English as a lingua franca used at international meetings

Abstract

The paper deals with the use of English as a lingua franca. It concentrates on the environment of international meetings where English is used as a lingua franca. The aim of the research conducted through a survey of members of a NATO working group is to find out how native and non-native speakers feel about English used as a lingua franca during international meetings and how these two groups of speakers see each other in multinational interaction from the point of view of linguistics. The sections dealing with non-native speakers concentrate on the level of knowledge of English and on how native speakers cope with the English used during the meetings. The sections dealing with the views of English native speakers should establish the approach they take towards mistakes made by non-native speakers, whether native speakers should adjust the way they speak at international meetings and how they generally view the fact that their mother tongue is used all around the world.Keywords English, communication, foreign language, international meeting, global language, lingua franca IntroductionEnglish has a unique position in the world today. It has become a global language, a new lingua franca. It is a new communication tool for a lot of people all around the world which is so well connected today thanks to new technologies such as the Internet and air travel, as was never the case in the past. International communication has become a daily routine for hundreds of thousands if not millions of people. This paper focuses on one particular area of international communication: international business meetings -meetings of a NATO working group, to be more precise. It deals with English used as a lingua franca at these meetings, it attempts to discover how native and non-native members of the group feel about the English used during the meetings that they attend and how these two groups of speakers see each other in multinational interaction from the point of view of linguistics.It should be noted here that international communication can be described from a lot of different angles as it has many aspects, but this paper is primarily oriented towards linguistics and does not cover other factors of international communication such as the cultural and social identities of participants, their social or cultural background, gender issues, positions of delegates in the structure of the group or power relations within it. As these factors are inseparable from those of linguistics, it is not possible to avoid mention of them completely, but the main focus of the paper pertains to the linguistics of English as a lingua franca (henceforth ELF).

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