Mai Mustafa Fouad Ra'fat Ali

3rd year, General Roll No: 40 Applied Linguistics Assignment 3 ------------

Lingua Franca
Definition
Because of the large number of languages spoken by native speakers all over the world and the huge political, cultural and business relations between countries, there should be one form of language for all countries to speak in order to facilitate communication. Therefore, lingua franca (plural: lingue franche/ lingua francas) appeared many years ago as a one common language for people speaking different mother tongues. It is also known as 'common language' and 'auxiliary language'. Of the most famous lingua francas are English, which is used worldwide and Swahili which is used in East and Central Africa.

Etymology

The idea of lingua franca starts back to the Middle Ages; it is not a modern term. It originally comes from Italian meaning 'French or Frankish language'a language spoken along the Mediterranean coast. This language was used by the Crusaders as 'auxiliary language' because they were exposed to many languages including Arabic, Greek, Spanish and others.

Types

According to Samarin 1968, there are three types of lingua franca: natural, pidginized and planned. Natural lingua franca: Greek and Latin are examples of very early natural languages. 'Koine' or Common Greek spread since the Greek conquests and colonization by Alexander the Great and the diffusion of Eastern Christianity. Latin spread because of the Roman Empire and after its downfall as well.

 Pidginized lingua franca: Pidgins can be regarded as lingua francas, but the problem is that they are used for specific purposes like trading, plantation, agriculture and mining. Therefore, one can say that all pidgins are lingua francas but not all lingua francas are pidgins. Pidgins are associated with Creole languages. A Creole is a language that was once a pidgin but developed to become a mother tongue for some speakers, that is, it has been nativised. The differences between a pidgin and a Creole are as follows: 1. A pidgin does not necessarily have native speakers while a creole always does. 2. The linguistic form and grammar in a pidgin are reduced while in creoles they are expanded. 3. A pidgin is unstable and do not have independent norms unlike creoles. 4. A pidgin is limited to some contexts and situations while a creole is open to many situations because it is a mother tongue to some people. 5. A pidgin cannot be considered a natural language while a creole can. Planned lingua franca: These are artificial forms of lingua francas, and they are the opposite of natural languages. A planned language is also known as a conlanga blinded form of constructed language. A planned or constructed language has its own vocabulary, grammar and phonology. They are similar to pidgins in that they are used for specific purposes. The difference is that the planned language is intentionally designed. Some examples of these languages are Esperanto, Frater, Interlingua, Ido and Loglan (used by some scientists).

**
English is the de jure language in over 60 countries. 80% is the percentage of the information stored electronically and conducted in English. (Crystal 1997.106) The majority of the scientific, academic and technological paper and research is in English. Sir Randolph Quirk states that the number of non-native English speakers is more than the native English speakers themselves. (Firth, 1996:240) All this makes English a lingua franca even in countries where the mother tongue is not related to Romance languages like Egypt. For a case in point, English is very popular in Brazil although it is neither the first nor the second language.

English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)

Braj Kachrus three concentric circles is one of the ways to describe how English is used worldwide according to the country. This is an illustration of it:

China Korea Egypt Nepal Indonesia Taiwan Israel Saudi Arabia Japan Zimbabwe Bangladesh Russia Malaysia Ghana
India Tanzania Jamaica Kenya Nigeria Pakistan Philippines Singapore South Africa USA Canada Sri Lanka Zambia

Australia UK New Zealand

The problem in this model is that it depends fully on the location where English is spoken and who the native speakers are with no consideration to the linguistic competence. (Rajadurai,2005) If the category is competence in English language, the inner circle will include the fully competent speakers including natives; the outer circle will include the moderately competent and the expanding circle will include speakers with limited competence.

The User of ELF

1.

An ELF user is either a native or a non-native speaker. 2. An ELF user is usually bilingual, multilingual or bidilectal. 3. An ELF user usually excels in communication and comprehension skills. 4. A highly competent ELF user has rich vocabulary, correct grammar and a comprehensible accent.

Because English is a worldwide Language, there tend to be several varieties of the language. The question is: what language to be taught? There are four main options of English varieties: (a) one

of the native varieties, (b) a common core syllabus, (c) diverse models or (d) a standard model.

A) Pros:

A Native Variety
Accepted by teachers and students Prominent and prestigious Systematic and widely known

Cons:
May be difficult for students who are not highly competent ELF users. Does not fit for some ELF situations Difficulty in determining which native variety to teach High competence is not easily reachable. (Cook, 1999) B) Common core syllabus This syllabus aims for high communication skills with little regard to accurate grammar. Fluency comes first.

Pros:
Easy to learn Easily understood by highly competent speakers even if there are grammatical errors

Cons:
Unacceptable to some teachers, students, materials and test designers. Unacceptable to and not used by highly competent speakers Does not teach the acceptable language forms C)

Diverse model
Flexible and includes many variations Hard to teach Hard to assess Hard to set materials and syllabus for it Unfixed.

Pro: Cons:

D) Standard model
Standard variety is similar to the native model but the former excludes the local idioms and expressions that are used by the

speech community and rather focuses on the acceptable forms worldwide.

Pros:
Acceptable forms Comprehensible Based on the highly competent speakers Reachable

Cons:
Some people think there is no standard variety of the language yet. Unacceptable to speakers speaking other varieties.

Sources: 1. ASHER: The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics p.2211 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructed_language 3. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/342377/ling ua-franca 4. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/459666/pid gin 5. http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/Courses/PCs/In troPidginsCreoles.htm
(Notes for LG102, Intro Sociolinguistics - University of Essex, Prof. Peter L. Patrick

Week 11, Autumn term)

Pidgin and Creole Languages: Origins and Relationships 6. http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/linguafranca.htm 7. http://www.tesolfrance.org/Colloquium09/Ur_Plenary_Handouts.pdf 8. http://www.4shared.com/get/TUBtui78/English_as_a_Lin gua_Franca_Oct.html