Anglocentrism in the Academy: On Linguistic Privilege, Mastery and Hoito

In this paper, we discuss the tacit agreement to use English as lingua franca in global academia. Our interest is in how Anglocentrism manifests within academic practices – seminars, conferences, and academic publishing – all of which are marked by neoliberal assumptions of mastery, quality, and efficacy. Drawing on autobiographical narratives, social media conversations, and literature, as well as recent discussions on conferencing and peer review practices, we analyse how historically shaped linguistic privilege and linguistic divides continue to be lived at the level of the body, affects and affective atmospheres. Language is not just language, rather, seemingly practical decisions about language always involve the aspects of material labour, time, money, and careers: they shape researcher subjectivities and entire domains of scientific knowledge. However, we also highlight the potentials nested in the emergence of minor language and the deterritorialising forces of humor. Articulating the speculative lines of what if, we propose more care-full academic linguistic practices.

Konglish as Cultural Practice: Reconsidering the English Language in South Korea

English in South Korea, where the language is highly emphasized as a necessary language for the age of globalization, continues to have limited use within the country’s dominant Korean language monolingualism, despite the fact that localized forms of linguistic resources originating from English permeate everyday communication. This sociolinguistic characteristic has led to problems for concepts that aim to provide a typology of new Englishes by identifying them in terms of distinct varieties – including the notions of English as second language/English as foreign language, inner/outer/expanding circles, and English as lingua franca. In this paper, I argue that a proper understanding of English in South Korea requires that we move away from such variety-based approaches, instead viewing language as practice embedded in speakers’ communicative activity in social context. For this purpose, I discuss the case of Konglish, a term that pejoratively refers to English as used by Koreans. While previous studies have rightly argued that expressions condemned as Konglish should be seen as legitimate localized uses of English, here I focus on how Konglish does not represent a variety but a cultural practice, in which Koreans draw upon whatever resource available to them in making communicative action, and through which Koreans conceptualize their position in the global world. Based on this discussion, I argue that research on English as a global language should move beyond the varieties-based approach that focuses on typologies of Englishes to ask more fundamental questions about the nature of language itself.

Teaching in multilingual classrooms: strategies from a case study in Portugal

ABSTRACT This study examined teaching practices developed by teachers to respond to linguistic diversity in a Portuguese case study. We analysed the position that students’ languages received in the classroom, and what these practices revealed about teachers’ awareness of multilingual pedagogies, a step to social justice. Three main strategies emerged: promoting Portuguese without involving students’ languages, using a common language (English) as lingua franca, using students’ languages. These strategies appeared in a dynamic way as teachers tried to satisfy the aims of developing the language of schooling, communicating with students and valuing students’ linguistic identities. Prioritising Portuguese language dominated, and the strategies were enacted through monolingual views, indicating little awareness of multilingual pedagogies. Thus, the need to support teachers in transforming practices in multilingual classrooms is emphasised.

Implementing language mandates: English as lingua franca in a Hungarian multinational company

This article analyzes implementation of English as a lingua franca, and the way it induces the power relations within a company, through the example of a Hungarian multinational. Specifically, the article contributes to the field of cross-cultural management. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 11 company members, and grounded theory was used for data analyses. Findings show how a common language can be seen as source of power and raises challenges, especially when the chosen lingua franca is not the headquarters’ language. The absence of initial support processes can cause the loss of shared values and common company goals.

BELF Courses and Iranian Learners’ Perception Regarding Success in Business Communication

The present qualitative study aimed to investigate the role of Business English as Lingua Franca (BELF) courses in learners’ success in communication in an Iranian company. In doing so, 25 adult BELF learners were selected from an automotive parts manufacturing company in Tehran, Iran. They were the employees of a company consisting of men and women in the 30 to 45 age group who worked in different departments as bosses, middle managers, top managers, and directors. Their English proficiency levels were elementary, pre-intermediate, and intermediate. The participants took part in the interviews and answered a 20-item questionnaire. The questionnaire mainly focused on using English in the workplace. The interviews primarily focused on eliciting the respondents’ views regarding the benefits of using English at the workplace. The interviews and respondents’ answers to the questionnaire showed that BELF courses lead to job performance efficiency, higher self-confidence when communicating, willingness to use more English at the workplace, and fewer misunderstandings. It also could enhance participants’ language proficiency level and communication skills. Moreover, participation in BELF courses could facilitate English in the workplace and encourage a professional atmosphere compared to the past.

DISCOURSE REFLEXIVITY IN WRITTEN ACADEMIC ENGLISH AS LINGUA FRANCA: CODE GLOSSES IN RESEARCH ARTICLES

There is probably no doubt that English is a lingua franca of academia nowadays. Previous research has shown that one of the tendencies observed in academic English as Lingua Franca (ELF) speech is enhanced explicitness (Mauranen 2012). A common manifestations of explicitation is discourse reflexivity (Mauranen 2017), making discourse organisation more visible and enhancing the clarity in the contexts where interlocutors do not share a common linguistic and/or cultural background. Drawing on these findings this paper aims to investigate reflexive phenomena in written academic ELF, namely in the SciELF corpus. The corpus consists of research articles written by L2 users of English, which have not undergone any professional proofreading. The paper focuses on one reflexive category, code glosses, which “supply additional information by rephrasing, explaining or elaborating what has been said” (Hyland 2005: 52). The findings are compared with the corpus of published research articles written by Anglophone writers, which has been designed on the basis of SciELF. The results reveal significant differences in the frequency and functions of several code glosses, but at the same time show the importance of discourse reflexivity in both corpora.

Cognitive load in relation to non-standard language input

The linguistic, psycholinguistic, and neural processes underlying simultaneous interpreting and translation have attracted widespread interest in the research community. However, an understanding of the cognitive load associated with these bilingual activities is just starting to emerge, and the underlying behavioral and physiological mechanisms are still poorly understood. In this article, we describe a promising interdisciplinary approach to assess the behavioral and physiological indices of cognitive load during interpreting and translation in laboratory and simulated workplace settings. In this context, we emphasize the importance of ecological validity and explain how comparisons between authentic non-standard input and edited English versions of the same stimuli can be used to evaluate cognitive load while controlling for the general cognitive demands associated with interpreting and translation. The perspective we present in this article might pave the way for a clearer understanding of the multifaceted dimensions of cognitive load during simultaneous interpreting and translation as well as during the processing of English as Lingua Franca.

English as lingua franca. Or the sterilisation of scientific work

This essay discusses the impact of defining English as the lingua franca in academia, taking it as an additional barrier to achieving more equitable participation and a diversity of perspectives in scientific publications in the field of communication studies. Two aspects are particularly problematised. The first is the characterisation of a so-called research that travels, contrasting the ideal model of a strategic definition on what materials should be published on which platform with a scoring and evaluation system that prevents or limits intelligence in these choices. The second aspect is the definition of an acceptable level of eloquence for international circulation, in which the domestication of language leads to an epistemological domination. The debate is illustrated with a series of data regarding the (in)visibility of Latin American scientific production in international academic publications. Such barriers are, finally, presented as mechanisms of power that feed the so-called status of #CommunicationSoWhiteAndRich. The reflection suggests that the search for scientific rigour should not be confused with the rigidity of forms, valuing the construction of solidarity networks that contribute to the decolonisation of scientific thought.