FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE MODULE TITLE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE MODULE CODE: GENG110 FINAL ASSIGNMENT STUDENT CODE: 1841900039 CLASS: 18NA21 Ho Chi Minh City, September 14th, 2019 ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA AND TEACHER’S ATTITUDE AS WELL AS PRACTICE English has been wide used by most of people in the world As it is known, English has become the lingua franca in many fields, including politics, science, trade, technology and so forth In fact, a number of nonnative speakers of English is now growing fast This number has an enormous impact on the growth of English The roles and functions of English is being changed as a result Together with the changes of English, the emergence of English as a Language Franca is becoming a preferring way of communication by nonnative speakers According to Hülmbauer, Cornelia et al (2008), English as a lingua franca is also defined by its use in intercultural communication rather than formally by its reference to native speaker norms Many studies have been done on the linguistic description of ELF in terms of phonology (Jenkin, 2000), pragmatics (Meierkord, 1996) and lexicogrammar (Seidlhofer, 2004) EFL corpora are also composed and published into corpus which can be used for academic purposes such as the English as a lingua franca in Academic (Mauranen, 2003) and Vinena-Oxford International Corpus of English (Seidlhofer, 2004) This paper is going to discuss English as a lingua franca in terms of its definition, globalization and linguistic features in practice Then, it is going to explore the teacher’s attitude toward ELF I ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA English as a lingua franca and globalization With the effects of technological changes and advances in this century, it enables us to have instant global communication which breaks the barriers of space, time and even cultures It is a fact that the globalization forces people to keep up with the speed of development in any fields of life In particular, the usage of language becomes diverse It is clear that there is a need for mutual language under the interconnected global system Lingua franca presences in every corner of the world and it is becoming the main language in global trade, business and culture interactions happen The globalization of lingua franca does not mean that it excludes the native speakers The native speakers who join economic globalization must adapt to this language As it is known, language and globalization affect each other Globalization is a motivation for language to change Likely, language must be a common drive which helps the globalization become easy and effective People working in all fields of business, technology and economy must find a common and understandable language to meet their needs English has been a common and popular language which is used by all people in most of fields However, the diversity of communities reshapes English language Due to the encounters in new communities and cultures, English must be reshaped and adapted to the new encounters Consequently, new forms, meanings and pronunciations of words have been developing constantly The definitions of English as a lingua franca The term lingua franca is defined in Collins dictionary as a hybrid language based on Italian, with Spanish, French, Greek, and Arabic elements formerly spoken in certain Mediterranean ports It originated from its meaning in Arabic, dating from before the Crusades, whereby all Europeans were called "Franks" or Firinjah in Arabic (Trudgill, P., 2000) Seidelholder (2001) defined English as a lingua franca as follow “… any use of English among speakers of different first languages for whom English is the communicative medium of choice, and often the only option” (p.7) Jenkins (2000) defined “… ELF emphasizes the role of English in communication between speakers from different first languages” (p.11) From its definition, ELF is fully considered as global use by people from all over the world no matter where they are living and what countries they belong to This type of language frequently occurs at different events such as conferences, business meetings or negotiation of political fields (Jenkin, 2007, p.3) The features of English as a lingua franca Due to the diversity and globalization, lingua franca depends on the specific situation of use It could be said that speakers using lingua franca concentrate on function rather than form Effective communication and interaction require that converting messages from one speaker to another must be effective and flexible The features of ELF focus on lexicogrammar, phonology and pragmatics 3.1 Lexicogrammar Breitender (2005) pointed out that this feature of ELF comes from the transfer of English grammatical rules being misused or omitted due to putting emphasis on the content Nevertheless, it is now widely used as an independent feature among non-native speakers of English Seidelholder (2011) focused on typical lexicogrammatical features of ELF as follows: Omission of the third person singular form -s in the present tense For instance, non-native speakers often say “He come to class by bus.” instead of “He runs to class by bus.” Confusing the relative pronoun between whom and which in the sentence For instance, they often say “This is a book whom I gave to you.” Instead of “ This is a book which I gave to you.” Misusing the articles Non-native speakers frequently misuse or omit the definite and indefinite articles, such as “I went to cinema last night.” instead of “I went to the cinema last night.” Overusing the prepositions Non-native speakers often overuse the preposition in their talks, such as in I would like to present about this topic about … instead of I would like to present the topic about … Incorrectly using tag questions They often misuse the tag questions in their talks such as in you were sick, didn’t you? instead of you were sick, weren’t you? Overusing that-clauses They often hesitate their speech and overuse that-clauses such as in I want that, I go that Incorrectly using the collocations in some cases They often have habits of making up collocations in their talks regardless to the standard collocations such as in I a cake instead of I make a cake The research of Seidelholder shows lexicogrammatical features in common which settle in corpus of characteristic features of ELF These features might not be accepted by native speakers We can explain these occurrences of these features as the process of learning a new language 3.2 Phonology In term of phonological features, non-native speakers have a different pronunciation from native speakers Non-native speakers often adjust their pronunciation to achieve mutual understanding Jenkins (2007) studied the phonological features and presented a set of recommendations for maintaining mutual understanding among non-native speakers Preferably omitted /θ/ and /ð/ Non-native speakers often have problems when pronouncing these dental fricatives As a result, they often omit or replace these sounds by /f/ and /v/ Addition of sounds during consonant clusters simplification Non-native speakers try to have mutual understanding, so they often have addition of sounds in clusters such as in the word product, they pronoun [pə'rɒdʌʊtɔ] instead of ['pɒdʌk] 3.3 Vowel length During ELF communication, non-native speakers consider the importance of vowel length, such as in heat [hiːt] versus hit [hɪt] 3.4 Pragmatics Another consideration of ELF is pragmatics, which is frequently discussed among linguists Non-native speakers have problems to use English language perfectly, so they often emphasize on the content rather than on the form Properly speaking, the ELF speakers often repeat, paraphrase, emphasize and use discourse markers Repetition – ELF speakers often repeat the main idea or some important words to make sure mutual understanding among speakers It is considered as a clarification for their talks Paraphrase – ELF speakers often reformulate the meaning in their own words to avoid prolonged silence, minimal response from the other party Emphasize – ELF speakers often emphasize on the main key words or phrases which carry on main meaning of sentences Use discourse markers for introduction – To make sure that the talk is being continued, ELF speakers tend to use the markers “you know” in communication In fact, they try to keep understanding from others without paying attention to politeness The above introduced linguistic features of English as a lingua franca have been discussed and investigated by many researchers These are being continued to explore more details in terms of lexicogrammar, phonology and pragmatics These features serve as the best ways in communication to remain intelligible and mutual understanding among non-native speakers II TEACHER’S ATTITUDE AS WELL AS PRACTICE TOWARD ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA English as a lingua franca is still arguing and discussing by many authors and researchers all over the world It is a fact that its emergence and popularity has not been accepted by many official authorities In particular, this kind of language is completely new and strange in Vietnam Being influenced by different cultures, the English in Vietnam has been changed a lot in the last years It is difficult to widely accept this kind of language However, being a teacher, I personally have some reasons to support the usage of lingua franca as follows: + Firstly, the integration in fields of economy, politic, culture, health and etc requires the mutual understanding where many people come from different countries It is no doubt that Vietnamese people are now changing their way of speaking English and regarding English as the second language in order that they could have their own English It is acceptable and vital that the final purpose of communication is understanding and sharing English as a lingua franca is a motivation for integrating and developing our country From that view, I always appreciate the lingua franca in most of communication situations + Secondly, regard to the English proficiency of students in most of non-native countries, particular in Vietnam, according to the Education First, the proficiency in using English as second language in Vietnam ranks just above the global average It suggested that Vietnam should focus on improving the quality of its teaching and change its general attitude toward English From my perspectives and own teaching, Vietnamese students’ usage of English needs to sharpen much more in most of skills It is clear that using English in working environment or global integration requires students to know how to apply their English knowledge into practical situations In this case, English as a lingua franca is an effective method to help students to be more confident and fluent in their usage of English + Finally, I would like to mention about the practice of lingua franca It is obvious that the convenience and flexibility in using English as a lingua franca is easier and more meaningful As a result of rapid development in most of fields, English is a tool used to help people have mutual understanding It is acceptable that communication is a way of understanding and sharing information as quick as possible With its simplification, English as a lingua franca would be meaningful and necessary in present situation References Breiteneder, A (2005) The naturalness of English as a European lingua franca: The case of the third person -s VIEWS, 14(2), 3-26 Hülmbauer C., Bohringer H & Seidlholfer (2008) Introducing English as a lingua franca (ELF): Precursor and partner in intercultural communication Synergies Europe, 3, 25-36 Jenkins, J (2000) The phonology of English as an international language Oxford: Oxford University Press Jenkin, J (2007) English as a Lingua Franca: Attitude and Identity: Oxford: Oxford University Press Mauranen, A (2003) Academic English as lingua franca—a corpus approach TESOL Quarterly, 37, 513–27 Meierkord, C (1996) English als Medium der interkulturellen Kommunikation: Untersuchungen zum non-native-/non-native-speaker-Diskurs Frankfurt am Main: P Lang Seidlhofer, B (2001) Closing a conceptual gap: the case for a description of English as a lingua franca International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 11, 133–58 Seidlhofer, B (2004) Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 24, pp 209–39 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Trudgill, P (2000) Sociolinguistics: An introduction to Langua and Societ, 4th edition England: Penguin Books Ltd ... number of nonnative speakers of English is now growing fast This number has an enormous impact on the growth of English The roles and functions of English is being changed as a result Together... among speakers of different first languages for whom English is the communicative medium of choice, and often the only option” (p.7) Jenkins (2000) defined “… ELF emphasizes the role of English in... breaks the barriers of space, time and even cultures It is a fact that the globalization forces people to keep up with the speed of development in any fields of life In particular, the usage of language