English as a Lingua Franca and the Politics of Property

Abstract

The politics of EWL has, at long last, become a vibrant field of research with a strong theoretical base. However, most of this research is being conducted on the meta-level alone, and not explicitly addressed to empirical questions about the nature of EWL itself and what traditional assumptions it challenges. As a result, there has been little explicit basis for the evaluation of conflicting claims that have arisen for language pedagogy. So far it has been left to practitioners to work out for themselves the implications of current theoretical developments for their daily practices. Unsurprisingly, therefore, little has changed in the last twenty years or so in the conceptualization of the ‘English’ that is taught around the world. In our essay, we report on the work we have been doing on the phonology (Jenkins) and lexico-grammar (Seidlhofer) of English as a lingua franca, one important manifestation of EWL. In both our cases, the theoretical proposals for a conceptual framework of ELF are backed up by empirical data drawn from ELF settings. Availability and analysis of such data, we believe, is crucial if calls in principle for ‘resistance’ and ‘transformation’ are to be effectively put into practice. There is a need to investigate what ELF users actually do when they communicate with each other – rather than what has traditionally been assumed they need or (should) do. Otherwise we are as guilty of socio-cultural imposition as those we accuse.

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