Over the past two decades, English as a lingua franca (ELF) has attracted growing research interest as a communicative phenomenon, and one insight that has emerged is that ELF communication is largely successful despite the fact that interlocutors often come from widely different linguacultural backgrounds. Research into ELF suggests that, rather than adhering strictly to the norms of Standard English, successful ELF users instead deploy their linguistic, cultural and pragmatic resources flexibly in order to co-construct understanding with their interlocutors in situ. Communication strategies (CSs) play an important role in this process, and this has led to general advocacy for an increased focus on the development of an ELF-informed strategic competence in English language teaching (ELT) (cf. Cogo & Dewey 2012, Tarone 2016, Kaur 2016).
Although CSs are currently incorporated into mainstream ELT to some extent, insights from ELF research nevertheless suggest that some reconceptualization is necessary. ELF research has highlighted the role of CSs in facilitating fundamental processes such as accommodation and negotiation of meaning (cf. Cogo 2009, Cogo & Dewey 2012). Thus, whereas traditional applied linguistic perspectives have tended to view the use of CSs by language learners as primarily compensating for deficits in linguistic and sociolinguistic competence, an ELF perspective views their use as an important part of helping learners to develop "the ability…to adjust and align themselves to different communicative systems and cooperate in communication" (Baker 2012: 63).
Given the importance of CSs for the kind of flexible communicative competence needed for successful ELF communication, instruction in CSs became a central area of focus in an action research study exploring how insights from ELF research could be translated into classroom practice in a university-level English classroom. The first part of this talk will outline the ELF-informed approach to CS instruction developed in the study, highlighting commonalities and key differences to approaches currently underpinning mainstream ELT. The second part will present classroom data illustrating how this approach was able to facilitate the development of an ELF-oriented strategic competence and the potential implications of these findings for ELT.
Baker, Will (2012) From cultural awareness to intercultural awareness: culture in ELT. ELT Journal 66/1, 62-70.
Cogo, Alessia (2009) 'Accommodating difference in ELF conversations: A study of pragmatic strategies'. In Mauranen, Anna / Ranta, Elina (eds.) English as a Lingua Franca: Studies and Findings. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 254-273.
Cogo, Alessia / Dewey, Martin (2012) Analysing English as a Lingua Franca. London: Continuum International.
Kaur, Jagdish (2016) 'Using pragmatic strategies for effective ELF communication. Relevance to classroom practice'. In Murata, Kumiko (ed.) Exploring ELF in Japanese academic and business contexts: conceptualization, research and pedagogic implications. London: Routledge, 240-254.
Tarone, Elaine (2016) 'Learner language in ELF and SLA'. In Pitzl, Marie-Luise / Osimk-Teasdale, Ruth (eds.) English as a Lingua Franca: Perpsectives and Prospects. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 217-225.
