English as a lingua franca: A threat to multilingualism?

In this paper I argue against the widespread assumption that the English language in its role as lingua franca is a serious threat to national languages and to multilingualism. I support this argument by making a distinction between ‘languages for communication’ and ‘languages for identification’. Further support for the stance against one-sidedly attacking English as a killer language will be drawn from the findings of three research projects currently being carried out at Hamburg University, one on the impact English has on discourse norms in influential genres in other languages; the second one on the nature of interactions in English as a lingua franca; and the third one on so-called ‘international degree programmes’, in which English is the language of instruction. Finally, I make some tentative suggestions for a new research paradigm for English as a lingua franca.

[1]  Janina Brutt-Griffler,et al.  World English: A Study of its Development , 2002 .

[2]  M. Singh,et al.  Appropriating English: Innovation in the Global Business of English Teaching , 2002 .

[3]  K. Knapp,et al.  From chaos to the smallest common denominator. Topic management in English Iingua franca communication (Agnes Lesznyak) , 2002 .

[4]  J. House.  Communicating in English as a lingua franca , 2002 .

[5]  N. Coupland.  Style and Sociolinguistic Variation: Language, situation, and the relational self: theorizing dialect-style in sociolinguistics , 2002 .

[6]  A. Bell.  Style and Sociolinguistic Variation: Back in style: reworking audience design , 2002 .

[7]  M. Randall.  Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in English Language Teaching , 2001 .

[8]  B. Seidlhofer.  Closing A Conceptual Gap: The Case For A Description Of English As A Lingua Franca , 2001 .

[9]  T. Ricento.  Historical and Theoretical Perspectives in Language Policy and Planning. , 2000 .

[10]  Kaisa Koskinen,et al.  Institutional Illusions , 2000 .

[11]  Bonny Norton,et al.  Identity and language learning , 2000 .

[12]  J. Holmes,et al.  The Community of Practice: Theories and methodologies in language and gender research , 1999, Language in Society.

[13]  Otto Santa Ana,et al.  Modeling the speech community: Configuration and variable types in the Mexican Spanish setting , 1998, Language in Society.

[14]  E. Wenger.  Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity , 1998 .

[15]  Braj B. Kachru.  World Englishes and English-Using Communities , 1997, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics.

[16]  A. Firth.  The discursive accomplishment of normality: On “lingua franca” English and conversation analysis , 1996 .

[17]  J. House.  Developing Pragmatic Fluency in English as a Foreign Language: Routines and Metapragmatic Awareness , 1996, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[18]  J. Fishman.  Summary and interpretation: Post-imperial English 1940–1990 , 1996 .

[19]  J. Fishman,et al.  Post-imperial English : status change in former British and American colonies, 1940-1990 , 1996 .

[20]  Christiane Meierkord,et al.  Englisch als Medium der interkulturellen Kommunikation : Untersuchungen zum non-native-/non-native-speaker-Diskurs , 1996 .

[21]  J. Bisong.  Language choice and cultural imperialism: A Nigerian perspective , 1995 .

[22]  Homi K. Bhabha.  The Location of Culture , 1994 .

[23]  Paul Kerswill,et al.  Rural dialect speakers in an urban speech community: the role of dialect contact in defining a sociolinguistic concept , 1993 .

[24]  Werner Hüllen.  IDENTIFIKATIONSSPRACHEN UND KOMMUNIKATIONSSPRACHEN , 1992 .

[25]  S. Blum-Kulka.  You don't touch lettuce with your fingers: , 1990 .

[26]  Michael Clyne,et al.  Cultural differences in the organization of academic texts: English and German , 1987 .

[27]  Lawrence D. Carrington,et al.  Acts of Identity: Creole-Based Approaches to Language and Ethnicity , 1985 .

[28]  W. Edmondson.  Spoken Discourse: A Model for Analysis , 1982 .

[29]  Joshua A. Fishman,et al.  The sociology of language: An interdisciplinary social science approach to language in society , 1975 .

[30]  R. Kaplan.  CULTURAL THOUGHT PATTERNS IN INTER‐CULTURAL EDUCATION , 1966 .