The influence of context on language alternation practices in English as a lingua franca

Abstract

This paper scrutinizes language alternation practices in different settings where English is predominantly used as the lingua franca (ELF). Data from different interactional contexts are examined: academic interactions from the ELFA corpus, doctoral defense discussions (also from the ELFA corpus), and informal family interactions. Corpus, discourse and conversation analytic methods and ethnographic information are used in analyzing these spoken data. I argue that translanguaging in lingua franca contexts is not only affected by speakers’ repertoire or the linguistic setting, but that there is a complex web of individual, interpersonal, group-related, and discourse environmental aspects which play their part in whether and to which extent speakers alternate languages in spoken ELF communication.

A Showcase Study on ELF-oriented Classroom Practices in a General English Course

“…As ELF users exploit multiple linguistic and cultural resources, linguistic practices function as markers of linguacultural identities (Wang, 2012) and across-cultural complex identities such as transcultural identities (Marotta, 2014). The views of language variants as codes relevant to speech communities, neatly defined cultural groups and fixed identities are irrelevant to global citizens (Bukhari, 2019;Pietikainen, 2021).…”

“…Pitzl (2018) points out that the "Multiple Resource Pool" of a group of ELF users "is bound to vary considerably from context to context and will often only be discovered gradually by participants throughout an interaction" (p. 34). Pietikainen (2021) analysed language alternation practices in different ELF contexts. Her findings revealed that ELF practices are not only affected by users' repertoires but also by a complex web of individual, interpersonal, group-related and discourse environmental aspects.…”