LINGUIST List 25.1283
Sun
Mar 16 2014
Review: Applied
Linguistics; Pragmatics: Poppi (2013)
Editor for this issue:
Monica Macaulay <monicalinguistlist.org>
Date: 01-Oct-2013
From: Kimberly Chopin
<kimberly
hum.ku.dk>
Subject: Global Interactions
in English as a Lingua Franca
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Book announced at
http://linguistlist.org/issues/24/24-1383.html
AUTHOR: Franca Poppi
TITLE: Global Interactions in English as a
Lingua Franca
SUBTITLE: How written communication is changing
under the influence of electronic media and new
contexts of use
SERIES TITLE: Linguistic Insights - Volume
168
PUBLISHER: Peter Lang AG
YEAR: 2013
REVIEWER: Kimberly Renée Chopin, University of
Copenhagen
SUMMARY
The field of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF),
which studies communication
among speakers of different language
backgrounds using English as a common
language, has focused primarily on spoken
language, but as yet not so much on
how ELF speakers use English to communicate in
written situations. Franca
Poppi’s monograph aims to address this gap,
particularly in the area of
business communication and Business English as
a Lingua Franca (BELF). The
book has two goals. The first is to
“investigate the changes undergone by
written communication under the influence of
electronic media and new contexts
of use” (p. 215). In addition, it explores how
the use of English as a Lingua
Franca adds to the changes brought about by
this new media and these new
contexts of use, through which also to assert
ELF use as legitimate, and not
in need of native-speaker gatekeeping
norms.
The book is divided into two main parts plus
introductory and concluding
chapters. The introductory chapter (Chapter 1)
briefly outlines trends such as
the World Wide Web which have led to increased
globalization, and reviews
theories on why English has increasingly become
the lingua franca in this more
globalized world.
The first part (Chapters 2-5) focuses on ELF
communication in the electronic
mass media. Chapter 2 makes and argues the
claim that speakers of English in
lingua franca settings are ELF users rather
than ELF learners. A selection of
interviews and a panel discussion from BBC
World and CNN International are
analyzed in order to discern features that
distinguish ELF communication. It
concludes that ELF communication is generally
effective, and that “non-native
speakers of English should therefore be
recognized as users, in their own
right, of a (...) lingua franca.” (p. 62).
Chapters 3-5 are each based on a different
small-scale corpus study, each of
which looks at the on-line edition of an
English language newspaper published
in a non-English language native environment:
The Hindustan Times (Chapter 3),
The Baltic Times (Chapter 4), and The China
Daily (Chapter 5). In each of
these, corpora of articles from the newspapers
in question are analyzed, and
instances of non-native forms as well as
localized forms are categorized. The
cases chosen exemplify and serve to compare
data from outer circle (India) and
expanding circle (the Baltics, China) countries
in terms of how much localized
vocabulary is used, how much code-switching and
code-mixing occurs and so on.
In each case, it is claimed that non-native
forms and localized expressions
show the creation of on-line communities of
practice joining together readers
who are geographically dispersed.
The second part (Chapters 6-10) turns the focus
to BELF, in the form of
corporate on-line communication. Chapter 6
introduces some basic theories of
corporate communication and corporate identity.
It is shown how these might be
manifested on corporate websites and in
computer-mediated conversations such
as e-mail correspondence. As in Chapters 3-5,
each of Chapters 7-10 concern a
different small-scale corpus-based case study,
where specific instances of
language use are categorized. The categories
are not equal to but are adapted
from the categories used in Part 1; for
example, both Part 1 and Part 2 have
the category ‘code-switching’, but the category
‘local expressions’ in Part 1
is replaced by ‘technical words’ in Part 2. The
cases chosen give data from a
corpus of news articles from the archives of
the large multinational
corporation Tetra Pak (founded and based in
Sweden) (Chapter 7), and of the
‘about us’ sections of websites from seven
European companies based in
different parts of the continent (Chapter 8).
Two chapters focus on business
e-mail correspondence in order to explore how
the cultural and linguistic
background of both writers and recipients of
e-mails affects written
communication. They use corpora of
intra-company e-mail correspondence
between Japanese and Chinese employees of an
Italian company and company
employees based in Italy (Chapter 9), and of
Italian employees of an Italian
company writing business e-mails in different
genres (Chapter 10).
The concluding chapter (Chapter 11) revisits
the main aims of the book,
summarizing its results. In particular, it
further places the book’s case
studies into a framework of cybergenres, and
relates them to communities of
practice.
EVALUATION
This book opens up new inroads into an analysis
of ELF and BELF written
communication in on-line settings. The
structure is complex, integrating two
main aims with write-ups of multiple case
studies. In each of these areas, a
reader will find much to think about; however
the broad scope of the book
leads to several areas where more depth could
have been given.
As indicated above, this book has two goals.
For the first and main one, to
trace the emergence of new cybergenres, and to
explore how these new genres
have changed written communication in a
globalized age, the book paints an
interesting picture of how the internet has
emerged out of but also developed
from more traditional genres; for example,
publishing news articles in a
company intra-net rather than on paper, or
sending correspondence
electronically rather than delivering letters
by post. Interestingly, with the
exception of the two chapters looking at e-mail
correspondence, the cases
looked at do not ideally fit Shepherd and
Watters (1999) definition of a
cybergenre, which is characterized by and
differentiated from more traditional
genres by added functionality or interactivity.
Rather they are on-line
replications of more traditional genres: the
on-line version of a print
newspaper, content from a relatively static
company homepage.
What does set the cases apart from their more
traditional counterparts in fact
is not the genre but the audience: when
information is on-line, the potential
audience is much bigger. The audience can also
be expected to be more
multicultural and multilingual, meaning that
information on-line in English is
increasingly ELF in nature. How this increase
in situations of ELF usage has
affected written communication seems to be the
bigger concern of the book, and
the explication of this goal is successful,
though with some concerns.
To give one example which is representative of
the studies as a whole, the
study described in Chapter 2 of the book
“relies on the assumption that most
ELF conversations are robust and cooperative”
(p. 42). The study conclusions
are then that “Notwithstanding [non-native
language features, ELF users] are
able to actually promote successful
communication and to negotiate meaning”
(p. 62). The examples given in the chapter do
in fact support the conclusion;
however, the conclusion was there at the start.
As a result of this, for a
reader who believes the opening assumption, the
conclusion is unnecessary -
perhaps the greatest change brought about by
the field of ELF is that it is no
longer a radical thing to claim that a
non-native user of English has the
capability to negotiate meaning in ways that
are both effective and creative.
On the other hand, to a reader who is skeptical
of ELF research, such a set-up
would be less than convincing.
Additionally, the role of the English native
speaker editor or trainer needs
also to be considered. In the conclusion to the
book as a whole, referring to
the chapters in part 1, Poppi refers to the
fact that “all the articles
undergo editing prior to publication” (p. 219).
Yet the influence of this on
the eventual product seems to be
underestimated. To give another example
relevant in particular for the chapters looking
at corporate communication,
the role of English language training is
ignored. In the conclusion to Chapter
8 (p. 177), it is claimed that “the companies
analyzed feel free to adapt
BELF” (p. 177); yet at least some of these same
companies work with language
firms which only hire inner circle English
native speakers (such as the
reviewer of this book, who has worked in this
area and with some of the
companies mentioned), which would belie the
claim. This is not to say that
companies should not feel free to adapt BELF
(they should certainly feel
free), but only that the situation is perhaps
more complicated than is
presented in the book.
A final comment concerns the case study format
of the book. The number of case
studies is impressive and interesting; however,
because of the chapter format,
none of the case studies is given space enough
to be described in sufficient
detail. As a result, the data presented seems
somehow incomplete. It is as
much praise as criticism to say that each
chapter seems to have the potential
to be a much longer and more detailed article
(or even book) of its own.
REFERENCE
Shepherd, M. and Watters, C. (1999), “The
functionality attribute of
cybergenres”, Proceedings of the 32th Hawai’i
International Conference on
System Sciences (HICSS-32), IEEE Computer
Society Press, Los Alamitos,
available at:
http://web.cs.dal.ca/~shepherd/pubs/functionality_attribute.pdf
(accessed 1 October 2013).
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Kimberly Chopin is a PhD student at the Center
for Internationalisation and
Parallel Language Use at the University of
Copenhagen. Her research focuses on
language policy in higher education.
Page Updated: 16-Mar-2014