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English as a Lingua Franca and Multilingualism

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Language Awareness and Multilingualism

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Language and Education ((ELE))

Abstract

This chapter explores the relationship between two modes of international communication: the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) and multilingualism. ELF provides a means of communication among those who share no other language and is used by people in all parts of today’s globalized world as a resource in the conduct of their professional and private lives. Since it effectively allows speakers of different languages to interact with each other and so brings their respective L1s into contact, it is necessarily related to multilingualism. Recent decades have seen an unprecedented spread of ELF as both consequence and driving force of globalization, resulting in a fast-growing field of research that is concerned with the use of ELF as a naturally adaptive linguistic process, with theoretical as well as applied linguistic implications. The focus of this chapter is on the main areas and objectives of ELF research, highlighting those aspects that are relevant for multilingualism and language awareness and for language education more generally. It is argued that ELF is complementary to other manifestations of multilingualism and not at all in conflict with it, mobilizing as it does all the linguistic resources of the interactants. But if it is to serve this complementary function, it is crucial that ELF be dissociated from English as a native language. ELF research thus calls for a radical change in established ways of thinking, from a basically monolingual view of English that regarded the language as a bounded and separate code essentially the property of its native speakers, even when used for international communication, to the recognition of ELF as an appropriated communicative resource, its use characterized by continuous negotiation of meaning and linguistic adaptation and plurality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies, Department of English, University of Vienna, Spitalgasse 2, 1090, Vienna, Austria

    Barbara Seidlhofer

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  1. Barbara Seidlhofer
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Correspondence to Barbara Seidlhofer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept Res Methods Education, University of the Basque Country Dept Res Methods Education, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain

    Jasone Cenoz

  2. UPV/EHU - IKERBASCQUE, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU - IKERBASCQUE, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain

    Durk Gorter

  3. Faculty of Education, University of Auckland, School of Critic, Auckland, New Zealand

    Stephen May

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Seidlhofer, B. (2015). English as a Lingua Franca and Multilingualism. In: Cenoz, J., Gorter, D., May, S. (eds) Language Awareness and Multilingualism. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02325-0_22-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02325-0_22-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02325-0

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