As a result of globalisation, the number of companies working globally is increasing at an unprecedented pace. Consequently, the need to communicate with people from other countries is getting bigger. In such intercultural communication, a common language must be used to interact. The language of choice is most often English, which is the business lingua franca (BELF) today. Furthermore, email has become the obvious choice of medium when interacting with foreign business associates. The present study was conducted through intensive and extensive analyses, investigating BELF emails written by 21 individuals with 14 different native languages. The data consists of 209 emails. The study follows Bjørge’s (2007) work on formality in emails written in academic settings. The aim of the study was to determine how formal the participants were in greetings and closings and whether they accommodated their language to the respondent. The results suggest that the level of formality mainly depends on the purpose of the email and, to some extent, how formal the correspondent is. The accommodation to the correspondent seems to be individual. The present study wishes to extend knowledge on email communication in BELF settings. The results are likely to be relevant for teachers and students of Business Communication and English as a Second or Foreign Language along with managers in internationally functioning companies, especially as regards what should be considered in BELF communication.

English is used as a lingua franca to communicate when interlocutors' do not share a first language (DeBartolo, 2014). This is prominent in academia, where teachers and students in international exchange programs communicate daily in English as a lingua franca (ELF). Previous research suggests that ELF speakers in this context use discourse markers (DM) as a pragmatic strategy to support their output and maintain a comprehensible discourse. However, most previous studies only used small corpora for qualitative analysis. This thesis adds to preceding research by combining qualitative and quantitative analysis of new data from an ELF corpus previously not used from this perspective. The context of the study is ELF spoken between students and teachers during academic consultation hours and possible pragmatic strategies in their use of the DMs yeah, okay and so. The analysis shows frequent use of DMs for both groups, but, perhaps due to the speaker roles, they favour different ones. For example, teachers use the function to explain and elaborate fourfold to students, this supports the nature of teacher exposition. Conversely, students' most frequently used functions indicate an active listener role, such as signalling receipt of messages. The results from this study indicate that, in an academic ELF context, teachers and students frequently use these DMs as pragmatic strategies to support their output and indicate attentiveness.

This thesis examines public relations (PR) communications that use English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) from leading Finnish companies. It analyses a corpus of 90 press releases from 15 export-active companies for linguistic usage, drawing on elements of linguistic theory. In addition, a limited narrative is based on personal interviews to determine typical procedures that are involved in PR content creation. It should have relevance to all who use ELF in a business context, but be of special interest to those involved with PR and marketing. It may also have some relevance to internal international business communications and linguistics.The study was motivated by three factors: how English is a dominant global language that is being used by companies in other countries as an intermediary language, prior research of how Finnish companies use PR and communications within their export activities, and extensive observation obtained whilst working as a journalist, dealing with companies from all around the world.It is believed that many companies may not be communicating efficiently and effectively when using ELF. Even when they do communicate and content may appear to be grammatically correct, its efficacy may be muted, inhibiting audience comprehension and other consequential actions. The research noted that certain linguistic elements were over-represented, which could potentially inhibit communication and comprehension. The resolution is not necessarily drastic and could only deliver wider benefits where implemented.Recommendations include closer attention is made concerning linguistic construction, broader additional research is conducted into the global phenomena and the possible creation of an operational framework to assist deployment of ELF-friendly textual communications, especially within the PR/marketing field.

Despite the predominance of English used by non-native speakers in international communication, the approach to teaching this language is still centred on the notion of acquiring English for the purpose of communication with native speakers. This thesis argues for acknowledgement of English as a lingua franca in the approach to teaching English. It also stresses the necessity of further investigations into the global use of English to better understand this phenomenon. A questionnaire was conducted with ten English teachers to see their opinions about some of the key issues of English as a lingua franca (for instance the concept of nativeness, the role of a teacher and the understanding of an error). As a result, it was found that despite some slow changes in individual opinions, the traditional view on teaching English is still prevalent. Both the theoretical research and the analysis of the questionnaire stress the need of implementing the concept of English as a lingua franca into teaching English as it is necessary to prepare students for the reality of global use of this language. Key words: English as a lingua franca, second language acquisition, nativeness, error, variation

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-21T14:53:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Julia Kalva.pdf: 1356702 bytes, checksum: 76cf64a1012e994eeff176a3503f938d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-24 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / In this work we discuss Brazilian students/teacher national identity in a context of foreign language studies and the way English as a Lingua Franca is approached in the classroom. The research focus on student identity and the teaching-learning English as a Lingua Franca approach, once they are related to each other, because when it is learned-taught a new language, new identities are also presented in the classroom. With globalization, identities before seen as stables are now passing through a changing. Thus it is more difficult to say exactly who we are, that is why everything depends on where and the moment we are living. Therefore, we have as a main objective verify how English students and teacher consider themselves in a context where national identity is expressed by the language; process in which many times has the target language identity more emphasized than the local identity. This fact leads us to think about the process of teaching English as a Lingua Franca. The theoretical basis of this work is formed by Jenkins (2006), Seidlhofer (2004), Rajagopalan, regarding to English as a Lingua Franca (2003,2004), Hall (1999, 2005), Woodward (2005), Anderson (2008), talking about national identity and Pennycook (1994), Phillipson (1992), Canagarajah (1999) focusing at linguistic imperialism. The research is conducted in an English course, and participants are an English teacher and his students (intermediated level) from Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa; methodological procedures are basically qualitative, including a case study. Data gathered demonstrate that national identity, besides not being seen throughout the materials used for teaching, is emphasized by the teacher, situation that seems to help including teacher and students local identity in the teaching-learning process. However myths concerning teaching English as a foreign language are present in the classroom, and so, teacher and students still keep the need for following a native speaker model. / Nesse trabalho é discutida a questão da identidade nacional de alunos/professores brasileiros de língua estrangeira (inglês) e como a formação desses professores aborda ou não essa questão. A pesquisa tem como foco a formação da identidade do aprendiz de língua inglesa e o ensino de inglês como língua franca, posto que as duas questões se mostram correlacionadas, uma vez que, aprendendo uma nova língua, também tenho contato com outras identidades que irão permear o ensino. Com a globalização, as identidades, que antes até poderiam ser consideradas como “fixas”, agora passam por um processo de mutação, o que torna difícil dizer, com clareza, o que somos; tudo depende do momento em que vivemos ou do lugar em que estamos. Assim, temos como objetivo geral verificar como alunos e os professores de língua inglesa se veem dentro do contexto onde a identidade nacional é expressa através da língua. Esse processo, muitas vezes, tem a identidade da língua-alvo sendo privilegiada em detrimento da língua local, fato que nos leva a refletir também sobre o ensino de inglês como língua franca. O referencial teórico que embasa a pesquisa é formado por Jenkins (2006), Seidlhofer (2004), Rajagopalan (2003,2004), Hall (1999, 2005), Woodward (2005), Anderson (2008), Pennycook (1994), Phillipson (1992), Canagarajah (1999), entre outros. A pesquisa acontecerá na Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa/PR, em um curso de idiomas realizado pelo Centro de Línguas Estrangeiras para a Comunidade (CLEC), e os participantes serão os professores e os alunos de nível intermediário desse curso. A forma de avaliação da pesquisa é predominantemente qualitativa, isso em função dos procedimentos técnicos empregados, e a pesquisa pode ser classificada como um estudo de caso. Até o momento, vejo que a identidade nacional de professor e alunos, apesar de não ser vista no material didático utilizado em sala, é bastante reforçada pelo professor, fato que parece colaborar para que os alunos se sintam contemplados com relação à sua identidade local. Entretanto crenças pertinentes ao ensino de inglês como língua estrangeira ainda perpassam a sala de aula, fazendo com que os alunos, e mesmo o professor, sintam necessidade de seguir o modelo do falante nativo.

This paper investigates the roles of disagreement and trust in multicultural teamwork on an English-medium master's programme at an Austrian business university. The teamwork project - assigned by the content teacher - took place mostly outside the classroom and simulated business practice both in terms of the tasks and the multicultural context. Each team comprised two Austrian students and two international students, resulting in an English as a lingua franca (ELF) setting. The teams were observed and audio-/video-recorded, with the analysis focusing on an early stage of the project where they laid the groundwork for the team mental models in terms of establishing the team goals, relationships and communicative practices. Additionally, retrospective interviews were conducted at the end of the project with each of the team members and the lecturer to gain emic insights into the project. The findings suggest a symbiotic relationship between disagreement and trust, in which high levels of trust and the construction of a psychologically safe space allow the team members to disagree with and challenge each other without damaging their relationships, leading to better decisions. In turn, these decisions can contribute to a sense of shared success that strengthens the team's joint identity.

English is used worldwide as a native, second and foreign language and as a language of international communication. The uses and status of English in Sweden have been discussed in terms of its influence and ubiquity, with its presence in daily life leading some to consider English could be better described as a second, rather than foreign, language in the country. This study analyses how English is presented in the Swedish educational television series Pick a colour and considers how this can be related to the status of English as a global language and specifically the use of English in Sweden. This paper uses an approach drawing on nexus analysis, together with content analysis, to trace the key language ideologies surrounding English presented in Pick a colour and its surrounding texts, and to locate them within the context of the existing discourses in place. Analysis reveals that the series and related documents make attempts to move away from traditional native speaker British English and American English models of the language, and towards a “Global English” not linked to any specific geographical region and with a focus on communicative competence. However, as British English and American English and native-speaker models of the language are not directly challenged in the documents, and are given the greatest prominence in the series, it seems moving away from the status quo is still difficult in practice. The Swedish settings shown in the series, and emphases on the use of English in pupils’ daily lives allude to English being approached in a way more similar to a second, rather than foreign language in Sweden.

This thesis argues against the claim of linguistic and cultural homogenization widely believed to be induced by the spread of English worldwide by looking at how native and non-native speakers alike re-appropriate the perceived model of 'Standard English' to fit the frames of their own culture and to express their own identity. The hypothesis that this thesis builds on is that the language each of us speaks reflects one's own individual background, the communities that one belongs to, and the identity that one wants to convey. As English is assimilated by the people of the world, their cultural diversity is re-expressed through the common language. By looking at the ways in which English is used in a multicultural setting and at the speakers' attitudes towards it, this paper makes a claim for an alternative to the current educational paradigm in refocusing English teaching on its potential for intercultural communication rather than on specific knowledge of Anglo-American cultures. In order to identify the cultural factors that are involved in the production of one's speech in English as a lingua franca situations, the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE) – a collection of naturally occurring spoken interactions in English – will be used. Close attention will be paid to the communicative strategies that the participants use, to the way their identities are expressed in their speech, to instances of code-switching or to neologisms that they may use, and to the ways in which they accommodate each other whenever communication is not clear.

Cette thèse a pour objectif d’éclairer les liens entre culture et discours à partir d’une étude empirique de discours professionnels. Elle allie deux démarches complémentaires : l’analyse linguistique du discours et la recherche des « chaînes signifiantes » porteuses de culture, au sens de P. d’Iribarne (2008). Deux angles d’approche ont été mobilisés sur deux corpus différents. La première analyse porte sur des documents en anglais lingua franca (ELF) relevant d’un même genre discursif : des brochures d’entreprise et des présentations générales institutionnelles prélevées sur l’internet. Ces discours, produits dans une situation de communication exolingue, ont été (ou sont) effectivement ou virtuellement échangés par des locuteurs chinois et français cherchant à se convaincre réciproquement. La description de la matérialité discursive permet de reconstruire l’ethos qui se manifeste dans les discours et de montrer les influences culturelles à l’origine des dissemblances relevées. La deuxième analyse prend pour objet deux versions, états-unienne et française, d’un même code éthique, produites au terme de processus d’écriture complexes visant à garantir l’identité du message et impliquant des locuteurs français et états-uniens. Cependant, ni les univers de travail ni les portraits de la Direction ainsi schématisés ne se recouvrent, mettant en lumière l’autonomie toute relative du locuteur : son discours témoigne d’un dialogisme « culturel ». C’est d’ailleurs la conclusion qu’on peut tirer de l’ensemble de cette recherche : les discours appartenant au même genre discursif « national » témoignent d’un « esprit » commun qu’on pourrait appeler « culture ». / This dissertation reports on a research performed on two different corpora of written professional discourse. It aims to shed some light on the links between culture and discourse through an empiric study articulating two interpretative approaches: linguistic discourse analysis and the search for d’Iribarne’s (2008) cultural “significative chains”. The first corpus consists of Chinese and French corporate brochures and company presentations (downloaded from the Internet), written in ELF (English as a lingua franca). In spite of their belonging to the same discursive genre, the discourse description leads to the exposure of two different ethe which can be linked to the writers’ different cultural backgrounds. The analysis of the two versions [North-American and French] of the same code of ethics completes the research. Accompanied by detailed information on the writing procedures applied [ELF, editing by U.S. nationals, translation into French and final editing of both texts] testifying to the precautions taken to produce an identical message, this corpus reveals two different working environments and top management’s constructs. Confronted with two reference corpora taken from the “national” genres, these discrepancies point towards a dialogical kinship that does not lie so much in the linguistic forms as in the “spirit” underpinning the discourse. The results of both analyses lead to the conclusion that the influence exerted on business discourse writers can only be accounted for by their cultural environments.

The present thesis considers the topic of English as a Lingua Franca as it is perceived and experienced by three groups: the ELF research community, ELT professionals, and ELF users themselves. This thesis first presents an overview of the theoretical foundations of ELF research, identifying key topics with which the ELF research community has grappled in recent decades. In order to determine how much closer the ELT community has gotten to aligning teaching policy, practices, and goals to students' specific needs and expectations, sociolinguistic research in the form of seven semi-structured interviews was conducted with L2 English speakers who use ELF to live, work, and study in their daily lives, and the ELT professionals tasked with developing their English skills in the classroom. The content of these interviews is then analyzed with regard to the specific needs and expectations of ELF users and the concerns of ELT professionals, followed by a discussion of the key issues uncovered in these interviews in light of the theoretical background of ELF research. The author provides suggestions for further research aimed at improving the ELT community's role in developing ELF proficiency in the expanding circle. Keywords: English as a Lingua Franca, English Language Teaching, Expanding Circle, ELF...