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Doing not being a foreign language learner: English as a lingua franca in the workplace and (some) implications for SLA

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Alan Firth

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Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to shift the focus on ‘learning’ away from the traditionallocus of inquiry in SLA – the L2 classroom – in order to extend the SLAempirical database, and by so doing extend and broaden our understanding ofwhat it means to learn and use (in mutually reinforcing and enlightening ways)an additional, or second, language. I examine instances where participantsare using English as a lingua franca in an international workplace setting. Ishow that although parties produce non-standard linguistic (lexical, morphosyntactic,etc.) forms that may mark their speech as non-standard, they go togreat lengths, interactionally, to disavow any intimations of ‘learner’ status,and artfully deflect attention from and circumvent potential or actual languageencodingdifficulties. However, in order for this to occur, various kinds of locallearning is taking place within the micro-moments of interaction; for example,the interactants are compelled to assess, in situ, the language competence oftheir co-participants, and implicitly calibrate their own linguistic and interactionalbehaviour accordingly. Such calibrations, I argue, entail learning.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Firth A

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching

Year: 2009

Volume: 47

Issue: 1

Pages: 127-156

ISSN (print): 1613-4141

ISSN (electronic): 0019-042X

Publisher: Mouton de Gruyter

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/iral.2009.006

DOI: 10.1515/iral.2009.006

Notes: Special issue edited by Junko Mori and Numa Markee.

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