The omnipresence of English in Europe has led to numerous discussions about its widespread functions and special status compared to all other European languages. Yet, many of these discussions conceive of Europe as a group of nation states where English is either a first or a foreign language. This chapter seeks to question this well-established distinction by investigating what is in fact the most common use of English in Europe, namely English as a lingua franca (ELF). The chapter suggests a different way of conceptualizing the language in European contexts and provides an updated overview of empirical research into its lingua franca use. Examples of a particular approach to ELF research are provided in the form of two case studies focussing on different aspects of ELF interactions. These studies demonstrate how users of ELF exploit the possibilities intrinsic in the language to achieve their own communicative purposes. Finally, the chapter highlights some future directions for linguistic research and addresses the challenges that the emergence of ELF poses for various areas of applied linguistics.

In 2008, the need for intra-European communication has long exceeded the limits set by language barriers. As a result, English acts extensively as a lingua franca among Europeans with different mother tongues, particularly so in the professional domains of education, business, international relations and scientific research. Yet, despite its omnipresence, English as a lingua franca (ELF) in Europe has not generally been recognized as a serious object of linguistic enquiry and has indeed often been dismissed as a defective form of English. Drawing on the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE), this paper presents an empirical analysis of one particular, but symptomatic, feature of naturally occurring ELF data, namely the verbal -s suffix -'the 3rd person -s'. The findings presented suggest that the occurrence of this feature follows general principles of language usage that have been observed in numerous varieties of English around the globe and indicate affinities between ELF and various world Englishes (WEs). The paper, consequently, proposes that ELF in Europe is an entirely natural development in the glocalization of the language, and points to synergies that could be gained from a truly collaborative effort of researchers in WEs and ELF.

VOICE, the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English, aims to provide a general basis for analyses of English as a lingua franca (ELF) talk on all linguistic levels. This paper discusses criteria that have to be fulfilled in order to achieve this aim. It illustrates that compiling a corpus of spoken ELF involves the reconciliation of different-and often conflicting-requirements: this means finding and keeping a reasonable balance between theoretical specifications, methodological considerations and practical limitations. The focus of this paper is on dilemmas encountered in the processes of data collection and selection and finding suitable ways of representing spoken ELF in written form. 23

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