English as a Lingua Franca in Multilingual Contexts

English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) denotes the use of English as a common means of communication among speakers of diverse native languages. In contemporary globalisation, ELF has emerged as a dynamic, flexible resource rather than a fixed set of native norms. Research has shifted from viewing non-native varieties as deficient towards recognising the innovative lexico-grammatical and pragmatic features that arise in ELF interactions. In multilingual settings, speakers draw on their full repertoire of languages, cultures and modalities, often engaging in translanguaging practices to enhance clarity and rapport. ELF plays a pivotal role in higher education through English-Medium Instruction (EMI), in virtual collaborations across borders and in the dissemination of scientific knowledge. The growth of specialised ELF corpora has enabled empirical studies of interactional strategies, revealing how participants negotiate meaning, manage misunderstandings and co-construct disciplinary knowledge. Practical applications span language pedagogy, where an ELF perspective informs curriculum design, to international professional and academic collaboration, where emphasis lies on intelligibility and mutual understanding rather than adherence to native-speaker benchmarks.

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English as a Lingua Franca in Multilingual Contexts publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in english as a lingua franca in multilingual contexts across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

English as a Lingua Franca (ELF): Use of English as a shared medium among speakers of different native languages, prioritising mutual intelligibility over native norms.

Translanguaging: Pedagogical and communicative practice involving the flexible deployment of multiple languages and registers within a single interaction.

Multimodal strategies: Integration of verbal, visual and gestural modes to convey meaning and enhance interactional effectiveness.

English-Medium Instruction (EMI): Delivery of academic content through English in settings where English is not the native language of the majority.

Exploratory Interactive Explaining (EXINTEX): Analytical tool for identifying and examining explanatory episodes in disciplinary discourse within multilingual contexts.

References

1. Translanguaging pedagogies and English as a lingua franca. Language Teaching (2017).
2. Efficiency in ELF Communication: From Pragmatic Motives to Lexico-grammatical Innovation. Nordic Journal of English Studies (2006).
3. A Rich Domain of ELF – the ELFA Corpus of Academic Discourse. Nordic Journal of English Studies (2006).
4. English as a Multilingua Franca and ‘Trans-’ Theories. Englishes in Practice (2022).
5. “Our group was by far the coolest”. Pragmatics and Society (2024).
6. Exploratory Interactive Explaining (EXINTEX): Constructing Disciplinary Knowledge in Two Multilingual University Settings. Applied Linguistics (2021).