Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 1132

Part of Session 169: Sociolinguistic perspectives on the internationalization of HE (Other abstracts in this session)

Discourse on ELF in elite international higher education: negotiating linguistic identities

Authors: Tóth, Annamária (1); Unger, Johann Wolfgang (2)
Submitted by: Unger, Johann Wolfgang (Lancaster University, United Kingdom)

In this paper, we investigate the use of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) by highly mobile and globally engaged students and staff involved in a bilingual graduate programme at an elite higher-education institution in France. This paper builds on prior studies that investigate the use of ELF as a communicative tool in multilingual contexts (e.g. Hülmbauer, 2007), on attitudinal studies (e.g. Jenkins, 2007; Zeiss, 2010), and also on a number of recent approaches (e.g. Seidlhofer, 2006; Ehrenreich, 2009; Kalocsai, 2009; Smit 2010; Tóth, 2010) that have taken up the notion of groups of ELF-users as communities of practice (see Wenger, 1998). While there has been a wealth of studies on the structural and pragmatic features of ELF, there have been comparatively few in-depth qualitative analyses of the attitudes and perceptions towards language use of active ELF speakers. We will address this gap by presenting some findings from our research into a linguistically and culturally diverse community of ELF-speakers who work or study on the Master in European Affairs at Sciences Po Paris, using both English and French daily as working languages. These speakers also tend to use other languages on a regular basis, reflecting their diverse backgrounds in terms of national and linguistic identities. We draw on the critical approach to the study of language varieties developed by Unger (2009, 2010) to investigate the discourse on ELF within this community by means of textual analysis of interview data. In doing so, we attempt to situate the discourse on ELF at Sciences Po in the context of Europeanisation and, also more generally, the globalisation of education.

References:

Ehrenreich, Susanne. (2009). English as a Lingua Franca in Multinational Corporations: Exploring Business Communities of Practice. In: Anna Mauranen and Elina Ranta (eds.) English as a Lingua Franca: Studies and findings, 126-151. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press.
Hülmbauer, Cornelia. (2007). 'You moved, aren't?' The relationship between lexicogrammatical correctness and communicative effectiveness in English as a lingua franca. Views 16 (2), 3-36.
Jenkins, Jennifer. (2007). English as a Lingua Franca. Attitude and Identity. Oxford: OUP.
Kalocsai, Karolina. (2009). Erasmus exchange students. A behind-the-scenes view into an ELF community of practice. Apples – Journal of Applied Linguistics Series 3 (1), 25-49.
Seidlhofer, Barbara. (2006). English as a Lingua Franca and Communities of Practice. In Volk-Birke, Sabine; Lippert, Julia (eds.). Anglistentag 2006 Halle. Proceedings. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 307-318.
Smit, Ute (2010). English as a Lingua Franca in Higher Education: A Longitudinal Study of Classroom Discourse. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Tóth, Annamária. (2010). The role of English as a lingua franca in European multilingualism. Perceptions of Erasmus students. Unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Vienna.
Unger, Johann Wolfgang. (2009). The Discursive Construction of Scots. Unpublished PhD thesis, Lancaster University.
Unger, Johann Wolfgang. (2010). Legitimating inaction: Differing identity constructions of the Scots language. European Journal of Cultural Studies 13(1), 99-117.
Wenger, Etienne. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge: CUP.
Zeiss, Nadine. (2010). English as a European lingua franca: Changing attitudes in an interconnected world. Berlin: VDM Verlag.

Sociolinguistics Symposium 19

Programme: accepted abstracts

Discourse on ELF in elite international higher education: negotiating linguistic identities