Abstract
This Chapter focuses on the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in international educational projects in Europe. Firstly, it discusses functions of language as a lingua franca from a sociolinguistic perspective, in particular considering the concept of the ownership of ELF. Secondly, it draws on sociocultural theory of second language learning. In the situated learning approach second language learning is viewed as a functional and regulatory process in attaining an identity of a member of a community of practice. Such a view is applied to ELF and is exemplified by three international educational projects: an MA blended learning project under this author’s supervision and two larger international projects, one involving two partner countries and the other—eight partner countries. The MA project and the international projects (The European Master for European Teacher Training Project—EMETT and a Polish-Ukrainian project on the Development of Intercultural Competence through English—DICE) serve as illustrations of the claim that English is used nowadays by non-native users of English first of all to suit their own purposes. What is of primary significance is communication between the international participants and implementation of the project goals. It is argued that non-native ELF users in international projects can be empowered in their use of English by their sense of legitimate ownership of English that stems from their necessity to use a common language in oral, digital and written communication. Implications are drawn for English language teaching and learning in Europe.
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- 1.
For instance, a commemorative plate in Polish at the site of the Smoleńsk 10th April 2010 presidential air crash was removed by the Russians and substituted by a different bilingual inscription without any mention of the Katyń 1940 massacre.
- 2.
It is a cemetery to commemorate young Polish people (Eaglets) who were killed by the Ukrainians in 1918 in a battle over Lwów (then also in German: Lemberg). Both nationalities, the Poles and the Ukrainians wanted to take advantage of the collapse of the Austrian Empire at the end of the First World War and to gain control over the Eastern Galicia. The majority of the inhabitants of Lwów were Poles although the majority of the inhabitants of Eastern Galicia were Ukrainians. In the interbellum period Lwów and Eastern Galicia belonged to Poland and the Poles founded a magnificent cemetery to commemorate the Eaglets. In the 1970s under the Soviet Union, the cemetery was completely destroyed.
- 3.
Blended learning refers to traditional L2 learning combined with computer assisted language learning (CALL).
- 4.
The e-mail texts are quoted in their original form.
- 5.
The European Master for European Teacher Training Project (EMETT), 2008–2009, EU Education and Culture DG Lifelong Learning Program, 2007–2577/001–001, focused on designing a European secondary school teacher training curriculum to be implemented in the participating universities from eight European Union countries: Denmark (University of Aarhus, School of Education, Copenhagen), Hungary (Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest), Poland (Jagiellonian University, Krakow), Austria (Pedagogical University of Tirol, Innsbruck), Cyprus (University of Cyprus, Nicosia), France (University of Nantes, Nantes), Italy (Ca’Foscari University—coordinator of the Project, Venice) and Lithuania (Vilnius University, Vilnius).
- 6.
Czesław Miłosz (1911-2004), one of the greatest contemporary Polish writers, was born in Lithuania. Later he lived and studied in the part of Lithuania including Vilnius which belonged to Poland (1918-1939). He stayed in Poland during the Nazi occupation. After the war he supported to some extent the new communist regime, serving as a diplomat in France and the United States. In early fifties, however, he decided to break with the communists and stayed in exile. For many years he taught Russian and Polish literature at the University of Berkeley in the United States, while in Poland he was encased in censorship. In 1980 he received the Nobel Prize in literature. After the political changes of 1989 he returned to Poland in the early nineties. He died in Kraków in 2004. Miłosz’s literary works place him among the greatest representatives of the idea of common European heritage.
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Niżegorodcew, A. (2013). English as a Lingua Franca in International Educational Projects in Europe. In: Piątkowska, K., Kościałkowska-Okońska, E. (eds) Correspondences and Contrasts in Foreign Language Pedagogy and Translation Studies. Second Language Learning and Teaching. Springer, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00161-6_1
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