English as a Lingua Franca in Cross-cultural Immigration Domains Paperback / softback

by Maria Grazia Guido

Part of the Linguistic insights series

Paperback / softback

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Description

This book explores the cognitive and communicative processes involved in the use of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) within cross-cultural specialized contexts where non-native speakers of English â€“ i.e.

Western experts and non-Western migrants â€“ interact.

The book argues that the main communicative difficulties in such contexts are due precisely to the use of ELF, since it develops from the non-native speakersâ€™ transfer of their native language structures and socio-cultural schemata into the English they speak.

Transfer, in fact, allows non-native speakers to appropriate, or authenticate, those English semantic, syntactic, pragmatic and specialized-discourse structures that are linguistically and conceptually unavailable to them.

It follows that there are as many ELF varieties as there are communities of non-native speakers authenticating English. The research questions justifying the ethnographic case studies detailed in this book are: What kind of cognitive frames and communicative strategies do Western experts activate in order to convey their culturally-marked knowledge of specialized discourse â€“ by using their ELF varieties â€“ to non-Westerners with different linguistic and socio-cultural backgrounds?

What kind of power asymmetries can be identified when non-Westerners try to communicate their own knowledge by using their respective ELF varieties?

Is it possible to ultimately develop a mode of ELF specialized communication that can be shared by both Western experts and non-Western migrants?