LINGUIST List 21.2564
Fri Jun 11 2010
Diss: Applied Ling: Björkman: 'Spoken Lingua Franca English at a ...'
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1. Beyza
Björkman,
Spoken Lingua Franca English at a Swedish Technical University: An investigation of form and communicative effectiveness
Message 1: Spoken Lingua Franca English at a Swedish Technical University: An investigation of form and communicative effectiveness
Date: 09-Jun-2010
From: Beyza Björkman <beyza.bjorkmanenglish.su.se>
Subject: Spoken Lingua Franca English at a Swedish Technical University: An investigation of form and communicative effectiveness
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Institution: Stockholm University
Program: Department of English
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2010
Author: Beyza Björkman
Dissertation Title: Spoken Lingua Franca English at a Swedish Technical University: An investigation of form and communicative effectiveness
Linguistic Field(s):
Applied Linguistics
Subject Language(s): English (eng)
Dissertation Director:
Philip Shaw
Dissertation Abstract:
As a part of the process of globalization, an increasing number of highereducation institutions are adopting English as the medium of instructionfor parts of their education. Within most universities in continentalEurope, there are English as a lingua franca (ELF) settings where Englishis spoken by users of a wide spectrum of first languages for variouspurposes, be it for academic activity or social interaction. This isclearly the case for Sweden, where higher education has become increasinglyinternational and thus linguistically diverse, for educational, idealisticand financial reasons.
This study reports the findings of a project that investigated the form andpragmatics of spoken lingua franca English in Swedish higher education. Thegroup in focus is exclusively engineering students and lecturers in contentcourses. The results are based on authentic data from high-stakes spokencommunication.
The study comprises two dimensions, namely form and communicativeness. Inthe form dimension, the material was checked extensively for non-standardmorphosyntactic features. In the second dimension, communicativeness wasinvestigated. The emphasis was then put on the discourse level for furtherexamination, and the material was checked intensively for pragmaticstrategies. Finally, a survey was carried out to investigate perceivedcommunicativeness and attitudes towards morphosyntactic non-standardness.
The results indicate that communication takes place without much overtdisturbance in this lingua franca setting with the exception ofnon-standard question formulation. Pragmatically, these speakers use avariety of strategies to negotiate and clarify meaning, such as commentingon discourse structure, signaling importance etc. Finally, the results ofthe survey show some irritation towards non-standardness. From theseresults, the notion of effectiveness in ELF settings emerges as beingdetermined primarily by pragmatic ability and less by proficiency.
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