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English as a Lingua Franca, or ELF, is the language used in interaction between both non-native and native speakers of English in an international context. Barbara Seidlhofer calls ELF "the preferred option for cross-cultural communication”, and various studies have investigated how it is adapted by its users. Rather than a variety, we consider ELF to be a bundle of strategies depending, for example, on language and cultural background, communicative setting, purpose and language competency. A key feature of ELF is its focus on mutual comprehension between speakers of different language and cultural backgrounds, as ELF researcher Anna Mauranen points out. As a consequence, in ELF, the imitation of native speaker varieties is no longer the ultimate goal, obviating the need for a standard. Several corpora have been compiled in this field, such as the corpus of English as Lingua Franca in Academic Settings (ELFA) (2008), the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE) (2013) and, currently CASE, the Corpus of Academic Spoken English here at Saarland University (forthcoming). The role of ELF is increasing with the use of English as a global language - it is now, for example, the language of choice in (on- and offline) communication between non-native students and researchers, and attracts research interest in linguistics, intercultural communication studies, as well as foreign language teaching.
In this seminar we will explore the various linguistic, pragmatic and (inter)cultural strategies and patterns that can be observed in ELF. Based on corpus data, course participants will discuss the circumstances and the motivations behind features such as code-switching, approximation, innovation, topic organisation, and explore the influence of the respective national, regional or personal identities, the pragmatic setting, and the computer-mediated environment. As part of the seminar, students will also perform hands-on research by recording and analyzing ELF conversations with one of our partner universities in the context of the Corpus of Academic Spoken English (CASE) project.
A list of topics for presentations and research will be available in the first seminar session. Near the end of the semester, a paper conference will be held to make sure students are headed in the right direction with their term papers. For detailed course requirements please also consult the respective module descriptions. |
