Emerging English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)

lingua franca

The term ‘English as a lingua franca’ (ELF) is defined as “a way of referring to communication in English between speakers with different first languages” (Seidlhofer, p339, 2005).

ELF is often perceived as a ‘pidgin’ language with a simplified lexicon and grammar structures. The norms are not based on appropriateness of Standard British English or American English. Seidlhofer (2005) states that some errors made by non-native speakers did not affect on communication and therefore can be integrated into English

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Challenges of non-native speakers

Since English became Lingua Franca of the World, people who do not share the same language and  for whom English is not their mother tongue has been trying to speak English in anywhere of the world with each other. Sometimes we can see some surprising characteristics of these conversations. Barbara Seidhofler  at the university of Vienna  has noted some of them, including:

  • No use of third person present simple tense -s ( she look ver sad)
  • Interchangeable use of
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