Barbara Seidlhofer is Professor of English and Applied Linguistics at the University of Vienna. Her teaching and research focus on corpus linguistics, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and pragmatics, in particular in their application to language teacher education. Her publications include the books Pronunciation (with C. Dalton), Oxford University Press 1994, Approaches to Summarization: Discourse Analysis and Language Education, Gunter Narr 1995, Principle and Practice in Applied Linguistics (with G. Cook) Oxford University Press 1995; Language Policy and Language Education in Emerging Nations (with R. de Beaugrande and M. Grosman), Ablex 1998 and Controversies in Applied Linguistics, Oxford University Press 2003. She is also editor of the International Journal of Applied Linguistics (Blackwell) and the founding director of the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE), which aims to provide a basis for the linguistic description of English as a Lingua Franca.

Presentation

Otherwise engaged: ELF and its relevance for language awareness

Though welcomed by some and deplored by others, it cannot be denied that English functions as the most widely used language of international communication. The most constructive response to this fact, then, would seem to be to explore this situation with a view to identifying implications the global role of English might have for the way we approach foreign language teaching and learning in general.

When English is chosen as the means of communication among people from different first language backgrounds, across linguacultural boundaries, the term for this use that seems to be emerging as the preferred one is 'English as a lingua franca' (ELF). As the significance of ELF is increasingly recognized, descriptive research into ELF interactions has been gathering momentum. The Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE) is being compiled for precisely such descriptive purposes, with the objective of not just identifying the form ELF takes in different settings, but rather of understanding the more general communicative processes at work in such intercultural interactions.

And this is where the relevance of ELF research to language awareness lies: analysing ELF interactions inevitably directs our attention to what the communicative function of linguistic forms is, which aspects carry most communicative weight. In other words it makes us aware of the underlying functioning of language, below the surface of its formal features. The speech events captured in VOICE are mostly high-stake interactions (such as academic discussions, business negotiations, etc) conducted via forms that often are clearly 'non-native'. And what is striking is how the speakers, by definition bi-or plurilingual, draw on extralinguistic cues, identify and build on shared knowledge, gauge and adjust to their interlocutors' linguistic repertoires, employ supportive listening, signal (non-)comprehension, paraphrase, etc. – in short, exhibit high levels of intercultural communication awareness.

Observing such instances of successful communication therefore gives rise to the question why it should be self-evident that learners are normally expected to conform to native-speaker norms, and what these norms represent. It also makes us aware that some parts of language are communicatively crucial while others are more a kind of conventional etiquette, a bid to membership of certain native-speaker communities. But if English is to be used as ELF, beyond these communities, these native-speaker conventions are no longer relevant and can even be counter-productive. Looking at ELF thus directly confronts us with the workings of communication beyond the linguistic forms and leads us to question the assumption of the customary priority of conformity to 'correct' usage.

The particular significance for practice of these insights will obviously be a matter for local decision, but critical questions are likely to arise about unrealistic notions of achieving 'perfect' communication through 'native-like' proficiency when the learners' objective is developing their capabilities as effective ELF communicators. And this, in turn, may prompt a consideration of the advantages of making language awareness a much more focal part of teaching.

Prof Barbara Seidlhofer Department of English University of Vienna Austria