Pronunciation in English as a lingua franca: A brief introduction

VOLUME 31 • NO. 2 • SPRING 2014

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Pronunciation in English as a lingua franca: A brief introduction LAURA

PAT S KO

and Cook (1999) for more on the controversy surrounding this terminology.

The article opens with a short summary of some of the latest research findings that underpin the trends in teaching pronunciation, explores some of the practical applications of Jenkins’s Lingua Franca Core and the use of phonological accommodation, and examines the implications of English as a lingua franca (ELF) and Lingua Franca Core (LFC) for classroom practice.

In the outer circle, English serves as a second language. Such countries are typically colonies of the former British Empire, and English still exists there today, for example as an official language for administration. It might not be the L1 of the majority of the population, but it has an important presence. In some cases, fully-fledged local varieties have developed, such as Singapore English or Nigerian English.

Introduction Though the field of research into English as a lingua franca (ELF) has been growing steadily over the past fifteen years or so, there still seem to be relatively few teachers and trainers in the English language teaching (ELT) industry who really appreciate what the term refers to, which makes it hard to have an informed opinion on what it might mean for their practice. This article will give some background to the emergence of ELF, explain what ELF interaction basically entails, and suggest how the phenomenon of ELF might affect what we teach in terms of pronunciation.

English around the world To understand ELF, first we must step back a moment to reflect on how English has evolved into the global language it is today. We must consider all the different people around the world who use English in one way or another. The most famous illustration of English around the world is perhaps the ‘three circles’ model, devised by the linguist Braj Kachru some 30 years ago:

It is worth mentioning at this point that it is very hard to determine precise numbers of speakers in these categories because, among other reasons, what counts as ‘speaking’ English is not universally agreed. See Walker (2010) for a very accessible introduction to some of the key issues. In the expanding circle, English is used, but not as a first, second, or even an official language. It is used for some other reason – by people working in tourism or in education, for example. English is a tool for communication when people do not share the same L1, and do not speak each other’s L1. Things have undoubtedly changed somewhat since Kachru’s circles first appeared, but the expanding circle continues to expand. Before we go any further, it is helpful to review some speaker populations (based on data from Crystal, 2003):

Inhabitants of countries in the inner circle learn English as their first language (L1), sometimes called their ‘mother tongue’. These people are often referred to as “native speakers” of English. See, for example, Rampton (1990), Jenkins (2000),

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For a real-world example, imagine a multinational company which employs people across the globe who need to communicate with each other to do business. An Italian employee and a Japanese employee of this company are very likely to use English together. In this case, English is their contact language, or their lingua franca.

Variation, accent and intelligibility It is important to establish some key foundational concepts before exploring in more depth how the phenomenon of ELF might affect modern pronunciation instruction. Firstly, variation is a natural part of language. Consider how you talk to your friends, how you talk to our employers, how you would talk to a stranger in the street or employee in a shop. Consider how your grandparents use (or used) language versus how you use it. Consider how you would pronounce particular words, versus how your friends would, or your parents, your colleagues, politicians, people on television, the woman who works in the post office, and so on.

Speaker group

Speaker population

American English

230 million

British English

57 million

BBC English

1 million

Indian English

200 million

Native speakers of English

400 million

Non-native speakers of English

1200 million

Source: Walker, R. (2010). Teaching the pronunciation of English as a lingua franca. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Source: Kachru’s ‘three circles of English’ (1985). In Crystal, D. (2003). English as a global language (2nd ed.), p. 61. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

now to talk about how English is used. The different roles the language plays depend on who is speaking to whom, not where they are.

Some quick arithmetic here will show us that even 10 years ago, non-native speakers (NNS) of English outnumbered native speakers (NS) by approximately three to one. Some 20 years ago, it was already estimated that some 80% of interactions which take place in English no longer involved any native speaker (Beneke as cited in Seidlhofer, 2001). In other words, the most statistically common use of English in the world today – by quite a long way – is between people who do not speak English as their L1. Whereas English used to be described in terms of where it is used (for example, in Kachru’s circles), it seems more sensible

ETAS Journal 31/2 Spring 2014

Secondly, everybody has an accent. It is a key part of a person’s identity (Jenkins, 2007; Seidlhofer, 2011). Typically, your accent reveals something about where you come from (such as a city or country). It might also, but not necessarily, give clues as to your education or the people you spend a lot of time with (and their accents).

The associations we make are things we have learnt from the experience of meeting people with these accents and hearing others’ judgments of those people. There is nothing inherently ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘right’, or ‘wrong’ about an accent. In simplest terms, it is just a set of sounds. Equally, there is nothing inherently more or less correct or clear about a particular accent. Certain regional accents are often ridiculed for being ‘incomprehensible’, but people from those regions, or people who have spent a lot of time in them, do not have such trouble understanding these accents. Familiarity has a significant role to play in understanding (Derwing & Munro, 1997). This brings us to intelligibility, which I will define here as “the ability of the listener to

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there is nothing inherently more or less correct or clear about a particular accent

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recognize individual words or utterances” (Pickering, 2006, p. 220). A particular accent is not (un)intelligible in itself, and likewise, having a regional accent does not necessarily imply unintelligible speech (Derwing & Munro, 1997). Moreover, listeners decode sound and meaning using a variety of factors and strategies. Ultimately, both speaker and listener are responsible in part for intelligible, comprehensible spoken interaction (Pickering, 2006). What is particularly interesting about the growing use of English as a lingua franca is the questions it raises about how speakers should sound. The idea that learners needn’t sound like native speakers is not new, in fact. Abercrombie (1949) famously noted that: “Language learners need no more than a comfortably intelligible pronunciation… which can be understood with little or no conscious effort on the part of the listener” (p. 120).

• /r/ should be the rhotic version, as in General American (GA) pronunciation • /t/ should always be pronounced /t/, not as a glottal stop (e.g. in some London accents) or as a /d/ (e.g. “leader” and “litre” sound very similar in GA pronunciation) 2. Vowel length must be preserved 3. Vowel quality is not very important, but: • /ɜː/ must be preserved • whatever vowel qualities are used must be consistent (for example, not alternating at random between the GA and Received Pronunciation (RP) versions of ‘class’) 4. Nuclear stress should be placed appropriately 5. Consonant clusters should generally not be simplified (e.g. by dropping a consonant), but in some cases it is acceptable to add a very short vowel between consonants to ease articulation

More recently, some have started to ask: ‘Intelligible to whom? What listener?’

In other words, an error in any of these areas might result in a breakdown of ELF intelligibility.

Intelligibility in ELF

Outside this ‘core’ of essential pronunciation features, there is room for learners to transfer aspects of their own L1’s sound system (e.g. not using weak forms). This is the ‘foreign accent’ (for want of a better term) that we are all familiar with. And it is part of their identity, which they might like to express when they are speaking in English.

If English is being used as a lingua franca, which, as we have seen, is very likely nowadays, the listener is most likely to be another L2 user of English. Some 15-20 years ago, the linguist Jennifer Jenkins (2000) began to record ELF interaction. She analysed these recordings in detail and devised a list of features which seemed to be the most important for making one’s speech intelligible in ELF interaction, and which could be taught in classrooms. Before reading further, look at this list of various pronunciation features and try to identify which points you think would be high priorities for ELF intelligibility: • • • • • • •

consonant sounds vowel quality (e.g. /æ/ vs /e/) vowel length (e.g. /iː/ vs /ɪ/) schwa and weak forms consonant clusters (e.g. /str/ in ‘street’) word stress nuclear stress (e.g. ‘I’ll be working next SUNDAY’ vs. ‘I’ll be WORKING next Sunday’) • connected speech features (e.g. elision, assimilation) • stress-timing • tone When you are ready, look at Jenkins’s (2000) list, below, which she called the Lingua Franca Core (LFC): 1. All consonant sounds, with the following provisos: • no need for /θ/ and /ð/ (common substitutions are acceptable, providing they are consistent)

The other side of intelligibility is, of course, what goes on in the listener’s ears/head. The LFC is simply a set of guidelines for production. When it comes to reception, learners will need exposure to a wide variety of L1 and L2 accents, and will need to be taught how to deal with this variation. This skill is called accommodation (see Jenkins, 2000, for further discussion of the role of accommodation in ELF interaction).

Possible implications for classroom practice Clearly, the implications of ELF and the LFC are quite broad-ranging. Essentially, however, teaching pronunciation based on the Lingua Franca Core (LFC) is not significantly different from teaching based on any other set of pronunciation features: the teacher needs to be aware of the learners’ needs and goals, and teach and correct them accordingly. Furthermore, materials do exist for working on most, if not all, LFC features (I say ‘not all’ because many published materials are based on native speaker models, which are irrelevant for ELF, meaning that some parts of some exercises are not very useful). In terms of accommodation, if you teach in a multilingual classroom, the learners will

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already have exposure to a wide range of other L2 accents. If your learners all share the same L1, you might need to find recordings of ELF interaction to use in class (the CD accompanying Walker’s book (2010) is a good starting point). One point which Jennifer Jenkins has been at pains to reiterate is that the LFC is not necessarily for everyone, and is not necessarily an ‘easy option’. However, neither is RP, which is what many coursebooks in Europe are based on. The LFC simply offers an alternative to RP, or General American, or Standard Scottish English, or New Zealand English, or whatever other accent we might offer students as a guide in the classroom. In other words, if students want and/or need to sound like a native speaker, then their teacher’s job is to help them; but if this is not the case, have the students been offered any alternative? When is the last time you discussed the issues in this article with your students? References Abercrombie, D. (1949). Teaching pronunciation. English Language Teaching, 3, 113-122. Cook, V. (1999). Going beyond the native speaker in language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 33(2), 185-209. Crystal, D. (2003). English as a global language (2nd ed.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Derwing, T. M., & Munro, M. J. (1997). Accent, intelligibility and comprehensibility. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 20(1), 1-16. Jenkins, J. (2000). The phonology of English as an international language: New models, new norms, new goals. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Jenkins, J. (2007). English as a lingua franca: Attitude and identity. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Pickering, L. (2006). Current research on intelligibility in English as a lingua franca. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 26, 219-233. Rampton, M. B. H. (1990). Displacing the ‘native speaker’: expertise, affiliation and inheritance. ELT Journal, 44(2), 97-101. Seidlhofer, B. (2001). Closing a conceptual gap: the case for a description of English as a lingua franca. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 11(2), 133-158. Seidlhofer, B. (2011). Understanding English as a lingua franca. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Walker, R. (2010). Teaching the pronunciation of English as a lingua franca. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

About the Author

Laura Patsko works at St. George International in London as a senior teacher and teacher trainer on the Trinity CertTESOL and DipTESOL courses. She completed her MA in ELT and Applied Linguistics with King’s College London in September 2013. She is particularly interested in teaching pronunciation and in investigating the practical applications of linguistic research.

ETAS Journal 31/2 Spring 2014