Understanding English as a Lingua Franca. Barbara Seidlhofer

will regard the negative prefix in words such as non-violent, non-sectarian, non-predatory, non-toxic, etc. as indicating a deficit. Domestic, or combustible, or existent denote neither ‘positive’ nor ‘negative’ qualities, and the same is true of their opposites, non-domestic, non-combustible, nonexistent. How these adjectives are seen will depend entirely on the specific context. And I would argue that the same holds, in principle, for native and non-native premodifying the noun speaker: whether these adjectives indicate an advantage or a disadvantage will also depend on the context. One of the main objectives of this book is to explore just how the contexts and purposes of the use of English, and the numbers and kinds of its speakers, have changed so dramatically over recent decades that the connotations of the terms native speaker and non-native speaker are bound to change too. As we shall see, when we consider the important roles English has come to play in people’s lives all over the world outside ‘native speaker’ communities, being a ‘native speaker’ ceases to be an asset.

      There is much published criticism of the terms ‘native’ and ‘non-native’, which I do not need to repeat here. The issues involved are discussed from the perspective of English as a lingua franca, and alternative labels offered, in Jenkins 2000: 6ff. While I fully endorse Jenkins’ reasoning, I do not generally adopt alternative labels at this point, one reason being that this would result in a confusing mixture of terminology, particularly because I often quote from secondary literature that uses the traditional labels. The main reason though is that I have come to the conclusion that it is not even necessary to use quotation marks when I employ the terms myself. This is because I take them to mean very simply what they actually denote (rather than what they have come to connote for many): a native-speaker of English is somebody whose L1 is English, and a non-native speaker of English is somebody who has an L1, or L1s, other than English. One thing we know about the non-native speakers (but not about native speakers) is that they are at least bilingual.

      1

      Since Graddol wrote this, the impact of China and other countries such as India has grown even more rapidly. This state of affairs is perceived as worrying by people/countries for whom the global spread of ‘their’ language (English) represents an advantage. This may explain the debates often raging, for example, in Britain (and hardly noticed elsewhere) about ‘the state of the language’ (see Jones and Bradwell 2007; Ostler 2010).

      2

      See Crystal 2003a regarding the difficulties involved in counting speakers.

1

Since Graddol wrote this, the impact of China and other countries such as India has grown even more rapidly. This state of affairs is perceived as worrying by people/countries for whom the global spread of ‘their’ language (English) represents an advantage. This may explain the debates often raging, for example, in Britain (and hardly noticed elsewhere) about ‘the state of the language’ (see Jones and Bradwell 2007; Ostler 2010).

2

See Crystal 2003a regarding the difficulties involved in counting speakers.

3

It is interesting to compare these figures with the first edition of the book in 1997. Figures have shot up for Outer and Expanding Circle (see review by Leech in Journal of Pragmatics 2004: ‘The second edition shows a remarkable reversal of the figures for L1 and L2 speakers: in the first edition, native speakers substantially outnumbered L2 speakers [if one regards OC as NN], whereas in the second edition the opposite is true.’). Crystal 2006a offers a very useful comparison and discussion of figures given in different sources.

4

Such a ‘World Englishes’ view of Outer Circle varieties obscures the fact that English in the usually linguaculturally very diverse post-colonial countries or regions functions as a lingua franca, too.

5

The acronym ESL is itself misleading as it is used differently in different parts of the world, and in different areas of research and education. So while it indicates English as a ‘second language’ in the sense of an (official) additional language, side by side with local/indigenous languages in post-colonial settings, it can, alternatively, also denote a ‘second language’ in a sequential sense, in that people of different first languages have learnt, or are learning and using English, especially in ENL settings such as Britain or the USA. In this sequential sense, the acronym ESL can sometimes also merge in meaning with EFL, with both current in language teaching circles, ESL being preferred in the USA and EFL in Britain.

6

See Jenkins 2009, especially Unit A3, for an introductory yet very thorough treatment of this.