This paper reports on an exploratory inquiry into the perceptions of a group of second language (L2) learners of English with regard to their identities in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) communication contexts. Drawing upon data gathered from two rounds of in-depth interviews with nine participants from a Hong Kong university, the study found…

This current piece of writing--placed, in disciplinary terms, between Psychology of learning and Methodology/Didactics--aims mainly at showing, in the light of present and updated authorized works, the unequivocal relation that is existent between the concept of distributed cognitions and task-based learning. The former was coined by Hutchins…

This article makes a case for the existence of a minority language hierarchy in New Zealand. Based on an analysis of language ideologies expressed in recent policy documents and interviews with policymakers and representatives of minority language communities, it presents the arguments forwarded in support of the promotion of different types of…

In this article, I analyze the reasons that have excluded Pijin, the lingua franca of Solomon Islands, South West Pacific, from being used as a medium of instruction, and why this may now become possible. Following a short sociolinguistic sketch, I present the colonial and post-colonial linguistic ideologies that shaped sociolinguistic…

An objective of the federal government's action plan for official languages is to double the number of high school graduates who have functional knowledge of the second official language. Yet without a clear definition of what constitutes bilingualism, or a consistent approach to assessing language proficiency, how will we know if that goal has…

This book critically examines current ELT practices vis-a-vis the use of English as an international lingua franca. It bridges the gap between theoretical discussion and the practical concerns of teaching English as an international language (EIL), and presents diverse approaches for preparing competent users of English in international contexts.…

Great diversity exists in the way English is being used in the world today. It is now not uncommon to hear a Korean and a Brazilian do business in English, or a Syrian and a Norwegian debating politics in an English-speaking chat room. As opportunities to use English increase and evolve, researchers are left with the difficult challenge of…

Sowden's article raises a number of questions concerning English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and criticizes it as a simplified and culturally neutral means of communication. In this response, I address the issues concerning the conceptualization and use of ELF as well as the implications for ELT. I provide up-to-date evidence of ELF research and show…

Cultural awareness (CA) has emerged over the last few decades as a significant part of conceptualizing the cultural dimension to language teaching. That is, L2 users need to understand L2 communication as a cultural process and to be aware of their own culturally based communicative behaviour and that of others. However, while CA has provided a…

The dichotomous interpretation of the assumed growth and normalisation of English as the lingua franca (ELF) of the international academy is most often polarised into a marginalisation of non-native speakers by the hegemony of native speakers on the one hand and the empowerment and upward mobility created by its potential to afford access to the…

This paper presents a 2007 study that was conducted amongst 147 young anglophone, francophone and allophone Montrealers in order to shed light on their attitudes towards English and French in terms of status and solidarity. The study made use of both a questionnaire and a matched-guise experiment. The findings indicate that while a certain amount…

This article looks at France's Loi Toubon, which mandates the use of French in private companies, to illustrate how macro-level language planning reaches a dead end if it fails to consider local contexts and involve micro-level agents. The motivations, limitations and contradictions of France's language policy in relation to companies are…

In 2012, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) implemented a requirement that all aspiring Canadians who wish to take the citizenship test must have an adequate level of English- or French-language skills, defined as Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) 4. The CLB 4 language policy directly and, we argue, problematically links language abilities…

This article considers a case of local language socialization and accommodation in a multilingual community of practice: the use of English as an additional academic language for specific purposes at a bilingual Swiss university and its implications for teaching. The acronym ELF(A) is used throughout as short for English as a Lingua Franca (in…

In the framework of the internationalization and globalization of higher education and competition for international students, the paper examines how language policy in higher education shapes the provision of study programs in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. It concludes that study programs in the Baltic states mostly follow the convention of a…