How to Teach English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) _ British Council

25 November 2013

Katy Simpson Davies and Laura Patsko will run a in Glasgow on 26

November 2013 on teaching pronunciation and listening in an ELF context (English as a lingua

franca). They explain how teachers can teach ELF in their classrooms.

Update: Katy and Laura will deliver a

.

What is English as a lingua franca (ELF)?

British Council Seminar

live-streamed seminar on 10 June 2014 (http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/focus-on-global-english-richard-

cauldwell-and-katy-davies-laura-patsko-london-uk-tickets-8057063895?aff=eorg)

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How to teach English as a lingua franca (ELF) | British Council http://www.britishcouncil.org/blog/how-teach-english-lingua-franca-elf

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What students need most from their language classes affects how we teach. But to what extent do we considerstudents' needs when it comes to pronunciation?

How often do we stop to consider the needs of students who are learning English to mainly communicate withother non-native speakers? In this situation, English is used as a lingua franca (ELF) - a common languagebetween people who do not share the same native language. So their needs are quite different to students whogo to the UK, for example, and want to integrate within that culture and so may want to sound as much like anative speaker as possible. The priority for students using ELF, on the other hand, is to be as intelligible aspossible to the people they are communicating with. This does not necessarily mean sounding like a nativespeaker.

So how do we know what features of pronunciation are most important for maintaining intelligibility?

In her book, The Phonology of English as an International Language (OUP, 2000) Jennifer Jenkins collected dataabout the pronunciation features which caused the most communication breakdown in her multilingual classes,and used this research to draw up a list of pronunciation priorities in an ELF context. She called this list theLingua Franca Core, or LFC.

There are four main areas that the LFC focuses on, which are thought to be essential for students to get rightif they are to remain intelligible. These are:

1) Most consonant sounds

2) Appropriate consonant cluster simplification

3) Vowel length distinctions

4) Nuclear stress

'Appropriate consonant cluster simplification' means that adding a sound is better than deleting a sound. Forexample, if you pronounce helped with two syllables instead of one by inserting a vowel sound between the/p/ and /t/ cluster, Jenkins data suggests youre still likely to be understood in an ELF context. But if youmiss out the /p/, for example, then ELF intelligibility is much more at risk.

Pronunciation features that we often teach as part of a traditional syllabus, but which are NOT included in theLFC because they have no impact on ELF intelligibility are:

/ / as in the th in mother, / / as in the th in thumb, and dark l as in the end of little in mostBritish accents

word stress (although critics have queried this omission, given that nuclear stress is included in the LFC)

stress-timing

exact vowel quality (as opposed to vowel length, which is a core item)

pitch movement (tone)

(adapted from Walker, R.: Teaching the Pronunciation of English as a Lingua Franca, OUP, 2010)

Pronunciation features that we normally teach but which are not included in the LFC because they actuallyhave a negative impact on ELF intelligibility are:



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vowel reduction, schwa and weak forms

certain features of connected speech linking, assimilation, coalescence

(adapted from Walker)

Its not to say that these non-core items are not worth teaching with the students listening skills in mind.Receptively, it may be useful for students to be aware of things like features of connected speech. But in anELF approach, learners would not be expected to produce them, because it might only serve to makethem less intelligible in their day-to-day lives.

Raising awareness of English as a lingua franca (ELF)

You could introduce the concept of ELF to your students by using statistics, like these from the BritishCouncil (http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-faq-the-english-language.htm) , as a starting point to discussthe role of English around the world:

English has official or special status in at least 75 countries, with a total population of more than twobillion

one out of four of the world's population speak English to some level of competence; demand from theother three quarters is increasing

more than two thirds of the world's scientists read in English

three quarters of the world's mail is written in English

80 per cent of the world's electronically stored information is in English.

This could lead to a discussion of the role of English in the students own country, and how studentsthemselves use English or plan on using it in the future.

During the discussions, you might like to guide students to an understanding of these important points:

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is English when it is used by non-native speakers to communicatewith native speakers.

English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) is English when it is used between two or more people who do nothave the same first language. (There may be native speakers present, but they would be in the minority.)

EFL, ELF, etc. are just different contexts of using English; i.e. the different roles that English playsdepend on who is speaking to whom, rather than where English is being used.

One is not inherently better or more appropriate than another theyre just different things.

What learners need/want to learn will depend on the context in which they (want to) use English.

How do you teach English as a lingua franca (ELF)?

Conduct a needs analysis to find out whether your students use or are planning to use ELF, or whether theyneed to integrate in an English-speaking country. Then conduct a diagnostic test, like you would with otherlanguage areas such as grammar, to find out which areas of the lingua franca core, or LFC, students need towork on producing. It would also be helpful to know the language backgrounds of the people your studentswill be talking to, in order to work on appropriate accommodation skills, too (in other words, adjusting your



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expectations of what pronunciation you will hear, according to who is speaking).

If youre using a set coursebook in your class, look at the LFC (see above) and consider how the pronunciationexercises in your coursebook compare to the pronunciation features identified as important for maintainingintelligibility in Jenkinss data. Then match those areas to the needs of your students. If possible, skip theirrelevant pronunciation exercises and spend more time on LFC priority areas, such as nuclear stress, by takingextra pronunciation activities into the classroom to focus on these.

You can help learners to become more familiar with a range of non-native accents, especially those they aremost likely to encounter in their specific context. Familiarity is a key factor in a listeners ability to understandan accent (according to Field, J.: Intelligibility and the listener: the role of lexical stress in TESOL Quarterly39/3: 399-424, 2003). Being more aware of the issue of familiarity as a listener might also raise studentsawareness of how features of their own accent could cause difficulty for someone who is not so familiar withit. Using listening activities featuring non-native accents can help students accept the reality of accent variation,and challenge negative perceptions of their own accent and others.

Where can I find audio featuring non-native speakers?

In his book, Teaching the Pronunciation of English as a Lingua Franca, R. Walker suggests using interviews withnon-native internationally known figures, such as football managers, or using clips from news websites fromaround the world. His book also comes with a CD of recordings of non-native speakers. Other resources tocheck out are and

. But dontforget that, in a multilingual class, the students themselves are a great resource.

Attend our seminars for English language teachers (http://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/seminars) in

the UK

For more free resources and suggestions on things like how to do an ELF needs analysis, visit Katy

and Laura's joint .

Katy blogs at

and tweets as . Laura blogs at

and tweets as .

The Speech Accent Archive (http://accent.gmu.edu/)

The International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA) (http://www.dialectsarchive.com/)

English as a lingua franca pronunciation blog (http://elfpron.wordpress.com/)

lessonsfrommystudents.wordpress.com (http://lessonsfrommystudents.wordpress.com/)

@KatySDavies

laurapatsko.wordpress.com (http://laurapatsko.wordpress.com/) @lauraahaha

Prepare English language students for academic listening

What does your accent say about you?

Which variety of English should you speak?

(Photo of globes by Ian McClellan photography via Flickr under Creative Commons licence)(http://www.flickr.com/photos/31269250@N04/8184328696)



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How to Teach English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) _ British Council

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