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The Shape of Things to Come? Some Basic Questions About English as a Lingua Franca

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The Shape of Things to Come? Some Basic Questions About English as a Lingua Franca
The shape of things to come? Some basic questions about English as a lingua franca

Introduction: 'English ' as a global lingua franca

'English ', whatever may be meant by this designation, is the language in which most lingua franca communication worldwide is now taking place. This predominance is well documented (cf. e.g. Crystal 1997, Graddol 1997). Although, as these authors argue, this predominance may well turn out to be a temporary one, maybe for approximately the next 50 years, for the time being the global use of English is still on the increase, and markedly so (cf. e.g. Ammon 1996 for the European Union).[1] The reaction to this state of affairs among the population at large and government agencies covers the whole spectrum from enthusiasm to rejection and counter-offensive. Among academics, however, it seems fair to say that attitudes are mainly (though by no means exclusively) negative, with calls for resistance to the hegemony of English gaining considerable momentum over the last decade or so (e.g. Canagarajah 1999, Pennycook 1994, 1998, Phillipson 1992, Smith and Forman 1997). This critical literature includes treatments of historical, cultural, ecological, educational, socio-political and psychological issues, obviously with a good deal of overlap among these areas. In both the areas of language use and (particularly) language learning and teaching, challenges have been formulated which call into question the native speakers ' long-accepted 'ownership of English ' (Widdowson 1994).[2] Ammon (2000) presents arguments for moving 'towards more fairness in International English ' but does (still) feel a need for a question-mark in the second part of his article’s title: "Linguistic Rights of Non-native Speakers?".[3] Ammon is concerned mainly with non-native speakers ' rights to 'linguistic peculiarities ' (2000: 111) when using English in the inter-national scientific community. He convincingly demonstrates that the insistence on



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Oxford: Oxford University Press. Catford, J.C. (1950). The background and origins of Basic English. English Language Teaching, 5. 36-47. Cook, G. (2000). Language Play, Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ----- (2001). Review of Cameron (2000). Applied Linguistics, 22. 136-140. Cook, V. (1999). Going beyond the native speaker in language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 33. 185-209. Crystal, D. (1997). English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ----- (1999). The future of Englishes. English Today, 56. 10-18. Edmondson, W. (1999). Die fremdsprachliche Ausbildung kann nicht den Schulen überlassen werden! Praxis, 46. 115-123. ----- and House, J. (eds) (1997). Themenschwerpunkt: Language Awareness. Fremdsprachen Lehren und Lernen, 26. [special issue]. Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Longman. Firth, A. (1996). The discursive accomplishment of normality. On 'lingua franca ' English and conversation analysis. 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London: Longman. McGrath, R. (1934). Twentieth Century Houses. London: Faber and Faber. Medgyes, P. (1994). The Non-Native Teacher. London: Macmillan. Meierkord, C. (1996). Englisch als Medium der interkulturellen Kommuni-kation. Untersuchungen zum non-native-/non-native speaker- Diskurs. Frankfurt a.M.: Lang. Okara, D. (1964). The Voice. Oxford: Heinemann. Ogden, C.K. (1930). Basic English. A general introduction with rules and grammar. London: Kegan Paul. ----- (ed) (1932). Bentham’s Theory of Fictions. London: Kegan Paul. ----- (1935). Basic EnglishVversus the Artificial Languages. London: George Routledge and Sons. ----- and Richards, I.A. (1923). The Meaning of Meaning. New York: Harcourt Brace and Co. ----- and Richards, I.A. (1938). The Times of India Guide to Basic English. (edited by A. Myers) Bombay: Times of India Press. Palmer, H. E. and Hornby, A.S. (1937). Thousand-Word English. What it is and What Can be Done with it. London: Harrap. Pennycook, A. (1994). The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language. London: Longman. ----- (1998). English and the Discourses of Colonialism. London: Routledge. Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ----- and Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (1996). English only worldwide or language ecology? TESOL Quarterly, 30. 429-452. Pienemann, M. (1989). Is language teachable? Psycholinguistic experiments and hypotheses. Applied Linguistics, 10. 52-79. Richards, I.A. (1940). Basic as the International Language. The Basic News, 9. 17-22. ----- (1943). Basic English and Its Uses. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co. Rossiter, A.P. (1932). Gold Insect; Being the Gold Bug Put into Basic English. London: George Routledge and Sons. Routh, H.V. (1944). Basic English and the Problem of a World-Language. London: The Royal Society of Literature. Quirk R. (1982). International communication and the concept of Nuclear English. In: Brumfit, C. (ed). English for International Communication. Oxford: Pergamon. 15-28. ----- (1990) Language varieties and standard language. English Today, 21. 3-10. Seidlhofer, B. (1999) Double standards: teacher education in the Expanding Circle. World Englishes, 18. 233-245. Smith, L. and Forman, M. (eds) (1997). World Englishes 2000. Honolulu, Hawai 'i: College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature and the East-West Center. Viëtor, W. (1882). Der Sprachunterricht muß umkehren! Heilbronn: Henninger. [3rd edn. Leipzig: Reisland]. Vollmer, H. (2000). Englisch und Mehrsprachigkeit: Interkulturelles Lernen durch Englisch als lingua franca? In: Abendroth-Timmer, D. and Bach, G. (eds). Mehrsprachiges Europa. Tübingen: Narr. 91-109. Wells, H.G. (1933). The Shape of Things to Come. London: Hutchinson and Co. West, M.P. (1934). On Learning to Speak a Foreign Language. London: Longmans, Green and Co. West, M.P. (1953). A General Service List of English Words: With Semantic Frequencies and a Supplementary Word-List for the Writing of Popular Science and Technology. London: Longman. ----- and Swenson, E. (1934). A Critical Examination of Basic English. Bulletin No. 2 of the Department of Educational Research. Ontario College of Education: University of Toronto Press. Widdowson, H.G. (1979). The authenticity of language data. Explorations in Applied Linguistics, Paper 12. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ----- (1994). The ownership of English. TESOL Quarterly, 28. 377-389. ----- (1996). Authenticity and autonomy in ELT. ELT Journal, 51. 66-67. ----- (1998a). Skills, abilities, and contexts of reality. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 18. 323-333. ----- (1998b). Context, community, and authentic language. TESOL Quarterly, 32. 705-716. ----- (2000). Object language and the language subject: on the mediating role of applied linguistics. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 20. 21-33. Wodak, R. (1996). Disorders of Discourse. London: Longman. Wolff, H. (1964). Intelligibility and inter-ethnic attitudes. In: Hymes, D. (ed). Language in Culture and Society. New York: Harper Row. 440-445. [3] See also Knapp 's (1987: 1033) remark that in scientific writing "the tolerance of native speakers for non-native varieties is extremely low". [7] Again, for Outer Circle varieties these questions have been addressed: see in particular Bamgbose (1998). [11] Note, however, that two years on, Crystal (1999) focuses on the issues of diversity, new hybrid forms and the need for empirical research.

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