Calling for ELF in the International University

Jill DoubledayCGE PGR Seminar Group30 March 2011

• UK as ‘international’• Responses to internationalisation• ELF (English as a Lingua Franca)• ELF in Academic Settings (ELFA)• Teachers’ attitudes towards ELFA• Conclusions: Teachers’ roles

Outline

International students: 15% of UK student body

• Business & Administrative Studies: 31%• Engineering & Technology: 31%• Computer Science: 23%• Law: 20%

Post graduate: 68% (full-time, taught programmes)

(UKCISA website; figures for 2008/09)

UK as ‘international’ (1)

Drive to recruit more:

• English universities: increase non-EU numbers some 20% between 2008/09 and 2012/13.

(Acton, 2011)

• University of Southampton: recruit 30% of students from outside UK over next 5 years.

(University of Southampton website)

UK as ‘international’ (2)

• 16 UK university branch campuses in 2009 (UK HE International Unit)

• University of Nottingham: Malaysia & China.

• Middlesex University: Dubai & Mauritius.

• University of Southampton: Malaysia 2012

Branch campuses

“The University of Southampton is a truly international institution with a global reputation for excellence in leading-edge research. Students from more than 130 different nations study here and our network of university partnerships spans the globe.”

(University of Southampton website; my emphasis)

UK ‘international’ universities

‘truly international’?

power relations (Critical EAP e.g. Benesch, 2001; 2007)

staff & student experiences (Hyland et al, 2008) intercultural perspective (e.g. Bash, 2009; Gu,

Schweisfurth & Day, 2010) first year transition (Beals, 2010) wider socio-cultural context (Montgomery, 2010) experiences of doctoral students (Trahar &

ESCalate, 2010)

Responses (1): Research

Some examples from individual universities:

Leeds Metropolitan University:Centre for Academic Practice and Research in

Internationalisation (CAPRI)

University of Southampton: Internationalisation Forum (USIF) - produced guides on

teaching in an international context.Student Transition Project – includes a focus on ISs; First

Student Transition Workshop 2010: session on culturally diverse student groups.

Responses (2): Initiatives

HEA/LLAS: staff development course 2009 ‘Supporting International Students in UK Higher Education’; Workshop 2010‘Preparing for success: supporting international students in the disciplines’.

Oxford Brookes University: online course 2011 ‘Teaching International Students’

HEA/UKCISA Teaching International Students project

Responses (3) Initiatives

Deficit view of international students gradually being replaced:

less emphasis on students assimilating,

more emphasis on institutions accommodating.

Progress… (1)

Theoretical Framework:

“It avoids ‘problematising’ international students by expecting them alone to change and adjust to fit the institution. Instead, it examines the teaching and learning context to see how it can better fit students’ learning needs, particularly in changing contexts.”

(TIS Project website)

HEA/UKCISA TIS Project

Awareness that language accommodation is needed by lecturers and staff:

Avoid culture-specific language, including metaphors and idioms

Speak clearly and slowly

(See e.g., Hyland et al, 2008; Beals, 2009; TIS website)

Progress.… (2)

Slow progress: 1995 BALEAP Conference (Gavriel, 1999)

Expectations of assimilation by International Students still the norm

However….

• Use ‘plain English and straightforward sentence structure’

(TIS website)

• ‘Speak and write clearly in good plain English’

• Conform to Plain English Campaign recommendations (for written library guides)

(Killick, ‘Cross Cultural Capability and Global Perspectives: Guidelines for Curriculum Review’, Leeds Metropolitan University)

Ill-informed advice

Not ‘plain English’ but

English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)

The missing linguistic link

English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) is English as it is used as a contact language among speakers from different first languages.

(Jenkins, 2009)

What is ELF?

Empirical evidence demonstrates that ELF users communicate effectively and efficiently, while not conforming to ENL (English as a Native Language) norms.

(e.g. Breiteneder, 2009; Cogo, 2009; Hülmbauer, 2009)

Why is it relevant?

Empirical data showing regularities of use:

Uncountable nouns to countable: equipments, researches

Shift in preposition use: We need to discuss about our assignment

Increased explicitness: how long time; red colour

Zero marking of third person ‘s’: she live, he study

Features of ELF lexico-grammar

Examples of language change and variation in English as a native language:

Uncountable to countable: a water, a tea, accommodations

Plural to singular: this data, an agenda

But aren’t these errors?

“The very fact that English is an international language means that no nation can have custody over it. To grant such custody of the language, is necessarily to arrest its development and so undermine its international status.”

(Widdowson, 1994 ‘The Ownership of English’, TESOL Quarterly, 82, 2: 385)

Whose language is it?

Statistically, native speakers are in a minority for [English] language use, and thus for language change, for language maintenance, and for the ideologies and beliefs associated with the language

(Brumfit, 200. Individual Freedom in Language Teaching p16)

Phonology (e.g. Jenkins, 2000; Walker, 2010)

Lexico-grammar (e.g. Seidlhofer, 2004; Dewey, 2009; Ranta, 2009)

Pragmatics (e.g. House, 2003; Cogo, 2009; Björkman, 2011)

VOICE (Vienna-Oxford International Corpus ofEnglish): www.univie.ac.at/voice

ELF Research: features

English is the world language of academia, but academic English is no-one’s native language.

ELFA project, University of Helsinki:

ELFA Corpus : www.eng.helsinki.fi/elfa/elfcorpus.htm

SELF (Studying in English as a Lingua Franca)- capturing participant experience

(see Mauranen, Hynninen & Ranta, 2010)

ELF in Academic settings (ELFA)

Students (e.g. Erling & Bartlett, 2006; Smit, 2009; Hynninen, 2010)

Teachers (e.g. Shim, 2002; Grau, 2005; Pilkington-Pihko, 2010)

ELFA Research: Attitudes

Context: British University Pre-sessional Course,

2008Participants: EAP TutorsFocus: Spoken languageMethodology: Questionnaire (15 respondents) Interview (4 participants)

EAP TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS ELF

Tutors’ perceptions of their role, i.e.:To teach mainly presentation skills;To teach classroom communication skills;To enable students to communicate outside the

classroom while in the UK;To enable students to communicate outside the

UK Asked to rate importance of grammatical

accuracy in each of the four contexts Asked about their students’ current and future

interlocutors

Questionnaire themes (1)

Eight Likert scale statements, rating importance of:

Adherence to native English speaker norms compared with communicative effectiveness

Grammatical accuracy compared with communicative effectiveness

Aiming for ‘near-native’ pronunciation compared with international intelligibility

Making students aware of other varieties of English Accepting other varieties of English from students

Questionnaire themes (2)

For 11 respondents not interviewed: 3 positively oriented towards ELF, 2

negatively, remaining 6 inconclusive Understanding of ELF communication

limited: tendency to confuse it with ‘anything goes’

Evidence that ‘native English speaker norms’ was being interpreted only in terms of pronunciation

Findings (1): Questionnaire

Elaboration on questionnaire responses Reaction to examples of ELF lexico-grammar:

We need to discuss about our assignments. Could you send me some informations about that? How long time have you been studying here? She want to study in Southampton. I met the professor which my course mate had told

me about.  

Interview

All exhibited a mismatch between their beliefs and practice:

2 portrayed awareness of English’s global lingua franca use, but showed no intention of changing their teaching

2 showed greater uncertainty about their roles

Conflict between letting ‘errors’ pass and awareness of assessment requirements

Findings (2): Interviews

For example, for ‘discuss about’ and ‘she want’:

“The only time when I would correct that or in any way point out to them that they’ve made, that’s a mistake, would be if I was teaching prepositions or present simple, or whatever. In my - I can’t imagine in any other situation worrying about it”.

Findings (3): lexico-grammar

“I mean the ‘who’ and the ‘which’ is the one that kind of went “ugh” but the rest, I don’t, I really don’t give a damn. Er, things like ‘discuss about’, the number of English people now who say ‘meet with’ which is now perfectly acceptable, I mean Jon Snow says it. So, you know, I mean it could well be in a couple of years even we’ll be saying ‘discuss about’. So that doesn’t, that doesn’t, none of those bother me at all.”

“I think my, my instincts are, as a sort of like traditional teacher, is those, oh, they’re things to be corrected. Some of them really jar, it’s got to be said.”

And after further discussion and reflection:

“I just don’t really know about that, because as I say, my traditional instinct as a teacher is, well, what’s my job if it isn’t to correct these things?”

The conflict for teachers

What is our job as teachers? Become better informed of how English is

used today in academic environments- spoken and written, formally and informally - and what matters for effective communication

Use this knowledge to influence assessment criteria

Use this knowledge to work with content tutors

Conclusions

Why?

Research shows that ELF communication is effective and increasingly accepted

Competition for international students is increasing, especially in Asia (branch campuses) and mainland Europe (English as a Medium of Instruction).

Conclusions

Herbert Grieshop, Freie Universität Berlin, on why ‘international English might be more useful than some regional varieties.’

“I wonder whether a Chinese student can understand us better than someone with a Yorkshire accent or some strange American accent.”

(BBC News, March 2011)

Germany top for foreign students

Xi, a Chinese student:

In my opinion, firstly, I suggest that lecturers speak ….. in a more compatible way so that we international students can follow the class more easily.

(TIS Project website)

From a student

Thank you for listening.

J.Doubleday@soton.ac.uk

This paper was given at the BALEAP Conference EAP within the HE Garden : Cross Pollination between Disciplines, Departments, Research and Teaching. Portsmouth, 12 April 2011

Selected referencesBeals, M H ( 2009) A Briefing Report on internationalisation from a panel

session at the 11th Annual Conference on Teaching and Learning in History. Available at:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/heahistory/elibrary/internal/br_beals_internationalisation_20090430/Beals, M H (2010) International Students in History: A comparative study

of first-year transition 2009-2010. Available at:http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/heahistory/elibrary/internal/br_beals_internationalfirstyear_20101015Helsinki English Studies Journal ELF issue (2010) Available at:

http://blogs.helsinki.fi/hes-eng/volumes/volume-6/Jenkins, J (2000) The Phonology of English as an International Language.

Oxford: Oxford University Press.Mauranen, A & Ranta, E (eds) (2009) English as a Lingua Franca. Studies

and Findings Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Montgomery, C (2010) Understanding the International Student

Experience. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.Walker, R (2010) Teaching the Pronunciation of English as a Lingua Franca.

Oxford: Oxford University Press.

HEA/UKCISA Teaching International Students Project available at:

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/teachingandlearning/internationalisation/internationalstudentsHEA Language Linguistics Area Studies:

http://www.llas.ac.uk/University of Southampton Internationalisation Forum

available at:http://www.soton.ac.uk/lateu/institutional_development/international_students/USIF.htmlUniversity of Southampton Student Transition Project &

Workshop available at:http://www.soton.ac.uk/lateu/strategic_themes/transition_project.htmlhttp://www.soton.ac.uk/lateu/strategic_themes/transition/workshop280610.html

Useful websites