Abstract
In this article, I address issues, concepts and empirical insights that have profoundly shaped my view of English as a lingua franca (ELF) and of the pedagogical lessons to be learned for English Language Teaching (ELT). Starting from discrepancies in my ELF identity as a speaker of English with ELT roots in a German secondary school, I argue for the social constructivist concept of MY English as a basis for understanding ELF competence development and the tensions surrounding the relationship between ELT and ELF. Continually shaped by speakers’ participation in ELF communication, relevant dimensions of their MY English profiles include linguistic-communicative-communal repertoires and requirements of performance, individual and social identity orientations, and confidence in their ELF creativity. Against this backdrop, I discuss topics I consider relevant for a much-needed pedagogical reconciliation of ELT with ELF. Special attention is given to teachers’ ELF apprehension and the distinction between a “strict” (quasi-behaviouristic) and an “open” (social constructivist) target language orientation, speaker satisfaction as a criterion of success in ELF communication, and teaching towards ELF competence from awareness raising to comprehension, production and interaction to non-native speaker emancipation. Successful ELF implementation in both ELT practice and ELT teacher education requires extensive and authentic involvement of students and teachers in ELF communication. Intercultural telecollaboration provides innovative means for creating a space for ELF communication in the ELT classroom. Pedagogical case studies about video and text chat conversations strongly support the assumption that using their common target language as a lingua franca significantly enables learners of English to develop an emancipated non-native speaker identity and thus to become speakers of English in their own right. And what is more, the pedagogical lingua franca approach can be successfully transferred to other foreign target languages as well. I conclude my article with a brief contextualization of the MY English concept in relation to translingual practice and ELF languaging.
Zusammenfassung
In diesem Artikel bespreche ich Themen, Konzepte und empirische Erkenntnisse, die mein Verständnis von Englisch als Lingua Franca (ELF) samt möglicher sprachdidaktischer Konsequenzen nachhaltig geprägt haben. Ausgehend von Widersprüchen in meiner eigenen Identität als Sprecher des Englischen mit Wurzeln im Englischunterricht an einem deutschen Gymnasium argumentiere ich für das sozial-konstruktivistische Konzept „MEIN Englisch“ als Grundlage für ein besseres Verständnis ELF-bezogener Kompetenzen und der zwischen ELF und Englischdidaktik bestehenden Spannungen. Geprägt durch ihre ELF-Kommunikation entwickeln SprecherInnen ihr „MEIN Englisch“-Profil insbesondere mit Bezug auf sprachlich-kommunikative und kommunale Ausdrucksmittel, Performanzanforderungen, individuelle und soziale Identitätsorientierungen sowie Vertrauen in die eigene ELF-Kreativität. Vor diesem Hintergrund bespreche ich Themen, die ich für eine Versöhnung zwischen ELF und Englischdidaktik als relevant erachte. Dabei geht es um die unter EnglischlehrerInnen verbreitete Zurückhaltung gegenüber ELF, die Unterscheidung zwischen einer „strikten“ (quasi behavioristischen) und einer „offenen“ (sozial-konstruktivistischen) Zielsprachenausrichtung, Sprecherzufriedenheit als ein Kriterium für erfolgreiche ELF-Kommunikation sowie um Dimensionen einer didaktisch sinnvollen ELF-Kompetenz einschließlich Bewusstmachung, Verstehen, Produktion, Interaktion und nichtmuttersprachlicher Emanzipation. Die Einbettung einer ELF-Perspektive in den Englischunterricht und die Englischlehrerausbildung kann nur erfolgreich sein, wenn SchülerInnen und LehrerInnen reichlich Gelegenheit für authentische ELF-Kommunikation haben. Das Kommunikationspotential der interkulturellen Telekollaboration ermöglicht es, im Englischunterricht Raum für ELF-Kommunikation zu schaffen. Didaktische Fallstudien zu Video- und Textchat-Konversationen zeigen, dass LernerInnen durch die Lingua-Franca-Verwendung der gemeinsamen Zielsprache Englisch in die Lage versetzt werden, eine emanzipierte nichtmuttersprachliche Identität zu entwickeln und sich so als eigenständige SprecherInnen des Englischen zu erweisen. Darüber hinaus zeigt sich, dass der didaktische Lingua-Franca-Ansatz erfolgreich auf andere Zielsprachen übertragen werden kann. Der Artikel schließt mit einer kurzen Betrachtung der Beziehung zwischen „MEIN Englisch“, „translingual practice“ und „ELF languaging“.
About the author
Kurt Kohn is Professor Emeritus of Applied English Linguistics at the University of Tübingen and co-director of LINK – Linguistik und Interkulturelle Kommunikation, GbR (www.sprachlernmedien.de). His research interests include theoretical and empirical issues of second language learning and teaching, English as a lingua franca and lingua franca pedagogy as well as translation and interpreting. He has been involved in European projects focusing on multimedia content authoring, pedagogic corpus development, interpreter training in virtual reality, intercultural telecollaboration, and language teacher education.
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