals regarding author guidelines, from the perspective of ELF. To do so, we surveyed the best-ranked international journals in Applied linguistics both at domestic (Qualis Capes) and international (SCImago) rankings, which resulted in a corpus of 36 journals. This study was conducted in two parts. First, author guidelines related to linguistic norms concerning native standards and acceptance of varieties were identified and analyzed. Three guidelines related to linguistic requirements were found: language of publication, spelling, and third-party review. The results showed that the most used language of publication is English, a requirement in 44% of the journals; that American and British spelling varieties are mostly the ones accepted; and that 58% of the journals ask authors to have their manuscripts checked by a third-party reviewer, from which approximately 50% direct these guidelines only to nonnative authors. The second part of the study consisted in comparing the guidelines found with 139 texts about ELF published by the same journals between 2011 and 2015. The content of the texts was analyzed aiming at identifying their authors’ point of views. The results of this comparison indicated that 71% of the texts are in line with the ELF approach, but most of them had to follow some guidelines which contradict those defended by ELF in order to be published. Hence, the general results of this study showed that, although the area of Applied Linguistics is oriented towards an approach that aims at linguistic diversity in English, discrepancies and inconsistencies are found in the practices of the journals of this same area, journals which are responsible for broadcasting these ideas.

English today has reached global dimensions no other language has reached before. While there are other lingua francas in certain geographical regions in the world, English is the most dominant lingua franca in many important international domains, including international affairs and its use as the lingua franca of official organisations, such as the European Union (EU).   In the wake of the result of the British referendum, voices were raised for the discontinuation of the use of the English language within the EU after Brexit. While this topic has received attention from journalists throughout Europe, to date there are very few studies on attitudes towards English in a post-Brexit referendum Europe. The present study aims to contribute to the filling of this gap by investigating attitudes towards English experienced by British expats living in Germany, employing semi-structured interviews with six British expats. Also included in the study is information about the expats’ use of different languages for different purposes. The findings indicate that i) they do not see the emergence of a Euro-English likely; ii) that their language choices are determined by inclusiveness; iii) that there may be different attitudes towards English in different parts of Germany; iv) that English is experienced as a door opener; and finally, v) multilingualism is a desired notion for them all. Combined, they suggest there is a discrepancy between the EU political line and the grass root reality.