Barbara Seidlhofer: Understanding English as a Lingua Franca. Oxford University Press, 2011.

Since it challenges many of the traditional assumptions held by applied linguists and teachers, the study of English as a lingua franca (ELF) has been a controversial field and one punctuated by not infrequent misunderstandings. There is, then, ample room for a book such as this, which presents a conceptual framework for a better understanding, and clarification, of what ELF is and what the implications for description and teaching might be.

The opening chapter, titled ‘What is this thing called English’, argues that the emergence of English as global lingua franca, defined here as the use of English among speakers of different first languages, calls for a reconceptualization of English as a resource appropriated by bilingual users on their own terms and adapted to their own purposes. Here, Seidlhofer draws a distinction between English as a foreign language (EFL), where there remains a normative orientation toward the standard English norms associated with British or American users, and ELF, where these norms are less applicable, even irrelevant. Despite recent progress, there is, however, still comparatively little descriptive information available on how bilingual ELF users communicate in English—at least in comparison with the wealth of detailed descriptions of native speaker usage. What is needed therefore, Seidlhofer argues, is further descriptive research to bridge this ‘conceptual gap’, to illuminate this important domain of language use, and to dispel misconceptions that adherence to what are referred to as ‘ENL norms’ (English as a native language) is required for effective communication.

Such misconceptions and the often associated attitudes—for example, that native speakers are the only proper and authoritative source of norms—are documented and criticized in Chapter 2. Most interesting here, however, is Seidlhofer’s claim that even critics of English hegemony (e.g. Phillipson 1992) develop their arguments from the premise that there is single homogenous English under the control of native speakers. In so doing they overlook the extent to which English has been appropriated and adapted by users for their own purposes. These themes are pursued further in Chapter 3, where authors with as different agendas as Ngugi and Medgyes are again seen as assuming a homogenous, uniform English. The main focus, though, is a critique of Quirk’s well-known arguments (e.g. Quirk 1985) that standard English, as used by educated native speakers, is the most suitable, indeed only proper, variety for teaching in second/foreign international contexts. Against this Seidlhofer makes the familiar point that standard English is an ill-defined entity and in any case not a variety regularly spoken by a majority of native speakers. The key claim, however, is that Quirk’s position is no longer tenable given the unprecedented extent to which English functions as a global lingua franca in contexts from which native speakers are often absent and where standard English as used by native speakers is no longer seen as a necessary, or even desirable, benchmark of effective communication.

With Chapters 4–6, we arrive at the core of the book’s theoretical and empirical argument. Chapter 4 distinguishes ELF from both English as a native language (ENL) and the nativized New Englishes of Kachru’s Outer Circle—mainly by interrogating the concepts of variety, community, and competence. An important difference between ELF and the New Englishes is that the latter are identified with territorially based speech communities and are regarded partly on this basis as discrete varieties. This, however, as Seidlhofer points out, is ‘a convenient methodological fiction’, the fiction consisting of isolating and reifying discrete varieties from a continuum of variability. ELF, by contrast, is by its very nature not associated with any territorial speech community. In this respect, and because it is a variable, fluid, sometimes ad hoc exploitation of the linguistic resources of English for communication between persons of different linguacultural backgrounds, it is not easily assimilated to the traditional notion of variety. In short, ELF is, Seidlhofer suggests, ‘ … not a variety of English but a variable way of using it’.

Chapters 5 and 6 draw on data from the VOICE corpus (Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English) and other sources to illustrate a number of the formal features of ELF talk, the functions they serve, and the underlying processes involved. Among these are repetition, paraphrase, and code-switching, all of which serve the purpose of pragmatic clarification, of getting meaning across, of accommodation to the needs of the interlocutor. Also amply illustrated are other processes of regularization, of redundancy reduction and expansion, and of lexical innovation, word coinage, and idiomatizing, all of which give rise to forms that may be non-standard but are no less communicatively effective for being so. The data and accompanying discussion together make a persuasive case for regarding ELF talk not as the use of some reduced, makeshift code but as a creative and flexible exploitation of linguistic resources that has a validity and integrity of its own. Somewhat less persuasive, and possibly unnecessary, however, is Seidlhofer’s effort to account for ELF users’ non-conformist creativity in English by recourse to the abstract underlying construct of a virtual language, a virtual English, whose possibilities or meaning potential find realizations on the one hand in ENL and on the other in ELF. Such an account, somewhat redolent of Chomskyan linguistics, sits rather awkwardly, however, with contemporary notions, alluded to approvingly in other parts of the book, of languages as emergent, open-ended, continually evolving systems.

The final Chapters 7 and 8 lead us toward a consideration of the most controversial aspect of ELF studies—the implications for language teaching. Chapter 7, digressing a little from the main argument, discusses previous efforts to design simplified versions of English for international use, most notably Quirk’s Nuclear English and Ogden’s Basic English, both of which are contrasted with ELF. The key and rather straightforward point made is that whereas the former are artificial, engineered constructs, and prescriptions for use, ELF merges bottom-up from naturally occurring processes and is thus an object of description rather than prescription.

This distinction is, of course, less clear-cut when it comes to teaching, the topic of discussion in Chapter 8. Here, Seidlhofer critiques the widespread use of native-like proficiency as a benchmark of progress and goal of learning, though surprisingly relatively little reference is made to the bilinguality of ELF users, to the incommensurable differences between second language users and monolingual natives, and to notions of multicompetence (see, e.g. Cook 2002), all of which might bolster the argument. She goes on to argue that an ELF perspective on teaching does not call for the teaching of ELF forms identified from empirical research. Rather it encourages a focus on how those forms are used for effective communication, a focus on developing ‘ … a capability for exploiting linguistic resources … ’ (p. 188) through simultaneous learning and use of the language, and a focus on the functional effectiveness of forms rather than their degree of conformity to ‘NS (native speaker) norms’. As regards teacher education, Seidlhofer advocates placing increased emphasis on developing trainees’ awareness of interaction strategies, intercultural communication, and the creative potential of language in addition to awareness of the lingua franca role of English. Some readers may be disappointed here with the lack of explicit and detailed methodological guidance, but, as Seidlhofer implies, her aim is not to provide some sort of methodological blueprint but rather a set of broad, general principles for subsequent interpretation and application.

This book is not without flaws, but then very few books of comparable ambition are. The argument, for instance, is a touch repetitive in a few places and one might have wished, for instance, for more attention to the bilingual dimensions of ELF and to the different normative demands made of written and spoken language. That said, and more importantly, this book is a substantial scholarly achievement, one that certainly fulfills its aim of explaining ELF and that mounts a persuasive case for rethinking such concepts as speech community and for giving ELF greater research and pedagogic attention. It also makes an important contribution to the sociolinguistic study of variation in English and to understanding the implications of the spread of English as a global lingua franca. For all those interested in such matters, whether as teachers or researchers, this clearly written and stimulating volume certainly deserves a place on their shelves.

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