Factors of English as a Lingua Franca

• Author: Matsumoto, A.
• Position: Meisei University, Tokio
• Pages: 299-306

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 6 (55) No. 2 - 2013

FACTORS OF ENGLISH AS A

LINGUA FRANCA

Aya MATSUMOTO1

Abstract: This paper was written in order to reveal factors of English as a

lingua franca in Asia by observing naturally occurring interactions with the

participants. The author collected the data through a university project in

Tokyo, and the participants sharing various backgrounds. The collected data

showed a number of curious results. (a) English that the participants used in

the research site had some strategies. (b) Although the participants

understood the English requirement for the workplace, they probably

intentionally switched the language between English and Japanese; localized

code-switching was frequently seen. (c) Japanese used in the research site

might have been used to mitigate face threatening acts or to make

membership markers.

Key words: ELF, code-switching, FTAs, membership marker.

1 Meisei University, Tokio.

1. Introduction

People have different styles of

communication; the ways in which we

speak, listen and behave are all different

from each other. I found that there were

differences in communication styles when

I studied abroad in Australia where there

were many people from all over the world.

Therefore, last year I attempted to

investigate what elements influence certain

communication styles. I discovered that

English used in the real world was

different from the English taught at

Japanese high school.

Following my pilot research (2012), I

will be focusing on English as a lingua

franca (ELF). My research attempts to

identify ‘Factors of English as Lingua

Franca’ because I would like to know what

English usage in the real world looks like.

Nowadays, English has become a

widespread language in the world, known

as English as a lingua franca (Seidlhofer

2005). In other words, English is not just

for native speakers such as Americans,

British and Australians but also for a

multiple of people such as Asians.

McArthur (2003) argued that this was

naturally caused by the increased

interactions between Westerners and

Asians in business for various political and

economic reasons. Because of this, English

usage has changed.

For my research, I will examine the

factors of ELF which were actually

researched before in an European context,

but not in Asia. Firth (2009) described that

there were mainly two factors for ELF;

Metatheory and Entailment. Metatheory is

a concept that the present usage of English

cannot be explained by traditional applied

linguistic theories; English is what native

speakers and non-native speakers co-