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English as a Lingua Franca in Europe. A mismatch between policy and practice

English as a Lingua Franca in Europe. A mismatch between policy and practice
English as a Lingua Franca in Europe. A mismatch between policy and practice
In this article, we argue that the European Union, in which English has over the past couple of
decades become the de facto lingua franca, should acknowledge the usefulness of English in
this role, and that instead of ignoring what is happening in practice, should build English into EU
language policy. This, we believe, will mean coming to terms with the kinds of language forms
and skills involved in the use of European ELF (English as a Lingua Franca), and a corresponding
move away from outdated assumptions that European speakers of English (if they ‘must’ use
English at all) should defer to native English norms (the kind that are taught in traditional
English as a Foreign Language, or EFL, classes). We begin the article by tracing the development
of ELF, focusing particularly on Europe. We go on to present the findings of an empirical research
project we conducted into ELF in European communication, and to consider recently changing
perceptions towards the ELF phenomenon particularly among its younger European users. We
conclude with a number of implications that our article raises for EU language policy.
1757-6822
271-294
Cogo, Alessia
7b7480bb-3823-47c2-a81f-e2dab000e10d
Jenkins, Jennifer
7daf0457-86d0-4c08-af4b-79641d1f7fd0
Cogo, Alessia
7b7480bb-3823-47c2-a81f-e2dab000e10d
Jenkins, Jennifer
7daf0457-86d0-4c08-af4b-79641d1f7fd0

Cogo, Alessia and Jenkins, Jennifer (2010) English as a Lingua Franca in Europe. A mismatch between policy and practice. European Journal of Language Policy, 2 (2), 271-294. (doi:10.3828/ejlp.2010.16).

Record type: Article

Abstract

In this article, we argue that the European Union, in which English has over the past couple of
decades become the de facto lingua franca, should acknowledge the usefulness of English in
this role, and that instead of ignoring what is happening in practice, should build English into EU
language policy. This, we believe, will mean coming to terms with the kinds of language forms
and skills involved in the use of European ELF (English as a Lingua Franca), and a corresponding
move away from outdated assumptions that European speakers of English (if they ‘must’ use
English at all) should defer to native English norms (the kind that are taught in traditional
English as a Foreign Language, or EFL, classes). We begin the article by tracing the development
of ELF, focusing particularly on Europe. We go on to present the findings of an empirical research
project we conducted into ELF in European communication, and to consider recently changing
perceptions towards the ELF phenomenon particularly among its younger European users. We
conclude with a number of implications that our article raises for EU language policy.

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Published date: October 2010
Organisations: Modern Languages

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 167587
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/167587
ISSN: 1757-6822
PURE UUID: 8004d7c5-56a7-4975-8e9d-9afdc5cb41f7

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Date deposited: 16 Nov 2010 14:11
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:15

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Contributors

Author: Alessia Cogo

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