English in Europe: whose language, which culture?

Berns, Margie

doi:10.1111/j.1473-4192.1995.tb00070.x

Cited by 47 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Many scholars have addressed the idea of a European variety of English in the past, among them Berns (, ), Crystal (), Graddol (), Jenkins et al., (), Modiano (in Jenkins et al. , 2003), Seidlhofer (in Jenkins et al.…”

Section: The Development Of Euro‐englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

English in a post‐Brexit European Union

Modiano

2017

World Englishes

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This article speculates about the possible effects of the Brexit process on the status and functions of English in the European Union (EU). One issue here is whether Brexit will result in the weakening of the status of English within the Union, or whether this process will, ironically, strengthen the power of English as the principal working language of the EU, as well as the primary L2 among Europeans. One possibility here is that the exit of Britain from the Union will clear the sociolinguistic space for the emergence of an authentic European English, used by members of the EU as a 'second language' or (even) a quasi-Outer Circle English, serving the needs of the European Union as the common link language for administration and cooperation between member states.

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Section: The Development Of Euro‐englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

English in a post‐Brexit European Union

Modiano

2017

World Englishes

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“…No one championed the use of indigenous Danish norms; typical Danish pronunciations are generally ridiculed. Likewise, no one championed the use of a pan-European 'Euro-English' (Berns 1995).…”

Section: English As the Default Foreign Language Of The Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coming to terms with English in Denmark: discursive constructions of a language contact situation

Thøgersen

2010

Int J App Linguistics

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This paper presents an investigation of Danes' attitudes towards English through qualitative interviews. Denmark, like most other countries in the so‐called Western world, is under significant linguistic and cultural influence from (American) English. In this paper, I analyse how Danes come to terms with that. Most striking is the great uniformity in the discourses through which English is constructed on the one hand as the default language of the world, on the other as a sign of modernity. An important by‐product of the investigation is that it reveals how attitudes are constructed in situ during the conversation between interviewer and interviewee. The paper thus takes a stance in the ongoing debate concerning the validity of ‘standardized’ vs. ‘conversational’ interviewing. I denne artikel præsenteres en undersøgelse der søgte at afdække danskeres holdninger til engelsk gennem kvalitative interview. Danmark, som de fleste andre lande i den såkaldte vestlige verden, er under en betydelig sproglig og kulturel indflydelse fra (amerikansk) engelsk. I denne artikel analyserer jeg hvordan danskere opfatter dette. Det mest slående er den store ensartethed i de diskurser som bruges til at konstruere engelsk som dels ‘verdens defaultsprog’, dels ‘et tegn på modernitet’. En vigtig sidegevinst ved undersøgelsen er at den viser hvordan ‘holdninger’ konstrueres i den interaktionelle situation mellem en interviewer og en informant. Artiklen indskriver sig således i den verserende debat angående validiteten af ‘standardiseret’ over for ‘konversationel’ interviewpraksis.

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“…The complexity of the use of English, as mother tongue, second language and international language in Europe has been recognized (Sprichtinger 2001, Smit 2003, Seidlhofer 2003, Brutt-Griffler 2002, Berns 1995 and suggestions for modifying Kachru's (1992) concentric circles framework of world English use 2 to accommodate this complexity have been suggested by Berns (1995) and more recently by Fenyö (2003) to take into account the various, dynamic roles of English in different European countries. For instance, Berns (1995) claims that in Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, although English is not an official language, it serves various social, commercial, educational and cultural functions which justify categorizing these countries as belonging to both Kachru's 'expanding' and 'outer' circles.…”

Section: English In Europe A) the Use Of Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, Berns (1995) claims that in Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, although English is not an official language, it serves various social, commercial, educational and cultural functions which justify categorizing these countries as belonging to both Kachru's 'expanding' and 'outer' circles. It could similarly be argued that Sweden and Denmark could increasingly be seen as straddling these two circles .…”

Section: English In Europe A) the Use Of Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Expanding Circle comprises countries which use English as a foreign language such as China, Egypt, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. Berns (1995) (Hagen 1998). Although, as Graddol (2000:29) points out, this is a target which many British companies find hard to meet, as illustrate in a further survey of European executives language skills which found that while in the EU as a whole, 70% businesses have executives with foreign language abilities (rising to over 90% in Sweden, Greece, Spain and the Netherlands) only 39% of UK businesses had executives proficient in more than one language.…”

Section: English In Europe A) the Use Of Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Participation and performance in international business meetings

Rogerson-Revell

2008

English for Specific Purposes

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With the continuing globalisation of markets and internationalisation of trade, professionals from a wide range of organisations, from large multinational corporations to small to medium size enterprises, are increasingly coming together to do business in the international workplace, particularly in meetings. Such international events usually bring together people from different linguistic and socio-cultural backgrounds with the result that a common language of communication is frequently adopted. More often than not this lingua franca is English. While English for International Business (EIB) has an essential function as a lingua franca in multilingual settings, it can also present challenges both linguistically and culturally, particularly as more and more interactions are between speakers whose first language is not English. This paper reports on preliminary research which forms part of a larger scale study investigating the use of English as a lingua franca in international business meetings.The paper summarises the findings of a questionnaire exploring the use of EIB by a particular European business organisation. It is hoped that the limited findings will help shed light on some of the language issues that may be present in such international contexts and the possible communications difficulties and frustrations that can result. A positive result is that as well as uncovering some of these challenges, the analysis also shows an awareness by many participants of some of the strategies that can be used to overcome them.

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English in Europe: whose language, which culture?

Cited by 47 publications

References 5 publications

English in a post‐Brexit European Union

English in a post‐Brexit European Union

Coming to terms with English in Denmark: discursive constructions of a language contact situation

Participation and performance in international business meetings

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